“It’s not cute when you’re the second person tripping up the stairs. That’s lame,” the actress told PEOPLE
Lupita Nyong’o in 2014; Jennifer Lawrence in 2013. PHOTO: GETTY(2)
Lupita Nyong’o didn’t want Oscars history to repeat itself.
While chatting exclusively with PEOPLE at the Paramount Pictures x Hollywood Confidential Celebrating Lupita Nyong’o event last month, the actress, 41, reflected on how nervous she was during the 2014 Academy Awards.
“I remember worrying about how much fabric I had to hold going up the steps,” Nyong’o said. “I was like, ‘I can’t trip.’ Jennifer Lawrence already did that the year before, so it’s not cute when you’re the second person tripping up the stairs. That’s lame.”
Reiterating that she “really just didn’t want to trip,” the star added, “I remember having that fear, and then I remember a throbbing sensation in my whole body. It was just so unbelievable.”
Nyong’o took home the Best Supporting Actress prize for 12 Years a Slave during that awards ceremony, while Lawrence tripped after winning Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook a year earlier in 2013.
Continuing to look back at her Academy Awards win, Nyong’o recalled how Emma Thompson offered her advice after her feat.
“Here I was winning it with my very first role. And I was like, ‘OK, where do I go from here?’ ” she said. “I’d heard a lot about the Oscar curse for Best Supporting Actress — a lot of people who won that then went on to not have such great projects after that — and [there was] the fear of falling off the map.”
However, Thompson, 65, was on hand to help, and the Bridget Jones star met up with Nyong’o while she was in London. “I spoke to her about my fears of failing. And she was the one who encouraged me to go and do what I wanted to do, which was a play on Broadway,” the actress explained.
Nyong’o recalled Thompson telling her, “You know what? You have to lead your life the way you see fit. Do not do what other people recommend. You have to really follow your own navigation system. And if that is what you feel will strengthen your craft and remind you of what you’re good at, do that because you have the rest of your life to lead, and you can’t do it according to other people’s expectations.”
