Having already documented her intensive training to prepare herself for life underwater in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, nobody could accuse Lupita Nyong’o of taking it easy when getting ready to return to the role of Nakia for Ryan Coogler‘s blockbuster sequel. Nyong’o returns to the role of the Wakandan spy from Black Panther, where she was also the romantic interest of King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman).
Not content with sharing her submerged workout routines, Nyong’o has now returned to Instagram to show off a video of her preparing for combat in the film. The video, filmed for her TikTok page, shows her working on some choreographed fight moves, set to the ‘Denzelcrispy’ edit of the Juicy Fruit Challenge sound. Her dedication underwater and on dry land is commendable, and it shows in the finished product.
Speaking earlier in the month during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Nyong’o recalled receiving a message from Coogler where he admitted he got in touch to ask her how she would rate her ability to swim, on a scale of one to ten. “Four, if I’m lucky. Because I would swim like a panicked puppy,” she responded. This led to the actress participating in what’s known as Extreme Performance Training, or XPT for shorthand, which focuses on improving someone’s capacity by training underwater with weights. “It’s all about overriding your panic button,” she explained.
Coogler also revealed he joined his cast in learning to swim for the movie, which meant conquering a lifelong fear for him. Speaking to Variety, Coogler admitted: “A lot of us were raised to have fear of water,” he said. “If the camera’s in the water, actors are in the water, I’ve got to be in there too. I had to figure out how to swim, so I could direct this movie.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has now crossed $300 million at the domestic box office, and is set to overtake Thor: Love and Thunder‘s total after just two weeks on release. The film earned another $9.5 million on Tuesday, propelling it to $303.7 million. As well as Nyong’o, the film also features Letitia Wright as Shuri, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Michaela Coel as Aneka, Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda, Mabel Cadena as Namora, Alex Livinalli as Attuma, Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, and Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor.
You can check out Nyong’o’s training video for Wakanda Forever below: