Lupita Nyong’o won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress at Sunday’s Academy Awards and the “12 Years a Slave” star was overcome with emotion as she accepted the honor.
“It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s. And so I want to salute the spirit of Patsy for her guidance,” she said during her speech, referencing the real life woman whose story she told in “12 Years.” “And for Solomon [Northup], thank you for telling her story and your own.”
As the fashion favorite began to thank the film’s director, she started to become visibly emotional.
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“Steve McQueen, you charge everything you fashion with a breath of your own spirit. Thank you so much for putting me in this position,” she said, as she began to cry. “It has been the joy of my life.”
After taking a moment to compose herself, the 31-year-old actress thanked her co-stars, including Chiwetel Ejiofor and her on-screen torturer, Michael Fassbender.
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“Thank you so much, you were my rock,” she told Michael.
-- Erin O’Sullivan
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