Lupita Nyong'o | GLAMOUR Unfiltered

Ooh, my greatest male ally [laughs].

Hi, I'm Lupita Nyong'o, and this is my GLAMOUR Unfiltered.

I think my greatest achievement has been adjusting.

I think I've adjusted

to some really incredible changes in my life,

including an incredibly exciting,

but also dizzying start to my career, and I survived.

I feel most empowered after good night's rest [laughs],

but also when I'm working on a, something that is engaging,

you know, like when I'm working on something

that is engaging with collaborative people,

that's when I feel most empowered.

I was raised by parents that taught me to care,

and also taught me to call out injustice when I see it.

And to also speak with passion, and integrity, and honesty,

and to have conviction.

So when I feel passionate about something,

and I have conviction and the bandwidth to engage with it,

and then I wanna do it.

And I think that's the way things change,

is when people speak up, and I aim to do so

whenever I feel called to do so,

and to participate in the larger world outside of myself.

There have been very many moments in my life

that I haven't had confidence in myself.

In fact, I think it goes hand in hand

with like being an actor,

because you're always starting again.

You're always working with new people.

There's lots of reasons to doubt yourself.

And so I think I have a healthy amount of,

and maybe even a slightly a healthy amount

of imposter syndrome.

But one of the things,

I think I've had enough reps of having the imposter syndrome

and working beyond it, that I keep doing this.

But when it happens, it's awful and it feels terrible.

But I just have to keep working

on getting to know the character I'm playing

and to the point that the work ends up quieting

that imposter voice in my head.

I don't think I will ever be in a place

where all I have is confidence, and I think that's good.

I think it keeps me grounded to get,

be a little scared, sometimes, that I don't have it,

and it makes me work harder.

Ooh, my greatest male ally in my career

is hands down my father.

My father raised me to think of myself as equal to any male.

And I was raised with a sense of freedom,

and he encouraged my curiosity,

and he marveled at my talent,

and he facilitated the achievement of my dreams.

So I have him to thank 1,000%.

So when I was in drama school, I cried a lot.

I cry a lot, and I hated my tears.

You know, they bothered me,

because I would cry in inopportune moments.

It's like there's no reason to be shedding tears.

And so I would panic, and then I would cry some more.

And my acting teacher, Ron Van Lieu said,

Lupita, why?

Why are you punishing yourself for crying?

Crying is just passing emotion.

It's just a change of energy.

And if you don't fight it, you'll cry less.

And that was really, really good advice,

because it taught me not to be ashamed of my tears.

And since then, I've worked on it, I've practiced,

and I bully myself less when I cry.

And it happens a lot for a lot shorter.

And so, yeah,

I would just say don't make an enemy of your tears.

I'm seeing a whole lot more women in different fields,

and that's exciting, especially behind the camera.

In every department now,

I feel like I've seen women in unconventional roles,

you know, quote, unquote, unconventional.

And that's exciting,

because it's nice to have a boom operator

that's a female or someone in doing the lighting,

grips, all that.

It's really great to see women

assuming all sorts of different roles.

I'm excited for that to continue.

Thanks, GLAMOUR UK.

Goodbye.