In Her Own Words: Glamour Cover Star Lupita Nyong’o on Childhood Memories, Acting and Her Incredible Oscar Moment

Still quite shocking to me when people

know my first and last name (chuckling).

When I was a child,

I've always had kind of like a very involved imagination.

I remember,

making up a speech impediment, for example,

and I committed to it

and told everyone that that's how I spoke.

I was also very keen on scaring my siblings.

So I have that kind of morbid sense of humor.

So I'd scare my siblings and have them crying for hours

and that gave me a lot of joy (chuckling).

When I was doing 12 Years A Slave,

I knew it was really special and I knew

that it was gonna be a powerful story

that existed in the world.

I had no idea how the world was going to receive it

and how that would play out in actuality.

And I definitely did not think about the impact

it would have on my life in the public.

The night of the Oscars was, it was a very long night.

It started at six in the morning for me.

I had my glam squad come over and that's always a lot of fun

and there's dancing involved.

And then you eat something

because you'll never see food again until the night is over.

When I actually won,

I don't think I will ever be able to really express

how bizarre it was, you know.

To hear my name at the Academy Awards,

something that I'd watched in pajamas the year before.

Mother says I cried through the speech, I don't believe her.

I haven't seen it, so I don't know (chuckling).

I think popular culture really needs

to reflect what is important in the world,

because it's the way in which we interact with each other

and it's the way in which we get to understand who we are

and what the world has to offer.

And so it's important to have all sorts of different images

in popular culture to represent,

the all sorts of different people in the world.

(bright pop music)