She says that growing up, she sometimes felt her life was in danger because of the fear that her father’s activism might bring harm to him.

In the latest instalment of the Hollywood franchise A Quiet Place, Day One, Lupita Nyong'o plays the role of Samira, a woman suffering from a terminal illness.

The movie, which focuses on the first day of the alien invasion of Earth follows Samira as she struggles to survive in a world that has become extremely hostile to her overnight.

Nyong'o herself is no stranger to being in survival mode. As the daughter of Anyang' Nyong'o, a Kenyan politician who is the Governor of Kisumu County, a port city on Lake Victoria, she has had her fair share of fighting for her life.

“I am the daughter of a radical political activist,” she told Pulse Nigeria in an exclusive interview. “My father fought for democracy in Kenya. He risked his life a number of times and in so doing, obviously, we as a family found ourselves in very gnarly situations.”

She added that when she was growing up, she sometimes felt her life was in danger because of the fear that her father’s activism might bring harm to him. “There were moments when I was growing up when I was worried for my father’s life. And so because his life was in danger, my life was in danger,” she said.

But the actress said her parent did what they could to protect her and her siblings. “My parents worked really hard to protect us as much as possible,” she said.

Her father's political activism has also caught up with her. As youths in Kenya protested a new tax bill that the president, William Ruto, has since rescinded, she could not stay calm. Even in the heat of promoting A Quite Place: Day One she spoke up about politics, which rarely happens with Hollywood stars especially knee-deep in press mode.

“I salute the Kenyan youth and I am grateful to them for coming together in an extraordinary way to stand up against the problematic Finance Bill 2024 as well as to defend and promote the democratic rights of the Kenyan people,” she said on Instagram. “I am extremely saddened that lives have been lost in the process, and my thoughts are with the victims' families.”

A fan of the first two Quiet Place films, Nyong'o said it was the characters and their struggles that attracted her to the role in the new movie.

“I wanted to come to the Quite Place universe because I really enjoyed the first films. I thought they were very unique. I enjoyed how character-driven they were, despite all the scares, all the creatures and all of that. You’re really just invested in the characters and their relationships and them trying to stick together in order to survive,” she said.

But she liked even more the tone of the prequel, which is as much psychological as it is horror.

When I was approached to do this and the offer was to be in a prequel, in which we were going to follow different characters, and we were going to be taking it with a different tone even, I liked that,” she said.

“I really like the character Samira. She’s a departure from me. She is not like anyone else I’ve played. I love that. I like having the opportunity to inhabit a new kind of person.”