Lupita Nyong’o for New York Magazine February 2014

Photographed by Erik Madigan Heck 

On her first school play role in Oliver Twist: “I was a passerby. I had five words: ‘Coming down the street, there.’ That was it. But I had a backstory for my character. I decided I was going to be a man, so I borrowed my brother’s suit, my dad’s briefcase. I don’t know why I decided to be a man—I think it was more interesting.”

On her amazing breakthrough: “I’ve been in a bubble. I haven’t been out much. I haven’t gotten used to being recognized. I was blissfully ignorant of the magnitude of the project. I was in or what it was going to mean for the world.”

On her first few months in America: “I thrive on structure. I find my freedom in structure. It was very hard to adjust to an individualistic and very liberal system. I mean, my upbringing, I would iron my clothes every night. I would plan what I wore the night before, and then I would iron it. That’s just the way my mom raised us. Then I got to Hampshire, where clothing is sometimes optional and all this kind of thing. I was mortified.”