I remember in my very first fitting, costume designer Patricia Norris gave me a garment with these intricate stitches - stitches over stitches, because it had been repaired so many times. Once I put it on, she told me that it belonged to an actual slave woman. My heart just stopped. Each one of the stitches had a story, you know. Just recognizing this period I was going to be dancing with was a "come to Jesus" moment.
Lupita Nyong'oWhat is fundamentally beautiful is compassion: for yourself and for those around you.
Lupita Nyong'oThere's always a sense of newness with acting, because every role, you come to every role fresh.
Lupita Nyong'oI come from a loving, supportive family, and my mother taught me that there are more valuable ways to achieve beauty than just through your external features. She was focused on compassion and respect, and those are the things that ended up translating to me as beauty.
Lupita Nyong'oI loved duping my parents; I liked manipulating them. It was a way for me to stand out. It was fun.
Lupita Nyong'o