Lupita Nyong’o gets a vocal cord polyp – as a robot she uses her super-positive voice

Lupita Nyong’o has shown us that even a superstar can overdo it with the positivity – especially when it’s a robotic voice. The 41-year-old actress recently revealed that she developed a vocal polyp because she used an exceptionally cheery tone for her role in the upcoming film The wild robot.

During an appearance on “Late Night with Seth Myers,” Lupita talked about her vocal struggles and explained how she played the character Roz, a cyborg on a mission to discover “humanity” – or as we humans would call it, empathy.

“Roz goes through this journey to, I guess, find what we would call humanity, like empathy,” Lupita said.

“And so at the beginning of the film I decided to do this very, sort of super-positive voice. And it just wasn’t in my vocal register, which is much lower. I did it way too long over several days and got a vocal polyp.”

For those unfamiliar with medical terminology, vocal cord polyps are benign growths that can occur on the vocal cords, typically due to overuse.

Lupita’s case was so severe that she “lost the ability to speak.” Her doctor prescribed complete vocal rest, which Lupita maintained for three months. She was originally scheduled to have surgery, but she was always an overachiever and wanted to be among the 35 percent of patients who recover without surgery.

“And I did. I healed myself,” Lupita declared triumphantly, perhaps in a deeper, more soothing tone.

The actress is part of a club of celebrities who have recovered from vocal injuries, including Miley Cyrus, Celine Dion and Adele. Despite her loss of voice, Lupita hasn’t let it limit her social life. She attended both Taylor Swift’s Eras tour and Beyoncé’s Renaissance show, proving that not even a vocal polyp can keep a true fan down.

“You had to carry a piece of paper that said, ‘I’m on vocal rest,'” Seth Myers noted of her involvement in the concert scene.

“Yes, I did that at home. Sometimes people thought I was rude because I didn’t say anything. Then I thought to myself: “Okay. I’ll tell people what’s going on, then they’ll have sympathy for me and not hate me.”“, confirmed Lupita.

So the next time you hear someone with an unusually cheerful voice, remember: positivity can come at a price.