Lupita Nyong'o stuns The One Show hosts as she reveals movie injury

The actor stayed silent for three whole months after injuring herself making The Wild Robot

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - OCTOBER 13, 2024: Lupita Nyong'o attends the special presentation of 'The Wild Robot' during the 68th BFI London Film Festival at the Royal Festival Hall in London, United Kingdom on October 13, 2024. (Photo credit should read Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Lupita Nyong'o hurt her voice making The Wild Robot. (Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Lupita Nyong'o stunned The One Show hosts as she revealed she stayed silent for three whole months after hurting her voice making a film.

The actor voices robot Roz in The Wild Robot, a new animated film about a robot that ends up on an uninhabited island after a shipwreck and becomes the mum of an orphaned goose. She shared on The One Show that mastering the voice of the character wasn't all plain sailing as she ended up injuring herself.

As a result, she had to keep quiet for three months and could only communicate with people by writing messages on a board.

Nyong'o told the BBC show's hosts Alex Jones and Roman Kemp that as she was working on Roz's voice for the movie, she was "inspired" by AI voices such as Alexa and Siri. "What they have in common is this relentless positivity. They are very bright and so that vocal posture is very different from my own," she said.

“It’s quite athletic actually. So in the process, I actually injured myself and had to remain silent for three months in order to recover without needing surgery."

Alex Jones and Roman Kemp were shocked. (BBC screengrab)
Alex Jones and Roman Kemp were shocked. (BBC screengrab)

"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Jones, as Antiques Roadshow star Fiona Bruce — who was also a guest on The One Show — asked in surprise: "Three months?"

Read more: The One Show

"Yes, three months I spent on vocal rest," Nyong'o confirmed. She admitted that it had been "difficult" staying quiet for such a long time but that she "got through it". "And listen to me now!" she quipped.

However, Kemp looked stunned and quizzed the star further about how quiet she actually had to be.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 15: A general view of the Atlanta screening of
The actor voices robot Roz in the film. (Getty Images for Universal Pictures)

"When you say vocal rest, is that completely silent or is that just like, minimum?" he asked.

"I had a little badge that said I was on vocal rest so people didn’t think I was rude when I didn’t respond to things," said Nyong'o.

"And then I had a dry-erase board that I would use to write messages."

Lupita Nyong'o said the long vocal rest was 'difficult'. (BBC screengrab)
Lupita Nyong'o said the long vocal rest was 'difficult'. (BBC screengrab)

"I could speak a little bit but just, you know, like bedroom voice is what I would call it," she added.

Jones gasped, as she added: "That is proper suffering for your art that is!"

The Wild Robot is in UK cinemas from 18 October.