Lupita Nyong'o

Lupita Nyong'o in 2019

Lupita Amondi Nyong'o (born March 1, 1983) is a Kenyan-Mexican actress.

Quotes

• I was completely overwhelmed…The body registers stress, whether good or bad, in the same way. So if it’s super exciting or super traumatising, your body is in equal distress. Though I would choose excitement over trauma every day.
  • On her quick rise to stardom in “EXCLUSIVE: Lupita Nyong'o: 'Success Has Brought Me Freedom'” in Grazia (2017 Sep 11)

• There was so much joy in the making of this film, despite the fact that it’s about such a sad, traumatic experience…We all felt like we were part of something so real and so necessary. It was a joy to go on set every day and tell these real people’s story. Doing this movie, I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.
  • On making the film 12 Years a Slave in “LUPITA NYONG’O” in Interview Magazine (2013 Nov 5)

• It's because of the prevalence of whiteness, Eurocentric standards of beauty that we experience this. You know? And it is subconscious. Colorism is the daughter of racism. But sometimes it seems like racism has had amnesia (laughter). You know? And so that's why I wrote this - to hopefully bring it to the fore and people can address it.
  • On how warped standards of beauty encouraged her to write the children’s book Sulwe in “Lupita Nyong'o On 'Sulwe'” in NPR (2019 Oct 17)

• I find a lot of gratitude in my first years on this planet because having to identify - or having to not rely on how I look like to seduce or to get by in life really meant that I had to cultivate other aspects of myself - my personality, my character - and get a sense of self-worth from something other than people complimenting what I look like. And now, after that, I relish in the compliment. But I do know that external beauty will fade. And hopefully, I have cultivated and I continue to cultivate enough internal beauty to sustain me through the years when I am not such a hot pick.
  • On how she focused on inner beauty in “Lupita Nyong'o On 'Sulwe'” in NPR (2019 Oct 17)

• “You can't rely on how you look to sustain you, what sustains us, what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion; for yourself and for those around you.”

• [1]

• "There is room in this world for beauty to be diverse."

• [2]

• ” You fail. so what? LIfe goes on. It´s only when you risk to fail that you find things out”

• [3]

• Slavery is something that is all too often swept under the carpet.

• [4]

• Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.

• [5]

• “We don’t get to pick the genes we want. There’s room in this world for beauty to be diverse.”

• [6]

• We, as human beings, have the capacity for extreme cruelty.

• [7]

• “I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.”

• [8]

•  I think ultimately that mentality that you can be whatever you put your mind to, and that the world you want to see is worth fighting for, won over.

• • [9]

• Hunger is a defining issue for our world and climate change is worsening the problem. We must work to change this dynamic.

• • [10]

• Don’t sweat the small stuff.

• • [11]

• “There are tons of Black women completely capable and are darn good at that,”

• • [12]
• “No matter where you are from your dreams are valid.”
• “Day told her sister, "When you are darkest is when you are most beautiful. It is when you are most you.”