Lupita Nyong'o Opens Up About The Need For Diversity In Hollywood

Lupita Nyong'o opens up about the lack of diversity in Hollywood. Photo: Getty Images

Oscar winning actress Lupita Nyong'o has opened up about how a lack of diversity in the media makes it difficult for people to find their own identity and a sense of self acceptance.

"If you turn on the television and you are not represented on that television, you become invisible to yourself," she says in a new interview.

"And there was very little of myself that I saw on TV, or in the movies that I was watching, or in magazines that were lying around the salons or around the house. And so these are subconscious things. Yes, Western beauty standards are things that affect the entire world. And then what happens? You’re a society that doesn’t value darker skin."

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The Star Wars actress also revealed details of her time living in Mexico as a child, and coming of age in a place where she had no friends and couldn't speak the language.

"People would stop and take pictures of us just because we were black. And it was a time during that tricky adolescent phase when you’re coming into yourself and you’re trying to pave your own way but you’re insecure about where you lie. It devastated me".

Playing alien Maz Kanata in the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens sequel. Nyong’o spoke to TIME about her role and how the iconic franchise has survived the test of time due to it's diverse cast and characters.

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“I think you can tell from the cast that it is a lot more multicultural. One of the things I remember as a child connecting with Star Wars is one of the characters spoke Kikuyu, which is a Kenyan language. And I remember feeling like that made Star Wars mine, it made Star Wars Kenyan for all I was concerned,” she said.

“There’s a universality to the world that George Lucas created that makes it possible for this multicultural cast to exist without necessarily turning the universe on its head. By very nature and with all sorts of creatures, it is, I think, a universe that is made for a multicultural experience.”