When I was younger, I was almost too afraid to admit that I wanted to be an actor. I didn't know any successful actors in Kenya, so I felt like I could get away with going to college to study film more easily than I could with saying, 'I want to be an actor.' That's what I did.

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. But right now I don't know what's next. I hope that there are more opportunities to come my way.

Makeup isn't something I've worn a lot of in my life.

Even in my dreams of being an actor, my dream was not in the celebrity. My dream was in the work that I wanted to do.

I loved duping my parents; I liked manipulating them. It was a way for me to stand out. It was fun.

I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.

Everyone said, ‘Brace yourself, Lupita! Keep a granola bar in that clutch of yours!’ I didn’t really understand what they meant, and it was only once it was past that I realized that my body had been holding on by a thread to get through this very intense experience. Nothing can prepare you for awards season. The red carpet feels like a war zone, except you cannot fly or fight; you just have to stand there and take it.