Lupita Nyong'o Admits She Knew She 'Was Going to Be a Meme' After Will Smith's Oscars Slap

David Livingston/Getty Images Lupita Nyong'o

Lupita Nyong'o was just as taken aback as everyone else watching the 94th Academy Awards.

In a new cover interview for The Hollywood Reporter, the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actress recalls the moment at March's Oscars when Will Smith walked onstage and slapped Chris Rock in the face, after the comedian made a joke about the actor's wife Jada Pinkett Smith.

And considering Nyong'o, 39, was seated right behind the couple in the audience, "I knew as soon as it was over that I was going to be a meme," she said.

Photos of Nyong'o that went viral show the Oscar-winning actress looking on in shock after first seeming unsure about how to respond to the slap.

"Once the moment was over, I realized, 'Oh my God, there's no way all this transpired and I'm not in the shot,' " Nyong'o told THR after being asked what seeing the incident unfold in person was like. "I don't want to add any more fuel to that thing, quite frankly."

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Will Smith and Lupita Nyong'o at the 2022 Oscars

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During the March 27 ceremony, Will, 54, left his seat to go onstage and hit Rock, 57, over a joke the latter made about Jada's shaved head. (The actress, 51, lives with alopecia.)

Will, who later won Best Actor, said in a statement the following day that the punchline was "too much for me to bear" and he "reacted emotionally."

He has since apologized to Rock multiple times and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which banned him from attending its events for 10 years.

Will is making his movie return in the upcoming drama Emancipation, which is eligible for the next awards season cycle.

Christian Cody for The Hollywood Reporter Lupita Nyong'o on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter

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As for Nyong'o, she is gearing up for the release of the highly anticipated sequel to 2018's Black Panther, which will go on without its original hero, Chadwick Boseman.

"He affected how I move in the world," she told THR of her late costar, who died in August 2020 at the age of 43 after a private battle with colon cancer.

"But that's the thing about Chadwick. Chadwick wasn't trying to have everyone be like him. What he inspired was you to be your best self," Nyong'o continued.

She added, "So how I'm going to lead a set is nowhere near — I'm not that person. I'm not Chadwick at all. I'll never be."

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in theaters Nov. 11.