Lupita Nyong'o
Lupita Nyong'o
Lupita Amondi Nyong'o; born March 1, 1983) is a Mexi-Kenyan actress and filmmaker. She was born in Mexico to Kenyan parents and raised in Kenya. She attended college in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree in film and theater studies from Hampshire College...
NationalityMexican
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth1 March 1983
CityMexico City, Mexico
CountryMexico
life moved
I had moved back to Kenya after undergrad, and I went through this crisis of, 'What is my life going to be about?'
conscious life
My conscious life has all been in Kenya, and it's my point of reference. But going back to Mexico was very formative.
defining describing grew majority people
I grew up in a world where the majority of people were black, so that wasn't the defining quality of anyone. When you're describing someone, you don't start out with 'he's black, he's white.'
held mexican mexico prudent spent time
I spent some time back in Mexico at 16 because my parents thought it would be prudent for me to learn Spanish, because I held a Mexican passport.
craft envisioned love
I always envisioned working in film and in theater. Theater and film are not, they're not in any way substitutable. What I love about theater is so different from what I love about film, and I enjoy the craft of both.
filming gave throughout took
All throughout filming '12 Years a Slave,' there was a focus like no other. Everyone took ownership of this film and gave their all.
famous grew limelight relationship
I grew up in the limelight and being the child of someone famous. So my relationship with fame is not bedazzled.
african belong carry experience happened shame swept
Slavery is something that is all too often swept under the carpet. The shame doesn't even belong to us, but we still experience it because we're a part of the African race. If it happened to one, it happened to all. We carry that burden.
extremely hold joyous knew necessary needed recognized
The set of '12 Years a Slave' was an extremely joyous one! We all recognized that we were making a powerful, necessary and beautiful film, and we weren't about doing it without that sense of responsibility, and we recognized that we needed each other to tell this story. We also knew we needed to hold each other up as we told the story.
acting decided drama life looking love school
I love filmmaking, but I decided to go to drama school because I thought that when I'm 60 and looking back on my life, if acting hadn't been a part of it, I would hate myself.
life
Being a part of '12 Years a Slave' has been one of the most profound experiences of my life.
beautiful heart compassion
You can't eat beauty, it doesn't sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion, for yourself and those around you. That kind of beauty inflamed the heart and merchants the soul.
ive-learned enough good-enough
What I've learned from myself is that I don't have to be anybody else. Myself is good enough.
i-realized acquire
I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.