Autónoma de México’s Learning Cen-
ter for Foreigners. In 2003, she enrolled
in Hampshire College, in Amherst, Mas-
sachusetts, as an international student,
immersing herself in African studies.
“We were really deeply investigating
and exploring and analyzing a lot of
sociopolitical dynamics,” she says. “My
enlightenment was my education, to
really recognize that these things play out
in cultural and social setups. They don’t
play out theoretically.” After graduating,
she entered the Yale School of Drama.
Nyong’o’s introduction to Hollywood
came in the form of her stint as a pro-
duction assistant on The Constant Gar-
dener. Then, in her last year at Yale, Lupita
landed an audition with director Steve
McQueen for a role in 12 Years a Slave,
based on Solomon Northup’s real-life
account of his kidnapping and enslave-
ment on Edwin Epps’s Louisiana planta-
tion. In the film, Nyong’o plays Patsey,
a woman who was known to pick more
than 500 pounds of cotton a day—twice
the quota. Patsey was repeatedly raped
by Epps and tortured by his jealous
wife. The film’s most devastating scene
depicts Epps (Michael Fassbender) bru-
talizing Patsey, after forcing Northup
(Chiwetel Ejiofor) to whip her as well.
It’s reminiscent of Denzel Washington’s
turn as Private Silas Trip in the 1989 film
Glory. Like Washington, Nyong’o won
an Oscar for her performance, thrust-
ing her into the public eye and kick-
starting a rapid ascent. In her acceptance
speech, Nyong’o, in a baby-blue Prada
gown whose color she felt evoked Kenya,
thanked Patsey, saying, “It doesn’t
escape me for one moment that so much
joy in my life is thanks to so much pain
in someone else’s.”
“What struck me was her absolute
readiness,” says Nyong’o’s 12 Years costar
Sarah Paulson, who played the abusive
Mistress Epps. “Lupita was the personi-
fication of destiny. I also don’t think I had
ever seen a face filled with so much light—
she is the definition of ‘lit from within.’ ”
Around the time the movie came out,
she had been sleeping on a mattress on
the floor of a New York apartment, too
anxious about placelessness to spring
for a bed frame, she told the Bad Brown
Aunties, a podcast hosted by two fellow
Hampshire alums. When she became the
first Black African to win an Academy
Award for acting, the accolade helped
solidify her application for a green card.
It was heart-wrenching to learn several
years later of other battles that Nyong’o
had been taking on during that moment
in her career. In a bone-chilling op-ed in
the New York Times, Nyong’o recounted
her run-ins with Harvey Weinstein. She
wrote in vivid detail of narrowly escap-
ing the producer’s grasp in the confines
of his home, with his family in nearby
rooms. After another creepy encoun-
ter, she vowed never to work with him.
She also vowed to “never shut up about
this kind of thing.”
Now, although she notes she is still
limited to her own experiences and those
that wend through the industry grape-
vine, Nyong’o says that in the nearly two
years since, “there is definitely more of
a sensitivity toward sexism, chauvinism,
abuse,” and that many film sets often
employ an “intimacy coach.”
“In the past, when it came to physical
combat, there were always consultants
on set, but when it came to intimacy
there was never, ever somebody pres-
ent to help actors navigate that. Now
you have that, which I think is a great
inclusion, and ensures that those kinds
of abuses don’t happen.” She adds, “I
think there’s also at times an oversen-
sitivity, which I just think is the nature
of the pendulum shifting, and it takes
time to find the balance. I’m quite happy
that there is that kind of extreme change,
and hopefully we find equilibrium as
we move forward.”N
yong’o has a reputation for
keeping her private life pri-
vate, though fans have des-
perately tried to dream-cast romantic
relationships with Michael B. Jordan and
Jared Leto. Crowd hope has more
recently refocused on Janelle Monáe,
though neither woman has publicly
commented. When I ask how she han-
dles curiosity about her love life,
Nyong’o replies, “I feel like there’s parts
of myself that I care to share and then
there are parts that I don’t.”
In my mind’s eye, there’s a high-
light reel of images and videos of her
cuddled with friends and costars, but I
wonder when it is part of the celebrity’s
job description to have every relation-
ship inventoried as “friend” or “lover.”
And so I dig a bit deeper about main-
taining control over her image. “I’m
conscious of the danger of the inten-
tion to perpetuate a struggle without
triumph,” she says.
What happens when we lose agency
over our narratives? What does it mean
to be one of Hollywood’s most power-
ful women, yet still be susceptible to
headlines that compress your life into
something digestible? There’s a thin
line between your story being told and
you being devoured. In 2017, Nyong’o
made headlines because her hair was
photoshopped for the U.K. cover of the
Italian magazine Grazia. Nyong’o called
the magazine out in an Instagram post,
including photos of her unretouched
image and a caption that stated, “Had I
been consulted, I would have explained
that I cannot support or condone the
omission of what is my native heritage
with the intention that they appreciate
that there is still a very long way to go
to combat the unconscious prejudice
against black women’s complexion, hair
style and texture.”
Nyong’o says she has learned to pick
her battles—she says early in her life,“She is able to tap i nto raw energy
and raw emotion,” says Jordan Peele.
“Lupita the star is
distinctive and incomparable.”OCTOBER 2019 VANITY FAIR 51