ON TOP OF THE WORLD
From the Oscars to Broadway to a new Tiffany & Co. campaign, Lupita Nyong’o paves a diverse path.
From the Oscars to Broadway to a new Tiffany & Co. campaign, Lupita Nyong’o paves a diverse path.
“THE THEATRE AND STAGE ARE A WHOLE LOT MORE FAMILIAR TO ME THAN FILM”
If ever there was an influential platform to make a statement and have your message heard around the world, it is the Academy Awards. Actress Lupita Nyong’o is only too aware of the power of that podium, so when she took to the stage to accept the Oscar for best supporting actress for her extraordinary performance as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave, she made sure her message packed a punch. “When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind every child that no matter where you are from, your dreams are valid,” she said in a voice full of emotion.
That was in 2014. Since then, the girl who was born in Mexico City but grew up in East Africa has gone on to realise her own dreams, achieving a number of “firsts” as she did so. The first African actress to win the best supporting Oscar, Nyong’o has since been appointed the face of Lancôme – the first black celebrity to represent the French luxury cosmetic brand. Then there has been Nyong’o’s Broadway debut this year in the searing production Eclipsed, the first time an all-female cast, playwright and director have performed together on the Great White Way. And most recently starring in Grace Coddington’s project, the new Legendary Style campaign for Tiffany & Co., one of the first the revered creative director undertook since reducing her role at US Vogue after nearly 30 years with the masthead.
At just 33, Nyong’o has already achieved a remarkable amount, and why not? This strong, passionate and well-educated woman was born to Kenyan parents Dorothy and Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o while her father, a senator and former political science lecturer, was working briefly in Mexico. The family returned home to Kenya within a year of Nyong’o’s birth but Nyong’o – who refers to herself as Mexican-Kenyan – returned to Mexico City as a teenager to learn Spanish (one of four languages she speaks fluently). She studied film in Massachusetts, at Hampshire College; and later acting at the Yale School of Drama.
She quickly caught the eye of the public with her feature film debut, 12 Years a Slave, the desperate true story of a free black man who is abducted and sold into slavery. The film earned the Academy Award for best picture in addition to Nyong’o’s win. Her performance in that film resulted in the actress being inundated with offers, some of which she notably took up, including the role of 1,000-year-old pirate queen Maz Kanata in Star Wars: The Force Awakens; and providing the voice of wolf mother Raksha in The Jungle Book. But it came as no surprise to those who knew her when she chose the theatre for her next big move.
Speaking to Vogue from New York where she was nearing the end of her Broadway season of Eclipsed, Nyong’o sounded exhausted yet elated. “This show has been particularly allconsuming. It is a very emotionally and physically demanding show,” she says. Written by writer-actor Danai Gurira, Eclipsed is set during the Liberian civil war and tells the story of five women enslaved by a rebel commander who uses and abuses them at will. Described by New York Times reviewer Charles Isherwood as, “one of the most radiant young actors to be seen on Broadway in recent seasons”, Nyong’o earned a prestigious Tony Award nomination for best actress for her role. Moving to New York for the 15-week season hadn’t gone quite as she’d envisaged. “I thought doing a show on Broadway would provide me with [more down time], that I’d still be in New York in a way that working on a film doesn’t necessarily allow, that I’d have time. I find days are spent either taking a bath in Epsom salts, stretching or watching fluff, which is very tragic,” she says with a laugh.
But her return to theatre, her first love, has been deeply satisfying. “The theatre and stage are a whole lot more familiar to me than film, so for me it was like coming home. There’s something very thrilling, and also very scary because you are right there, there’s nowhere [to hide].”
Nyong’o has never been afraid to speak her mind and when questioned by a journalist during the Eclipse season as to why “such a big star would choose to do such a small play” she took to Lenny Letter, Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner’s popular online newsletter to explain her move in frank terms.
“This question felt quite silly,” Nyong’o wrote. “I knew there was a sense of what was expected of me, but this play felt so
important I had to do it, expectations be damned. I think as women, as women of colour, as black women, too often we hear about what we ‘need to do’ … I am proud of my decision to take the time to sit with myself and not get caught up in what others want for me.”
Which is not to say she hasn’t been involved in myriad other high-profile projects: Nyong’o has a lead role in Mira Nair’s latest film Queen of Katwe; she has reprised the role of Maz Kanata in the next Star Wars film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; and also features in the film adaptation of Marvel’s Black Panther.
In between there was the Tiffany & Co. Legendary Style campaign, featuring Nyong’o alongside Elle Fanning, Christy Turlington and Natalie Westling.
“Grace is a very warm person, very inviting, but at the same time very sure of herself, so she’s a good person to trust with your image,” Nyong’o says. “I work well when I’m able to take direction. It’s a very exciting time for Grace in her career, and to be able to work with her – I don’t know if you’d call it a dream come true – but it was awesome.”
Nyong’o enjoys the diversity of the work her success affords her and hopes her choices will continue to inspire others to challenge the status quo. “I look for roles that offer me an opportunity to investigate humanity in a new way, a role that will stretch me, that is exciting to me but that also terrifies me. If there are things about a role I instinctively understand and other things I have no idea how to do, that’s a role I will probably want to do.”