Lupita Nyong’o may have made swimming in Talokan’s underwater realm appear easy, but it took Navy SEAL-style training sessions and appropriate supervision.
The 39-year-old actress and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actor uploaded a 54-second TikTok short Saturday showing fans the agonizing training she went through to perfect her part as “war dog” spy Nakia. The video was captioned by Nyong’o, “Swimming down to Talokan was not as easy as it looked! Safely supervised by @XPTLife and #MarkRobertsFitness.”
The behind-the-scenes video begins with Nyong’o sinking underwater while clutching a 10- to 15-pound dumbbell. Nyong’o is left with only her right arm to swim in a straight path while holding the dumbbell to her chest with her left hand. As you can see, this is not for the faint of heart. Because the training is so strenuous, she has an expert swimmer by her side the entire time to ensure everything runs well.
In another scene, Nyong’o is shown bear crawling across the water with two weights, one on each hand. She then goes up the pool stairs, precisely mimicking a farmer’s walk. As if that wasn’t enough, N’yong’o then walks to the deepest section of the water and does another farmer’s walk.
The video concludes with Nyong’o quietly dropping the weights and swimming back to the surface. She can be seen smiling before the movie goes to another viewpoint when she tells how she feels about the entire exercise.
“I feel like a crawfish,” she joked.
The sequel, which stars Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, Florence Kasumba, Martin Freeman, Michaela Coel, and others, was written and directed by Ryan Coogler and explores “the incomparable world of Wakanda and all of the rich and varied characters introduced in the first film.”