Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o is the face of Elle for January 2016, and on her magazine feature she talks about her role on the much awaited Star Wars movie 'The Force Awakens.'
The Mexican-Kenyan actress narrated her experiences in playing her character. She shares, "The opportunity to play a CGI character for me was the opportunity to not be limited by my physical circumstances. I could experience being bigger or smaller, something totally different to who I am. And of course it's in a galaxy far, far away." Lupita plays a CGI or a computer generated imagery character named Maz Kanata, a female pirate who lived for over a thousand years. Kanata is known for having eyes covered with goggles that held special powers.
Lupita did not want to spill details about the movie but she shared how fun it is to be part of a very huge film like Star Wars. There are times when she gets overwhelmed by the big stars that she gets to be mingle with. She recalls, "...I was at [Disney's D23 Expo] recently where I was onstage with Harrison Ford and the excitement was just so high. And for me, it was just so cool. I can be geekish. I can be a dork. It feels like I've been at the best party."
Being with beautiful and famous Hollywood stars is something she is still getting used to especially since Lupita did not see herself as someone beautiful. In her interview, the 32-year-old said she felt invisible because she did not see any dark-skinned women in the media. Lupita says, "If you turn on the television and you are not represented on that television, you become invisible to yourself. And there was very little of myself that I saw on TV, or in the movies that I was watching, or in magazines that were lying around the salons or around the house."
She shared that it was even more difficult when she reached puberty, when she had to deal with finding herself and overcoming her insecurities. At these times she said she held on to her family for support, especially her mom. Now, Lupita serves as an inspiration to women regardless of age or color, being named as People's 'Most Beautiful' in 2015.