The recommendation of a friend made Diop think more seriously about acting and the arts, and prompted Diop to reach out to Josephine Baker. After a correspondence, Baker invited Diop to visit her in France, but Diop had to decline due to cost. Diop frequented the Cine-Club in Dakar, where she was exposed to French and American films, and later enrolled at the Ecole des Arts de Dakar when she was sixteen, where she took night courses and studied under French actor Robert Fontaine (who later also starred in Black Girl).