Lupita Nyong'o Corrects Abby Huntsman After Host Asks 'How Long Hair and Makeup' Took on Star Wars

Ale Russian
Updated

Lupita Nyong’o needs people to know that wasn’t actually her in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

The Oscar winner stars as the orange alien Maz Kanata in the new trilogy, culminating with an appearance in The Rise of Skywalker, in theaters Dec. 20. During a recent appearance on The View, Nyong’o had to hilariously set the record straight when asked how Maz’s look came to be in The Force Awakens.

Cohost Sunny Hostin, 51, kicked things off saying she loved Nyong’o in Star Wars, to which the actress acknowledged she looked “a little different” in the films.

That’s when cohost Abby Huntsman, 33, asked her, “How long did hair and makeup take?”

“That’s CGI,” Nyong’o, 36, replied.

RELATED: How Lupita Nyong’o Became Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ Coolest New CGI Character

Nyong’o’s character was the only one to appear as CGI in the movie, as filmmakers were hoping to stay away from using motion-capture in the movie.

“Maz actually went through many stages of whether she could be a puppet, whether she could be a person in a suit, whether she could be digital, or a combination of all of those,” Neal Scanlan, the film’s chief of creature and droid effects, revealed to PEOPLE at the time. “It took us a long time to find Maz creatively.”

Video: Lupita Nyong’o Now Has Waist-Length Braids

Ultimately, the character did become a motion-capture creation played by CGI newbie Nyong’o.

“Things that Maz had to do in the movie became more involved,” Scanlan said. “We tried to create a fantastic digital character that looked as much like a practical character as we could. Maz is a very important character. CGI gave J.J. the freedom to be able to explore all of the creative avenues.”

The Maz experience for Nyong’o led to her being the voice of another CGI character, the wolf Raksha in Disney’s The Jungle Book (2016). After that second experience, Nyong’o told PEOPLE she was ready to step away from the CGI path.

“I am really dying to be in a comedy,” she previously told PEOPLE. “And I’d love to be in, like, a love story, you know? How about some of that?”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens Dec. 20.