'Star Wars' Actress Lupita Nyong'o: 'I Didn't Really Know What I Was Auditioning for' (Video)

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is set to break records when it hits theaters on Friday, but one of the lead actresses didn’t even know what movie she was auditioning for when she went for the job.

“It was crazy. I accepted this audition … and I didn’t really know what I was auditioning for. I knew I was going in for J.J. [Abrams], but I was so busy,” Lupita Nyong’o told Ellen DeGeneres in a preview clip for Tuesday’s show.

“I was so busy I was working with adrenaline so I went in and out,” said the actress, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her first feature film, “12 Years a Slave.” “I barely remember that audition and then two months later he called me.”

Also Read: Steven Spielberg Says JJ Abrams Is 'Terrified' of 'Star Wars' Pressure (Video)

Nyong’o said she didn’t know the role was in “Star Wars” and had just been told that the director was “working on a big movie.”

The plot of Episode VII of the iconic sci-fi franchise was so secretive that she read from a substitute script.

“I remember crouching around and I was using my hands as a gun, I remember that,” the actress recalled.

Also Read: Harrison Ford Surprises Fans at 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Preview Screening

She only found out exactly what role she’d won when director Abrams called her two months later. “I was in Morocco on holiday and he called me at my hotel and said, ‘I have this motion-capture role that I’m considering you for.'”

In “The Force Awakens,” Nyong’o plays the mysterious Pirate Queen Maz Kanata created by motion capture with dots all over her face.

“I had dots on my lips and on my teeth and then at lunch time I would just eat the dots and then they would put them back,” she told DeGeneres.

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Storms Hollywood for Epic World Premiere (Photos)

Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"
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Harrison Ford (with Calista Flockhart) reprises his iconic role of Han Solo.
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Carrie Fisher is back as Leia.
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Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o plays the mysterious Pirate Queen Maz Kanata.
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"Star Wars" creator George Lucas passes the torch to "Force Awakens" director J.J. Abrams.
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Lucas and wife Mellody Hobson make a memorable entrance.
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Newcomer Daisy Ridley plays Rey, a scavenger on the desert planet Jakku.
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Mark Hamill returns as Luke Skywalker, the role that made him a breakout star in 1977.
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John Boyega stars as lead character, Finn.
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Adam Driver plays villain Kylo Ren in the latest installment.
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British actor Anthony Daniels is best known as lovable droid C-3PO, having played him in all seven films.
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"Chi-Raq" filmaker Spike Lee and wife Tonya Lewis Lee.
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R2-D2 and C3-PO walk the red carpet together.
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The newest "Star Wars" droid, BB-8, rolls down the red carpet.
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Carrie Fisher and daughter Billie Lourd, who also appears in the new film.
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"Game of Thrones" actress Gwendoline Christie plays Captain Phasma in the new film.
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"Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman joins the red carpet chaos.
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Stormtroopers march down the red carpet.
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Peter Mayhew played Chewbacca in the original films and returns for the "Force Awakens."
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A closeup shot of a new Stormtrooper.
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"Shadowhunters" actor Dominic Sherwood and "Modern Family" star Sarah Hyland.
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Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and producer Frank Marshall.
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Model and actress Kelly Rohrbach.
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Stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt.
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The calm before the storm.
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Stormtrooper costumes on display at the premiere.
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Covered tents line the street outside the Dolby Theatre.
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A Darth Vader statue is transported onto the site.
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An avid fan is transformed into a red Stormtrooper.
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Fans fill the bleachers in front of the Dolby Theatre.
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Bomb-sniffing dogs patrol the site on Hollywood Blvd.
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Police dogs keep watch over the Hollywood Walk of Fame behind the premiere tent.
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There was a heavy police dog presence.
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'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' imagery and signage are displayed along the red carpet.
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