In the February issue of British Vogue, Nyong’o “revealed what will get her to open up when it comes to politics — a subject the outlet’s writer said was ‘met with exasperation’ during the interview,” Fox News reported Tuesday.
“I speak up for the things I can personally vouch for,” the 36-year-old actress told the magazine. “There’s a lot going on in this world, a lot of causes that are noble. But I feel most useful when I have a personal connection. And the conviction is to say something.”
As noted by Fox, Nyong’o, who nabbed a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2014 for her role in “12 Years a Slave,” also emphasized that she doesn’t “get fulfillment from the number of zeros attached to a project.”
“What I’m seduced by is the potential to shift a narrative. That is very seductive to me, having social and cultural impact,” the actress said.
Nyong’o, however, has previously made social statements, addressing alleged harassment at the hands of apparent sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, and advocating for so-called “dreamers.”
For example, in 2017, the actress rebuked Grazia U.K. for editing her hair in a photo she took for the magazine.
“As I have made clear so often in the past with every fiber of my being, I embrace my natural heritage and despite having grown up thinking light skin and straight, silky hair were the standards of beauty, I now know that my dark skin and kinky, coily hair are beautiful too,” Nyong’o wrote via social media. “Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfills me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are.”
“I am disappointed that @graziauk invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like,” she continued. “Had I been consulted, I would have explained that I cannot support or condone the omission of what is my native heritage with the intention that they appreciate that there is still a very long way to go to combat the unconscious prejudice against black women’s complexion, hair style and texture.”
In a 2017 New York Times op-ed, Nyong’o “claimed she turned down … sexual propositions on two separate occasions” from Weinstein, Fox noted, “once at his Connecticut home, where he requested a massage, and another time at a lunch, where he requested the two retreat to a private room.”
Additionally, according to Metro, in 2018, the actress used a moment at the Oscars to advocate for “dreamers,” referring to Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients:
Lupita Nyong’o and Kumail Nanjiani have used their immigrant status to make one well-thought out dig at President Donald Trump.
… “We are also immigrants, I am from Kenya,” said Lupita, “… and like everyone in this room and everyone watching at home we are dreamers, we grew up one day dreaming of working in the movies. Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood, and the foundation of America. So to all the dreamers out there we stand with you.”