Oscar winning actress, Lupita Nyong'o, covers the April issue of Harper's Bazaar. Draped in Louis Vuitton, Lupita looks beautiful.
Since her Oscar-winning performance in 12 Years a Slave, Lupita Nyong'o has been celebrated the world over. She talks to Sophie Elmhirst about the risks and rewards of her meteoric rise to fame.
Between photographs in a King’s Cross warehouse, Lupita Nyong’o dances. Nothing showy, just a shuffle of her hips or a head-nod to the beat of the music in the background. She’s surrounded by people – a circus of agents and stylists and Lancôme representatives (she’s the brand’s new ambassador) all there for her, but she doesn't dance for them. It’s the kind of dancing you might do while you’re drying your hair, or on hold on the phone; moves only you can see. But seriously, this woman can dance. At one point, she body-pops like a pro, and makes herself laugh with a full-on strut. Mostly, though, she dances in a kind of dream, eyes half-closed, like it’s the most private thing in the world.
‘There was a time when I was afraid to dance,’ says Nyong’o. The shoot’s over, and we’re in an empty café on the top floor of the building. It’s dusk and you can see all of London, to the Shard and beyond, the lights coming on across the city. She has changed out of a full-throttle orange dress and into a black sweater and trousers, as though someone has turned down the volume. Her voice is low; the music’s off; the circus has packed up and moved on. ‘My older sister would dance with abandon,’ she continues. ‘She would do it to entertain. I was so mortified at the thought of wiggling my body in any direction. And I wrestled with myself, because I didn't want to be so self-conscious. I wanted to be able to enjoy music and not care that I looked cute. I don’t know when something switched in my head, but I’m so glad it did, because I feel like dancing, and being able to enjoy one’s body for oneself is such a precious, precious thing. For yourself, you know?’ She pauses. ‘If this had happened to me at a time when I couldn't dance – ha – my God, I think I would be way more of a wreck.’
You can check out the latest issue of Harper's Bazaar in newsstands near you.
Next Up....Zoe Kravitz doesn't hold back in this interview she did for the new issue of Complex . She reveals her own struggles with eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia! I love her for being brave and touching on her own insecurities. Speaking of brave she is working the hell out of these liquid latex fashions!
In the summer of 2013, Kravitz signed on to play anorexic twentysomething Marie in the dramedy film The Road Within. As she tells it, when she got the role, she wasn’t sure if she was disciplined enough to play the part without letting her demons get the best of her. “My parents got really scared for me to go back down that road,” she says, recalling when her mother burst into tears after she came back from set one time.
Kravitz couldn’t see how much weight she’d lost. She wasn’t satisfied with her frail 90-pound frame either. “It was fucked up, man,” she sighs. “You could see my rib cage. I was just trying to lose more weight for the film but I couldn’t see: You’re there. Stop. It was scary.” She got sick after filming wrapped. She didn’t get her period regularly because she was too malnourished. Her immune system shut down, her thyroid was thrown off. Recovering from the brutal shoot, she wasn’t receptive to praises from friends who were happy she was gaining weight, either. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to gain weight,’ as opposed to being like, ‘Good, I’m a normal human being.’” Recording with her friends (now Lolawolf bandmates) Jimmy Giannopoulos and James Levy helped her take her mind off what Kravitz only vaguely describes as “not a social time.” The upshot was that it eventually gave birth to the band. “[They] kept me company, and kept me sane,” she said.
It wasn’t until New Year’s Eve 2013 that she decided to take a new tack. She doesn’t remember exactly what happened that day, but she remembers the feeling, and relates to it as though it’d been an otherworldly experience. “I just felt it was different,” she says. “I don’t know...if a fucking spirit came over me and said: ‘You have to stop.’” Whatever it was, she did.
When trying to explain her insecurities, Kravitz cites a combination of systematic ideas about beauty and—yes—her upbringing. She says women are taught it’s not OK to think they’re beautiful: “It’s either: you’re conceited, or insecure, as opposed to just loving yourself.” She was also surrounded by “a lot of beautiful people,” and of course, her mother.
“My mother’s a...,” she says, hesitating, “...beautiful woman, and I think, in some way, I felt intimidated by that sometimes.” Also: “My dad dated a lot of supermodels,” she laughs.
You can check out the full interview via Complex!
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