Lupita Nyongo Discusses Painful Role In 12 Years A Slave

In preparing for her first film role as a petite, hardlaboring slave in 12 Years a Slave, actress Lupita Nyong o sized herself up against 500 pounds of cotton, which her character Patsey picked every day. The film itself is considered a heavyweight Oscar contender, having won widespread praise for its brutal depiction of preCivil War American slavery. 12 Years a Slave is based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northup, a free black man tricked and sold into slavery who cannot fathom the hell he has