Lupita Nyong’o “loves” getting dressed up for the red carpet.
The actor rose to prominence after winning an Oscar for her role in 12 Years a Slave in 2013. Nyong’o admitted that, before that time, she did not really have a glamorous lifestyle. Even now she still “hates” the idea of going shopping for the perfect outfit, she said.
“I hate shopping. I love red carpets. You get to be Cinderella for a night. My life before the launch of my career did not involve a lot of ball gowns. Now, I wear so many, and I love it,” she told Glamour.
The Queen of Katwe star also revealed that in terms of striving for “perfection,” she has learned to just embrace herself for who she is and has “forgiven” herself for not always being so.
“These days I allow myself to be a human being. I’ve just found a way of forgiving myself for not being perfect,” she said.
In 2014, Nyong’o wore a caped red Ralph Lauren dress to the Golden Globes but admitted that, even though she thought the number was a hit, her publicists were not immediately convinced.
“Publicists were a little bit nervous about it because it was so bold. There’s a cape. I felt like a superhero in it. One of my publicists was so scared of it, and she was, like, ‘Maybe it’s too much.,'” Nyong’o recalled.
“Purely because I liked it — my rule of thumb has always been I only want to wear things that I like, that feel good to wear — and that was one of those moments,” she said.