Horror Actressing: Lupita Nyong'o in "Us"
Monday, December 16, 2019 at 3:00PM by Jason Adams
Most folks first reference the voice, the Batman-needs-a-lozenge croak that Adelaide's underworld doppelganger Red speaks with, when praising Lupita Nyong'o's dual performance in Jordan Peele's Us, and for good reason -- she put a lot of work into it, meeting with people who've suffered from the very real neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia that's brought about by trauma, and that work memorably shows. I made the Batman joke but only because it's very nearly already as iconic a choice as that one -- go find somebody and talk like Red at them and see how movie-savvy people will get it; the percentage won't be low.
You'd also get a lot of mileage talking about Lupita's physicality in the roles...
Both characters are dancers, which becomes especially important in the last act as their warring personalities -- chaos and control, chaos and control -- smash into one another at a million miles an hour. There is no distinction between Plié and Piledriver in their prescribed Pas de Deux.
But for me the highlights of Lupita's performance for me lay in her eyes, and specifically those of Adelaide's. Red's eyes are lost eyes, empty eyes, wild and terrifying even in that last revelatory act once we know her story -- I'd say especially once we know her story do we understand just why her glance is extra unhinged. It has every right to be.
Adelaide's eyes though, are the eyes that truly make Us a Horror Movie, because they are the eyes of the caught. The compromised. Her eyes are the eyes of a person who knows, even when they're smiling and all seems relaxed, that the ground beneath their very feet is crawling with secrets. Adelaide is a ghost haunting her world, and her haunted eyes burrow into that part of every viewer (i.e. every one of us) who's ever done something bad and is now just sitting there waiting for it to come out.
That's a child-like sensation -- I ate the cookie I wasn't supposed to eat and I am going to be punished. It's that pause where we're waiting for the punishment. Adelaide's been living in that space for a long time, since that beach night rendezvous that never should've happened, and the genius of Us and Lupita's performance is the way that childhood gets arrested and her guilt gets flipped -- heroism subsumed by the desire to swallow up our secret selves; our misdeeds played as success stories, the great big American Dream stretched from shining to shining shore.
Reader Comments (15)
If Lupita is in who's out?
My thoughts exactly,Lupita for the win.
she should be SO winning the Oscar this year...
Is there room for both Errivo and N'Yongo in Best Actress, though?
Such a great performance.
Lupita was fucking incredible in this. Scary as fuck as the other person?
In a perfect world, she would be a lock and the frontrunner to win the Oscar.
In the realm of horror films, at the very least, Lupita's performance here is one for the ages. Great write up!
The Good Sis Lupita is in fact amazing in this, but I'd also like to shout out her work in Little Monsters (on Hulu)! She's a lot of fun, and very much needs to do more comedies!
Chris - SO charming in Little Monsters. I’d love to see her do a musical.
Keep Jordan Peele safe and well, because you know without him as the visionary the role of Adelaide would have been cast with Emma Stone or Jennifer Lawrence. Lupita would have been left at home polishing her Oscar and waiting for a chance to show what she can do.
Agreed on Little Monsters -- when I wrote up my list of 2019 performances I had both of these performances noted. She's terrific in it, and I wish the whole movie was focused on her -- it's at its best when she's center stage
I really want Lupita to win this. The performance is exceptional and the film, though abit divisive, is provocative and really good on many levels. Plus I'm tired of seeing White Actresses being the frontrunners for this category. SAG did well by nominating her!
She's very good in Little Monsters but it's nearly fully useless.
The yellow dress in blood was a hell of a touch.
Lupita was great in this.
Credit also to the actress who played the daughter (Shahadi Wright Joseph?)
The daughter was the one who scared me the most.