Mexican-Kenyan Oscar-winning actress, Lupita Nyong'o is covering the December issue of Glamour magazine and is also named one of the magazine’s 2014 Women of the Year. In this excerpt from her chat with Glamour, the 31-year-old movie star talks about her journey to fame and the future.
Excerpt:"This is actually a conversation I look forward to having in 10 years, when all of this is behind me and I have some real perspective on what happened — because right now I'm still adjusting.
"I guess I feel catapulted into a different place; I have a little whiplash. I did have a dream to be an actress, but I didn't think about being famous. And I haven't yet figured out how to be a celebrity; that's something I'm learning, and I wish there were a course on how to handle it. I have to be aware that my kinesphere may be larger than I want it to be."
"I've heard people talk about images in popular culture changing, and that makes me feel great, because it means that the little girl I was, once upon a time, has an image to instill in her that she is beautiful, that she is worthy — that she can. Until I saw people who looked like me, doing the things I wanted to, I wasn't so sure it was a possibility. Seeing Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah in 'The Color Purple,' it dawned on me: 'Oh — I could be an actress!' We plant the seed of possibility.
"Oprah played a big role in my understanding of what it meant to be female and to really step into your own power. I wouldn't even call her a role model; she was literally a reference point. You have the dictionary, you have the Bible, you have Oprah.
"I come from a loving, supportive family, and my mother taught me that there are more valuable ways to achieve beauty than just through your external features. She was focused on compassion and respect, and those are the things that ended up translating to me as beauty. Beautiful people have many advantages, but so do friendly people.… I think beauty is an expression of love. One of my teachers said, 'Where are you going to find a husband? How are you going to find someone darker than you?' I was mortified.
"I remember seeing a commercial where a woman goes for an interview and doesn't get the job. Then she puts a cream on her face to lighten her skin, and she gets the job! This is the message: that dark skin is unacceptable."
Nyong'o will be featuring in two upcoming films: "Star Wars: Episode VII" and "Jungle Book" very soon.
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