Glamour's June cover star Lupita Nyong'o takes a look through her career and breaks down some of her iconic movie looks! Lupita dishes on the opposing costumes for her two characters in 'Us,' working alongside Ruth Carter for 'Black Panther' and so much more.
Director: Anastasia Sanger
Director of Photography: Ricardo Pomares
Editor: Jess Lane
Talent: Lupita Nyong'o
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Camera Operator: Marques Smith
Audio Engineer: Kari Barber
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Director: Anastasia Sanger
Director of Photography: Ricardo Pomares
Editor: Jess Lane
Talent: Lupita Nyong'o
Creative Producer: Tyrice Hester
Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi
Camera Operator: Marques Smith
Audio Engineer: Kari Barber
Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin
Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter
Supervising Editor: Erica DeLeo
Additional Editor: Jason Malizia
Assistant Editor: Billy Ward
Category
đ ïž
LifestyleTranscript
00:00 He was like, "Man, I feel like you should be in flat shoes."
00:02 And I was like, "No, I'm the shortest one.
00:03 "I wanna be in heels."
00:05 And so we compromised and we found a way
00:07 to incorporate the heels in the battle
00:09 so that I could lose them and be safe, but still look hot.
00:13 Hi, Glamour.
00:14 I'm Lupita Nyong'o,
00:15 and today I'll be breaking down some of my movie looks.
00:19 (upbeat music)
00:21 Us, 2019.
00:26 This is a film by Jordan Peele.
00:28 The costume process was a lot of fun.
00:32 I played two characters, Adelaide and Red,
00:34 and they are polar opposites of each other,
00:37 but they're also of each other.
00:38 And if you haven't seen the film by now,
00:39 that's your own problem,
00:41 because I'm gonna spoil it for you.
00:43 They actually switch sides.
00:45 One of the things that I talked about with Kim
00:47 is that if Adelaide is really Red,
00:49 then there's a sense of escaping her life underground.
00:53 And so she would probably want to avoid
00:56 everything related to down there,
00:59 especially the color Red.
01:00 And so her costume was deliberately neutral.
01:04 She would wanna blend in.
01:05 She wouldn't wanna call attention to herself
01:07 because she has this deep, dark secret.
01:09 And then for Red,
01:10 obviously she's wearing the red jumpsuit
01:12 that is a uniform of the people underground.
01:15 And her hair, of course, down there,
01:17 there's no hair salons,
01:18 so she needed to have hair that was just unkempt.
01:21 Once we had the hair on, we were still like,
01:23 what can make her more menacing?
01:25 'Cause I still looked like I was just having a bad hair day.
01:28 We came up with this idea of bleaching out the eyebrows
01:33 so that they were less prominent.
01:34 And when we did that, it just completely changed my face.
01:39 And then also, Tim and I had the idea
01:42 of getting a mouth guard
01:44 that would change the posture of my mouth.
01:47 So I had Invisalign in there
01:50 that changed how I held my mouth.
01:52 A Quiet Place Day One, 2024.
01:56 In this film, the key costume was the sweater.
02:01 It was inspired by a James Baldwin picture
02:05 that Bex, the costume designer, showed me.
02:08 The color was just exquisite,
02:10 and I believe these were handmade.
02:13 It was so comfortable that I got myself one
02:16 at the end of the shoot.
02:17 This film is all about remaining quiet to survive.
02:21 And so we really had to think about that
02:23 when we were picking the costumes.
02:26 They needed to be comfortable,
02:27 they needed to be as quiet as possible.
02:30 And also, there's a cat,
02:31 and so it needed to be a fabric
02:33 that the cat would like to be around.
02:35 I was very nervous about that
02:37 because at the start of this film,
02:38 I didn't know much about cats at all.
02:41 My first relationship with a cat was in this film.
02:44 It's because of this film
02:46 that I ended up getting myself a cat.
02:48 "Black Panther," 2018.
02:51 Ruth Carter, I mean, Ruth Carter is not a joke.
02:55 She really goes full throttle.
03:00 What I really appreciated about this costume process
03:04 is that Ruth had done so much research.
03:07 She really wanted to pay homage
03:09 to the cultures of the continent,
03:11 which are so varied and so distinct.
03:14 Just going into her room for the first fitting
03:17 and seeing all the mood boards,
03:20 oh my God, the images, the textures, the colors,
03:23 it was a sight for sore eyes.
03:25 And so beautiful, and my little African heart
03:28 just like, it was like, just so happy.
03:31 And I may have wept a little
03:33 because I was just like,
03:34 I can't believe where I'm from
03:36 is being handled with so much grace and respect.
03:41 Of course, there's the Dora Milaje costume,
03:44 which is just so fabulous, honestly.
03:46 I love wearing that costume, even though Nakia doesn't.
03:49 I love it, I mean, it's just so badass.
03:51 And we wanted to get away from the history
03:54 of female superhero characters looking sexy
03:57 and completely inappropriate for battle.
04:00 With this costume, you can believe
04:02 that these people are armored for battle.
04:05 Then the Bantu knots, again, here it's about practicality.
04:10 What looks good, but what is practical?
04:11 Like, what would a woman in battle have on her head?
04:14 I absolutely love the casino costume as well.
04:17 I remember this battle about my shoes
04:19 'cause I really wanted high heels.
04:20 And Brian is really interested in practicality and safety.
04:25 And so he was like, man,
04:27 I feel like you should be in flat shoes.
04:28 And I was like, no, I'm the shortest one,
04:30 I wanna be in heels.
04:32 And so we compromised and we found a way
04:34 to incorporate the heels in the battle
04:36 so that I could lose them and be safe, but still look hot.
04:40 Black Panther Wakanda Forever 2022.
04:43 What a thing to go back to this movie after so long
04:46 and knowing what happened in between them,
04:51 losing Chadwick Boseman.
04:54 That really, really informed everything about this movie.
04:58 We were thinking about what would show the passage of time
05:02 and a change of priorities.
05:05 Locks felt right.
05:07 The locks were a way to show the passage of time
05:10 and a woman with other priorities than combing her hair.
05:14 And I loved wearing the Mexican disguise.
05:17 I mean, being Mexican myself,
05:18 I know there's not many of us African Mexicans.
05:21 I liked the idea that she would just lean
05:23 into the clothing from over there.
05:25 And then the typical undercover look in movies
05:29 is to put on glasses.
05:31 So we did that.
05:33 Going underwater with a wig is a special kind of thing,
05:37 but they actually had to make a special wig
05:39 for the underwater scenes.
05:41 There's a lot of secrets in how that stuff was shot,
05:43 but it was helpful that there was one wig rigged
05:47 for the underwater.
05:48 I had done some really intense training,
05:51 holding my breath underwater for lengthy periods of time,
05:55 carrying weights underwater.
05:56 I could handle the weight of my hair
05:58 by the time we were shooting it.
06:00 It was actually much lighter than the 25 pounds
06:03 that I've been carrying underwater.
06:05 Little Monsters 2019.
06:08 I loved working on this movie.
06:10 I absolutely adored working on this movie.
06:12 It was so irreverent and sweet
06:15 and just so much fun to do.
06:18 I got to play a ukulele for the first time.
06:20 I got to work with kindergartners, which was a lot.
06:22 And then I had to work with animals and blood.
06:24 All those things, nobody's supposed to do them
06:27 all in one movie.
06:28 Miss Caroline is supposed to be the symbol of sunshine
06:30 for her kindergartners.
06:31 Of course she'd wear yellow.
06:33 Leon went through great pains of finding
06:36 all sorts of yellow dresses that I tried on
06:39 and none of them really, really worked.
06:41 It was either there was something wrong with the cut
06:43 or the pattern wasn't that very interesting
06:45 or the texture.
06:47 So Leon actually made this fabric from scratch.
06:52 He designed the pattern on it, the flowers on it,
06:57 and everything.
06:58 I believe there must've been about seven dresses,
07:01 seven stages of the dress,
07:03 but that was what was so great.
07:04 He made the textile and so he could just multiply it.
07:09 The blood was very gooey, I have to say.
07:12 Very, very gooey.
07:13 It's everywhere.
07:14 Again, this was one of those things where at lunchtime
07:16 you're just like, why?
07:18 Why?
07:20 Star Wars, The Force Awakens, 2015.
07:25 I played Maz Kanata.
07:26 I was wearing this CGI motion capture suit.
07:31 Those things are not fun.
07:32 I cannot lie to you.
07:34 Ooh, these things are not fun.
07:35 Not only are you wearing this suit,
07:37 but then now they come and they stick these Velcro things
07:40 on you, these dots.
07:41 They had to painstakingly put each one
07:44 and they had to be exactly the same distance
07:47 as they were the day before.
07:49 And then these things, these things in front of me are lights
07:54 so whenever I walked onto set,
07:57 all eyes were on me because I was lit.
08:00 Oh my God.
08:02 I think what I learned from doing this
08:04 is how important costume is in getting you to feel
08:08 like your character.
08:10 And here, it wasn't just that I wasn't in costume,
08:12 I was playing someone like half my height.
08:14 It was really cool to see her animated
08:17 once the movie was done 'cause obviously
08:20 when I was doing it, I was just like,
08:22 listen, I don't know what I'm doing.
08:24 I hope it works.
08:25 Andy Serkis is the king of motion capture
08:29 and it was so great to have him in this movie
08:32 because I was able to go to him for advice
08:34 on how to do this thing.
08:36 The physicality of it was really interesting to me
08:39 and how often do you get to play someone
08:41 outside your own body?
08:43 So those were the things that appealed to me
08:45 about playing Maz.
08:46 How did Maz get Luke Skywalker's lightsaber?
08:51 Your guess is as good as mine.
08:54 (laughs)
08:58 Thanks, Glamour.
08:59 It's been so much fun reviewing some of my looks with you.
09:02 (upbeat music)