Lupita Nyong’o, the Oscar-winning actress cast to play the title role in the TV adaptation of Laura Lippman’s 2019 novel “Lady in the Lake,” has left the production, according to industry reports.
News of Nyong’o’s departure, first reported by Variety, comes less than a month after filming began in Baltimore and Baltimore County for the miniseries, which is scheduled to appear on Apple TV+, the subscription streaming service of Apple Inc. Filming on the Endeavor Content production began the week of April 25.
Nyong’o’s departure means the producers must quickly find a new actress for one of the lead roles in the series, which is set in 1960s Baltimore. Part of the challenge, industry observers note, is that Nyong’o was in many ways ideal for the title role. She’s just the right age and appearance, and she brought a fan base and degree of star power that few can match today.
“Nyong’o represents a massive loss for the series given her vastly decorated career,” wrote Ryan O’Rourke for Collider.com. “She picked up her lone Oscar for 2013’s “12 Years A Slave,” but recent years have been plenty kind to her nonetheless. She counts the modern Star Wars trilogy among her recent work, and she took the lead role as Adelaide Wilson in Jordan Peele’s “Us.” “ Looking forward, he said, she’ll reprise her role of Nakia in the already-filmed Black Panther sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” slated to premiere in November.
Nyong’o, 39, is one of two Oscar-winners who were announced to co-star in the series, and filming started in April. Spotted in Baltimore wearing a pink Sandro suit, Giovannio hat and Dior sneakers at the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, she has not spoken publicly about her decision to leave the production. A search has already begun for an actress to take over her role, sources have told Variety and Deadline.
The other Oscar-winner in the cast is Natalie Portman, who won the Best Actress Oscar in 2011 for her role in “Black Swan.” Portman, 40, remains attached to the production, which marks her first role in a television series. Others actors include Y’Lan Noel, Mikey Madison and Brett Gelman. The series is being directed by Alma Har’el and co-written by Har’el and Dre Ryan.
The book was inspired by the unrelated disappearances of two women, one Black and one white, in 1960s Baltimore. The body of one was discovered in the lake at Druid Hill Park, the lake in the book’s title. The disappearances are linked in the book by one of its main characters, housewife-turned-reporter Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz, who starts investigating.
Portman will play Schwartz, the journalist who investigates the two deaths. Nyong’o was cast as Cleo Sherbow, who went missing and whose faceless body reportedly was found in the fountain in the lake at Druid Hill Park, leading to Schwartz’s investigation.
Sherbow’s character was based on the real-life disappearance of Shirley Parker, a Black bartender and waitress in the 1960s. Lippman’s book has a twist: Sherbow appears as a ghost, trying unsuccessfully to discourage Schwartz from attempting to find out what happened to her.
Because Sherbow’s ghost doesn’t appear in every scene, the producers presumably could work around Nyong’s’s departure for a while. In the book, much of the action follows Schwartz’s personal life and evolution as a journalist, including a second murder investigation, of an 11-year-old girl named Tessie Fine.
Lippman’s book offers the potential to incorporate a number of 1960s-era Baltimore settings that are part of the story and still exist, such as Cylburn Arboretum and The Store Ltd. at The Village of Cross Keys. One location that’s part of a key scene in the book but is no longer available for filming is the Orioles’ home in the 1960s, Memorial Stadium.
This isn’t the first time Nyong’o has left a high-profile role. Variety reported in 2020 that she left an HBO Max project that was based on the adaptation of another novel, “Americanah,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “due to scheduling issues caused by the [COVID-19] pandemic.” That series has not moved ahead since Nyong’o dropped out.
No release date has been announced for “Lady in the Lake.” Because filming has already begun, the producers are under pressure to fill Nyong’o’s role quickly.
“Whoever is chosen,” O’Rourke wrote, “will have some massive shoes to fill.”
