'The View': Abby Huntsman Creates Awkward Moment With Lupita Nyong'o With Just One Question

As most viewers know, Lupita Nyong'o's Star Wars character Maz Katana is a completely CGI [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

As most viewers know, Lupita Nyong'o's Star Wars character Maz Katana is a completely CGI character, brought to life by ILM artists and the Oscar-winner's voice. However, The View co-host Abby Huntsman appeared to forget that when Nyong'o appeared on the show ahead of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on Dec. 20. Nyong'o played the character in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens and briefly in 2017's Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

While on The View, co-host Sunny Hostin told Nyong'o she loved her character in Star Wars. Nyong'o then joked she does look "a little different" in the movies compared to real life.

"How long did hair and makeup take?" Huntsman asked.

"That's CGI," Nyong'o quickly replied.

Maz has been one of the few completely CGI characters in Disney's sequel trilogy, as the filmmakers tried to use more practical effects for creatures in the movies. There were attempts to realize Maz in physical ways, but it was ultimately decided to make the character digitally, using Nyong'o's acting in a motion-capture suit as a template.

"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 Oscar-winning visual effects artist who oversees creatures and droids, told PEOPLE in 2015. "It took us a long time to find Maz creatively."

Scanlan later explained, "Things that Maz had to do in the movie became more involved... 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 [director J.J. Abrams] the freedom to be able to explore all of the creative avenues."

The Rise of Skywalker is Nyong'o's last release of 2019, which turned out to be an exciting year for the actress. She gave an acclaimed performance in Us, Jordan Peele's follow-up to Get Out. Although she was snubbed by the Golden Globes, she did earn a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role from the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Although Us was a big hit, Nyong'o told Deadline she is not interested in revisiting the two characters she played in the horror movie. She said taking on the roles was "very very very challenging."

"I had to hold down both sides of the argument," Nyong'o explained. "I had to be the offender and the offended. It was about understanding the emotional landscape of each character but also having a very strict discipline to play both physically and mentally."

Nyong'o's next scheduled film is 355, a spy thriller directed by Simon Kinberg co-starring Jessica Chastain and Sebastian Stan.

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