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.”
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