Lupita Nyong'o steals the show at Golden Globes

On Sunday night, I sat up into the wee hours waiting for the live coverage of this year’s Golden Globes Awards which were to stream from Los Angeles.

I had every reason to stay up; one was the fact that these awards are seen as the curtain raiser to the Oscars and for proximity purposes Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o was on the list of contestants as well.

She has become one of the most sought after stars in Hollywood after her role in the 12 Years a Slave.

And though it didn’t turn out as I had hoped after Jennifer Lawrence beat her to the Best Support Act category, there was every reason to smile.

She had in the past year or so achieved what many actresses in this region can only afford to dream about and even then it remains as a far-fetched illusion given the standards of our films.

When Vogue named the Top 10 Rising Style Stars of 2014, her name was right at the top of the list.

And Lupita Nyong’o lived up to her promise with a stunning first turn on the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday night.

The breathtaking Kenyan raised actress - who has just graduated from Yale - was easily one of the best dressed at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in a dramatic but simple Ralph Lauren dress.

The bright red column fell off the rising star’s delicate shoulders and became interesting as it flowed out into a ‘60s inspired cape.

The 30-year-old is developing a cohesive signature style and managing cannily to avoid the usual pitfalls of gimmicks and OTT glamour.

Vogue wrote of Lupita: “She stole every red-carpet heart this fall with her clean silhouettes, close-cropped coif and ear-to-ear smile,” and this look was no different. Lupita was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her turn as Patsey, the object of cruel affection in the critically acclaimed motion picture.

The film tells the story about Solomon Northup, a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery; Patsey is the subject of their hideous master’s advances and forms a bond with Solomon.

Lupita was born in Mexico when her Kenyan parents were in political exile, but her family later returned to Kenya, where she spent most of her childhood.

The multilingual Nyong’o is a Luo, who went on to study in the US where she recently graduated at Yale.

Lupita’s cropped hair has become her signature look, but she admitted that cutting her hair was more about practicality than a fashion.

She said: ‘I got fed up of going to the hair salon. I just wanted less time grooming so that I could get more stuff done,’ so at 19 she shaved her head and found it ‘liberating.’

Her next film, Non-Stop, starring Liam Neeson is set to be released on February 28 and there is every evidence that it is going to be a hit globally  and just in case you have not watched the current one please make a date.

Nyong’o will again compete against Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, and June Squibb at the SAG Awards airing Saturday on TNT and TBS.

She’s also up for an ensemble award along with her 12 Years a Slave cast-mates.

‘There’s something very Michael Jackson-like about Patsey - the childlike quality he always had,’ Lupita told the magazine.

‘She had her childhood stripped away from her suddenly as soon as she became of sexual age.’

Coincidentally, Nyong’o first decided to become an actress after watching Whoopi Goldberg’s Oscar-nominated performance in Steven Spielberg’s The Colour Purple.

‘Whoopi Goldberg looked like me, she had hair like mine, she was dark like me,’ she said of the 1986 flick, which treaded very similar territory.

“I’d been starved for images of myself. I’d grown up watching a lot of American TV. There was very little Kenyan material, because we had an autocratic ruler who stifled our creative expression.”

Lupita was arguably the best-dressed star at the Golden Globes Sunday where she dazzled the A-listers in her $7,000 red-caped Ralph Lauren gown.

With her best friend Ben Kahn by her side, the Shuga actress used the glitzy awards show as a chance to meet her favourites like Jessica Chastain.