-You look gorgeous.
It is always great to see you. Thank you so much
for coming back to the show. -Oh, I love being here.
-Okay, good. Thank you. You were telling me backstage that you recently became
an American citizen, by the way. -I did.
-Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much.
[ Cheers and applause ] -I'm so happy.
-Yeah. -You'll be voting
for the first time? -For the very first time,
and I'm so excited about that. Thank you.
-Are you excited to vote? -I'm very excited. You know, my father is
a politician in Kenya, but I was never there
for the election, so I was never able to vote
for him. So it means a lot to me to finally be able to exercise
my democratic right. -Yes! Exactly right! If you're eligible to vote,
make sure you're registered. I also wanted to
talk to you about this, because I read somewhere
that you are getting into cold plunges,
and I know -- Is it true? -Yes, it is. -Now, I've never actually, I did one on the show
with Mark Wahlberg, where we sat in
the bathtub together, but -- And I've been doing it
for the past year and a half, and its great, Mark and I, yes. But what got you into this?
And how long do you go in? And I'm afraid of it. -Well, it was part of my
training for "Wakanda Forever." My trainer got me into it.
[ Cheers and applause ] Shout-out The Nation.
-Yeah. Come on. -And so I tried it then.
And I hate the cold. -Yeah.
-I hate it. -Yeah, me too. -And so it was very hard
for me to start. But then the feeling
after you get out, you feel like a superhero. I mean,
you could do anything in the minutes after that. Didn't you feel that?
-Kind of. Like, close to that emotion.
I felt wet and -- Yeah, and I go --
I kind of said, "Why?" -Wow! -No, but I did feel
a little invigorated. -Yeah. -But, I mean, how long
do you get in there? Because Mark and I
were only in for a little bit. -I get in there
for about 3 to 6 minutes. -No! -I listen to a good song,
and whatever length the song is, is as long as I stay in there. -That would really
affect that song for me. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] -I would never think
of that song the same way. I'd be like, "No!" Oh, my gosh. You brought us a video of you
finishing a cold plunge. -Yeah, this is what I --
-Look at this. Wait. Well, no, no.
That doesn't look -- You think that looks fun? That looks like -- That
does not look like you're having a good time at all. I want to talk about
your podcast, by the way. -Oh, yeah!
-Congratulations on this. -Thank you so much.
-"Mind Your Own." -Thank you. -You created your own show.
-I did. -Tell everyone
why you wanted to do this. -Well, I love podcasts, especially
the storytelling shows. And I -- When I first moved
to this country, I was really homesick and I started listening to
"This American Life," and I loved it because you're
meeting one person in America. And it just made me feel more
at home in this country. And so when I was thinking about
what I wanted to do, I envisioned this podcast where we could hear stories
from the African perspective, because I missed home and I wanted to feel
home one story at a time and kind of expand what
it means to be African in today. And, yeah, so I wanted to --
-Good for you. This is -- It's out
September 19th and it's available everywhere
you get your podcasts. -Thank you. -Let's talk about your new
movie, "The Wild Robot." It is 100% fresh
on Rotten Tomatoes. It is a beautiful
animated movie. I wanted to read
some reviews here. "'The Wild Robot'
is a jaw-dropping, possibly one
of the best films of the year." "An animated triumph --"
-Wow. -Yes. "An animated triumph
destined to become a classic." Here's one here. "If there was an Oscar category
for voice performances, Nyong'o's 'The Wild Robot' is
probably the strongest argument you could make for it." Congratulations.
-Oh, wow! Wow! Lupita, that's big --
That's awesome. -It's big things, big things.
-It's an animated film. And I heard
that you lost your voice... -I did.
-...halfway through this thing. What happened to you?
-So, I -- So, the character I play, Roz, is a robot that starts off
in her factory settings, and then, as she adapts
to this wild island that she finds herself on to,
you know, complete her task, which is her mission in life,
she becomes more human. And, so, in the process
of doing that first voice that's sort of like Siri, Alexa, very, very,
very optimistic voice, I hurt myself in the booth. -It is very optimistic,
those Alexas. -Yeah.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-And, so, I got a polyp. And, so, the surgeon said
that I had a 30% chance of curing myself naturally
or else I would need surgery. And I spent three months
in -- on vocal rest. -Three months?
-Three months. -No talking?
-I was using a bedroom voice. -Ooh! -So I could only really talk
like this. -Oh, wow.
-Yeah. -Oh, my gosh.
-Yeah. -Is that hard to do
for three months? -It was a lot of work. I mean, I realized how much my personality
relies on me speaking. So I just became a
very different person. -Yeah. I mean, just not
only communicating, but just what if you go to
a concert or something? -I did and I went to
the Taylor Swift concert and I went to
the Beyoncé concert. -And you didn't do any--
You didn't sing any songs? -I was like a Zen master,
because I couldn't even -- Like, I couldn't even mouth
the words, you know? I couldn't even think
of singing in my head. I couldn't.
I was just like... [ Whispering ] ♪ I'm just gonna
shake, shake, shake ♪ -Yeah, it was torture.
-Oh, my gosh. Is that before
you did "Quiet Place"? -It was after,
which wasn't helpful, was it? -That's a lot of quiet time. That's why I'm saying,
oh, my gosh! -I know.
-Good on you. What did you think
when you first got asked to do the voice of a robot? -I thought, "Whoa. Okay. I'm -- How do you play a robot
that doesn't have feelings?" -Yeah, because I would just be
like, "Hello. How are you?" And that's
why I don't get these roles. Yeah, exactly.
-Well, I had -- I did experiment
with some very robotic voices. The good thing about animation
is, it takes a long time, so you can try things out
and throw them out if they don't work. -You're so good. "The Wild Robot"
is based on a book. Can you tell everyone
what it's about? It's so cute.
-Yeah. -It's about
this robot called Rozzum 7134, and she gets stranded
on this island. She doesn't know she's lost. And she's programmed
to complete tasks. So she tries to find out who
on this island would have bought her
so that she can help them out. And all the wild animals are
terribly afraid of her. But she lands on a task that changes the course of her
existence and her programming. -Oh, that's perfect.
Well done. That's the best
anyone's ever set up -- And it's a little cute. Oh, my God. It's the most --
It's beautiful animation. And a great cast, by the way.
-Yeah. -Pedro Pascal, Catherine O'Hara.
I want to show everyone a clip. Here is Lupita Nyong'o
in "The Wild Robot." Take a look. -Oh. Okay. Hello. Uh, this gosling is yours. -Negative.
That gosling stalks me, emits noise,
and makes simple tasks more complicated or impossible. -Yeah, they do that. Goslings imprint
on the first thing they see, which would be you. -Congratulations. -As far as he's concerned,
you're his mother now. -I do not have the
programming to be a mother. -No one does.
We just make it up. -Without an assigned task,
my next priority is to return to factory. -Taking care of him is
your task now. -Task acquired.
Return mode delayed. A Rozzum
always completes its task. -Oh, my gosh. It's so --
Lupita Nyong'o, everybody. "The Wild Robot" is in theaters
and IMAX September 27th. More "Tonight Show"
after the break. Stick around, everybody!