Before the advent of the white man, black people were doing all kinds of things with their hair. The rejection of kinks and curls did come with the white man.
— Lupita Nyong'o
The beauty standards had nothing to do with me in Mexico. It was such a bizarre, dire time for my hair. I was living in a small town where there was not any semblance of an African community. I'd have to take the bus to Mexico City to find a woman who could braid my hair. That was two and a half hours away.
Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood. And dreams are the foundation of America.
Our business is complicated because intimacy is part and parcel of our profession; as actors, we are paid to do very intimate things in public. That's why someone can have the audacity to invite you to their home or hotel, and you show up.
That's such a powerless place for me to think about: what is working against me. I don't think of what I don't have; I think of what I do and use that to get the next thing.
I have dabbled in martial arts all my life, since I was 7, maybe - tae kwon do, capoeira, Muay Thai. It's always been an interest because in martial arts there is a mind/body relationship.
I don't need to be so full of myself that I feel I am without flaw. I can feel beautiful and imperfect at the same time. I have a healthy relationship with my aesthetic insecurities.
I went to an all-boys high school, and they accepted girls in only the two A.P. classes.
I learned at Yale, one of the biggest lessons was to learn how special I am and therefore how totally unspecial I am. I was special among everyone else who was special. The fact that we're all so individual and that's what makes us special.
I grew up in Nairobi, which is the capital of Kenya, so it's hustle and bustle, and there's always something going on.
Steve McQueen is a genius. And I think that word is overused, but I think with Steve it's rightly used. He's a genius.
My father was a professor of political science and also a young politician fighting for democracy in Kenya, and when things got ugly, he went into political exile in Mexico.
As human beings, we aren't as individual as we'd like to believe we are. And I think that's what makes acting possible. Despite the fact that I have not experienced something, I have it in my human capacity to imagine it and to put myself in someone else's shoes, and to take someone else's circumstances personally.
Growing up, I had really bad skin. I had a skin disorder. Yes, I did. And my mother went to great lengths to try to find something to remedy it. I remember she took a trip to Madagascar and came back with all these alternative, medicinal herbs and stuff. They didn't smell so good, but I think they worked some magic.
The Hollywood Film Awards were really stressful. It was the biggest press line I'd ever seen.
I'm still trying to get over the fact that my name is being mentioned with people like Brad Pitt.
The muscles you flex in theater are muscles that you really need. I must always find a way to get back there. It's irreplaceable.
I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin, and my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come, and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of a mirror because I wanted to see my fair face first.
Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.
I'm Mexican and Kenyan at the same time. I've seen the quarrels over my nationality, but I'm Kenyan and Mexican at the same time. So again, I am Mexican-Kenyan, and I am fascinated by carne asada tacos.
I was part of a growing community of women who were secretly dealing with harassment by Harvey Weinstein. But I also did not know that there was a world in which anybody would care about my experience with him.
I value not being good at things, because children are not good at things.
I don't ever want to be president - let's just get that out of the way.
The first time I cut all my hair off was when I was 19. I just got fed up going to the salon every week. I'd had enough! On a whim, it was off. It's low-maintenance.
Makeup isn't something I've worn a lot of in my life.
There is something about acting that's mysterious and magical because there is only so much I can do to prepare, and then I have to just let go and breathe and believe that it will come through.
I definitely love fantasy and would want to be in a fantasy project.
I had moved back to Kenya after undergrad, and I went through this crisis of, 'What is my life going to be about?'
As human beings, what makes us able to empathize with people is a connection that is not necessarily understood mentally.
Part of being an artist is that you are always concerned you don't have what it takes. It... keeps us honest.
What's becoming very obvious to me is that fashion is art.
I have a very ostrich mentality. I feel like I have my head in the sand so no one can see me.
Ralph Fiennes was a pivotal influence on me. He asked me, 'So what is it you want to do?' I very shyly, timidly admitted that I wanted to be an actor. He sighed, and he said, 'Lupita, only be an actor if you feel there is nothing else in the world you want to do - only do it if you feel you cannot live without acting.'
I always love to learn new things. That's the reason I like being an actor.
What fame does is there is an illusion of familiarity that is cast into the world. So it's about negotiating with that illusion because, oftentimes, you encounter people who have encountered you, but you haven't encountered them. It's a little weird to find your footing.
I didn't love my hair when I was a child. It was lighter than my skin, which made me not love it so much. I was really kind of envious of girls with thicker, longer, more lush hair.
I hope we can form a community where a woman can speak up about abuse and not suffer another abuse by not being believed and instead being ridiculed.
There have been rumors and rumors and rumors about my love life. That's the one area that I really like to hold close to my heart.
What colonialism does is cause an identity crisis about one's own culture.
I am very emotional about politics in a way that makes it hard for me to articulate things in a rational fashion.
Personally, I don't ever want to depend on makeup to feel beautiful.
Human beings have an instinct for freedom.
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.'
I definitely intend to create my own work in the future so that we don't have to keep saying, We don't have work for black women.'
My mother talked about the stories I used to spin as a child of three, before I started school. I would tell this story about what school I went to and what uniform I wore and who I talked to at lunchtime and what I ate, and my mother was like, 'This girl does not even go to school.'
We, as human beings, have the capacity for extreme cruelty.
Being a part of '12 Years a Slave' has been one of the most profound experiences of my life.
I feel privileged that people are looking up to me, and perhaps a dream will be born because of my presence.
I'm interested in generating work for myself. I have trouble with this waiting-for-the-phone-to-ring lifestyle, especially after drama school, which was so creatively fulfilling.
I want to be uncomfortable - acting is uncomfortable.
