Lupita is, of course, one of our most celebrated actors at this point. She knows how to pick great roles, and has had a very impressive career as a result.
In a new interview with People, Lupita reflected on her Oscars win, as well as the worst career advice she received afterwards — and the fellow famous person who set her straight despite it all.
According to Lupita, she was told “That I needed to seize the day and do bigger. That the next thing after 12 Years of Slave needed to be a lead role in a blockbuster movie.”
“It wasn’t about the size of the role, it’s about the quality of the role, at least for me,” she went on to explain…
And as it turns out, fellow celeb Emma Thompson came through to affirm what Lupita already believed.
“She said, ‘You have to live your life the way you think is suitable. You have to listen to your own intuition,’” Lupita recalled. “She was like, ‘You have to give yourself permission to fail.’”
“That was really great advice to hear at a time when everybody was saying, ‘Seize the day, you’ve got to find that lead role, then you’ve got to do this and that, and blockbuster movies and all that,’” Lupita continued, and at another point in the interview, she confirmed that Emma helped guide her on a path that she was already on.
“Even up until that point, there was no formula that I followed, so there had to be no formula moving forward.”
You can read the entire interview here.