Lupita Nyong’o, Kris Bowers chat about ‘The Wild Robot,’ released today

NEW YORK — Too often, Black artists who work with major Hollywood studios are relegated to films centered on Black people instead of people of any race. Oscar winners Lupito Nyong’o and Kris Bowers have been gradually breaking those race barriers in their own careers. Nyong’o is the leading voice cast as the title character for DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot,” which takes place on a remote island where there are no humans—only robots and animals. “The Wild Robot” was released in theaters today. In “The Wild Robot” (which is based on Peter Brown’s 2016 novel of the same name), a stray robot named Rozzum 7134, also known as Roz (voiced by Nyong’o), crash lands on the island and ends up taking care of an orphaned male goose named Brightbill (voiced by Kit Connor) and getting to know the various animals on the island. The voice cast also includes Pedro Pascal, Ving Rhames, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, and Mark Hamill. Lupita Nyong’o and Kris Bowers. Photo credit: Universal Pictures Nyong’o graduated from the Yale School of Drama and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for portraying an abused and enslaved woman named Patsey in the 2013 drama “12 Years...