HOLLYWOOD – It's safe to say Lupita Nyong'o is stunned.
“It hasn't sunk in that I'm holding this thing, and it's in my hands, but I haven't wrapped my mind around it yet,” said Nyong'o backstage after winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in “12 Years a Slave.” “You hear people wanting you to win, and predicting you'll win, but it's just not real until you hear Christoph Waltz say your name. It's perplexing. It's just very perplexing. But I'm so happy to be holding this golden man.”
One of the most surreal moments of winning the award? Being rushed by none other than Liza Minnelli after her name was announced: “I felt quite fabulous,” Nyong'o admitted with a smile.
Addressing her emotional acceptance speech, in which she thanked the “spirit of Patsey” (the real-life slave she played in the film), the actress said she feels director Steve McQueen honored the spirits of the people who suffered under slavery by making the film.
“I think that he's really honored a people that really have been unsung for a really long time, to be doing this film,” she said. “I just feel that their spirits have been honored.”