Lupita Nyong’o’s mother and her aunts were her “idols” growing up.
The 38-year-old actress – who was born to Kenyan parents, Dorothy Ogada Buyu and Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o – is currently starring in the all-female spy film ‘The 355’ and revealed the “strong” women in her life who have inspired her the most.
She said: “I grew up with a very strong and close family, so my idols were a lot of my relatives, especially my aunties and my mother.”
The Academy Award-winner then went on to cite classic films such as ‘The Sound of Music’ and ‘The Color Purple’ as memorable movies from her youth, noting that seeing “dark-skinned” women like herself act had a “big impact” on her childhood.
She told OK! Magazine: “When it comes to film and TV, I was madly in love with ‘The Sound of Music’. Fraulein Maria [played by Julie Andrews] was my idea of the perfect governess I wish I had. And then, of course, ‘The Color Purple’. I’ve talked about this a lot but [that movie] had a really big effect on me. Seeing Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg and Akosua Busia, all these actors who look like me and doing this thing called acting, had a big impact on me and what was possible for me in the world of entertainment for someone like me.”
The star – who plays former MI6 agent Khadijah Adiyeme in ‘The 355’ alongside Jessica Chastain – then jokingly admitted that while her character in the movie is a technology expert the same cannot be said for herself.
She quipped: “I think Khadijah is extremely intelligent in a way that I am not.
“I’m the kind of person who sweats when I have to change my phone. It’s a proper stresser. I need to block out a day or two where I can just figure out this new gadget and get help to figure out all the things. Technology dwarfs me. I feel like there was a time when I knew what was going on and that time is no more!”
