Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o lands her first Vogue cover
OSCAR winner Lupita Nyong’o made the controversial comments before pleading: “I hope they don’t make that the big quote! Tell them not to do that!” in an interview with Vogue.
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OSCARS darling Lupita Nyong’o says walking a red carpet is worse than fighting a war.
The 12 Years A Slave actress, who landed her first Vogue cover this month told the magazine: “The red carpet feels like a war zone, except you cannot fly or fight; you just have to stand there and take it.”
But she quickly realised she might face a backlash for the comment and panicked: “I hope they don’t make that the big quote! Because that would be sad! Tell them not to do that!”
Her comments have attracted even more attention after Tom Cruise and Gwyneth Paltrow also recently compared their profession to wartime.
Late last month at a tech code conference Paltrow compared slights lobbed against her on the Internet to the horrors of war.
“You come across [comments] about yourself and about your friends, and it’s a very dehumanising thing,” Paltrow said “It’s almost like how, in war, you go through this bloody, dehumanising thing, and then something is defined out of it.”
While Cruise also said his location shoots in the Middle East are just like serving a tour in Afghanistan; “That’s what it feels like. And certainly on this last movie, it was brutal. It was brutal.”
Both were slammed for their comments and faced an immense public backlash.
Nyong’o also spoke about her breakout performance as Patsey in 12 Years a Slave and said the movie had a “profound” impact on her life.
“I was really nervous about seeing myself in 12 Years a Slave because it had been such a profound experience in all ways,” Nyong’o said.
“I remember it being one of the most joyful times in my life — and also one of the most sorrowful. I didn’t want my experience to be a vain one. But I will say that when I watched it, my heartstrings were pulled so tight for [the main character] Solomon that I couldn’t go into the ego trip. I cried — I mean, I was inconsolable. I wept for an hour after the movie.”
In the time since, Nyong’o has become something of a fashion star.
She’s landed a Miu Miu campaign, and is the first African American face of Lancome cosmetics.
Next up, she’s set to star in Star Wars Episode VII, and in an adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel Americanah, which she will also produce.
Nyong’o said she’s still adjusting to her rapid rise to fame.
“It just feels like the entertainment industry exploded into my life,” she said.
“People who seemed so distant all of a sudden were right in front of me and recognising me — before I recognised them!”
The actress also spoke about getting used to paparazzi.
“For a split second I looked behind me to see who they were flashing at — and it was me! That was, I think, the beginning of the end of my anonymity.”
Originally published as Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o lands her first Vogue cover