Lupita Nyong'o voted one of Glamour mag's 'Women of the Year'
theGRIO REPORT - Lupita Nyong'o voted one of 'Glamour's Women of the Year
Despite winning an Oscar for her work in 12 Years a Slave, Lupita Nyong’o revealed in a recent Glamour cover story that she still hadn’t completely adjusted to her new celebrity status.
The magazine recently voted the 31-year-old actress as one of its “Women of the Year.”
Although she’s enjoyed tremendous success, even seeing an entire phenomenon named after her known as “the Lupita effect,” the actress told the magazine that “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.”
The Lupita effect was coined to explain how the actress has impacted Hollywood conventions of beauty and what a lead actress is expected to look like since her rise to stardom. On challenging the status quo, Nyong’o said, “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… Until I saw people who looked like me, doing the things I wanted to, I wasn’t so sure it was a possibility.” She mentioned Oprah and Whoopi Goldberg as major inspirations and influences.
In addition to the interview, Nyong’o also graced the cover of the famous magazine and did an extended photo spread for the publication.
On winning the Oscar for best supporting actress, she said, “I don’t think I will ever be able to really articulate how bizarre it was to hear my name at the Academy Awards. I’d watched in my pajamas the year before.”
The director of 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen, chose Nyong’o for the role out of more than 2,000 women. He indicated that he chose the unknown actress because he “couldn’t believe” her audition tape, likening it to the “search for Scarlett O’Hara.”
Nyong’o is slated to star in the upcoming Star Wars movie; in the meantime, she can be found gracing the cover of December’s Glamour, which comes out on November 11.
