Lupita Nyong’o: Stop telling black women what they “need to do"

Lupita Nyong’o won an Oscar for her staggering performance in 12 Years A Slave, made the animated Maz Kanata come to life in the blockbuster Star Wars: The Force Awakens, continues to rule every red carpet she steps on, and just picked up a Tony Award nomination for her Broadway play Eclipsed.

And yet, people continue to question whether the 33-year-old actress knows what she's doing with her career.

Nyong’o described her experience with an unpleasant reporter while doing press for her new Broadway play Eclipsed, writing in Lena Dunham's Lenny newsletter how she was asked, “Why would such a big star choose to do such a small play?”

"I think as women, as women of color, as black women, too often we hear about what we 'need to do,'” Nyong’o wrote. "How we need to behave, what we need to wear, what’s deemed as too much or not enough, the cultural politics of what society considers appropriate for us and for our lives."

"As an African woman, I am wary of the trap of telling a single story," Nyong’o continued, praising her Eclipsed character of an orphan fleeing the Liberian civil war. "The chance to appear in Eclipsed after winning an Oscar was an opportunity to share in the incredible (and too rare) freedom of playing a fully rendered African woman."

"So often women of color are relegated to playing simple tropes: the sidekick, the best friend, the noble savage, or the clown ... I love the idea of people of color participating in mythical, magical stories, whether that’s as hero, villain, sage, or sorceress," she said, referring to her recent role voicing the Jungle Book's wolf mother Raksha.

The beautiful essay reinforces that Nyong’o shouldn't have to justify her career choices to anyone — it's clear she knows what she's doing. Next stop, the Tonys.

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