‘The 355’ star Lupita Nyong’o reveals why she gravitated towards the female-led spy thriller

Hollywood actress Lupita Nyong’o has starred in critically acclaimed films such as ’12 Years A Slave’ and ‘Us’, giving audiences stellar performances each time.

Her latest release ‘The 355’ is no less as it has gripped fans when it released theatrically in the US on January 7 and in India on January 21.

Lupita explained that the female-led espionage thriller is a breakthrough film, filling in the gap of women-centric spy films in the Hollywood industry. In the edge-of-the-seat thriller, Lupita plays an advanced technology specialist Khadijah.

Prepping for her role was quite tough, she told a news portal, as she had to acquaint herself to scientific and numeric concepts and language which, she felt, her ‘brain is not wired for it.”

Talking about her role, she told WION, “It required a lot of physical training and a lot of brainy things. I would say, I was smart for all periods of shooting this film and I have very quickly and conveniently forgotten it all (laughs hysterically).

My brain isn’t wired for scientific information of that kind, numeric information or whatever you call it. My brain is not wired for it. It was definitely the hardest challenge to learn the stuff, feel confident about the meaning of the stuff, to put an emotional attachment to the stuff that Khadija was talking about, fighting for and manipulating.”

Lupita also revealed what it was that attracted her to the unique role and film. In the same interview, she expressed, “The fact that Jessica Chastain had identified a gap in the espionage thriller genre.

She called me and she said can you think of any movies in that genre with females at the helm? I couldn’t think of any and so she went about creating a story that gives women a chance to be at the forefront of the espionage game.

We know that there have been female spies for the longest of times, that’s where the title is from. The first American female spy was referred to as 355, that was her code. So this is a homage to that – to all the women who risked their lives in that industry to make the world a safer place I suppose.”

The action-thriller is directed by Simon Kinberg and stars Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Fan Bingbing, Diane Kruger and Lupita Nyong’o. The film revolves around a group of international spies working together on a mission to stop a terror plot and save the world.