The Cinderella comparisons came before she even won her first Oscar — consider it her glass slipper, though we hope she didn’t leave it on a stairway somewhere later in the evening.
Sure, last night’s Independent Spirit Awards could have served as Nyong’o’s Best Night Ever as it was her birthday and she took home the award for Best Supporting Female, but that didn’t include dancing with a giant hat on live television.
Some nominees make fashion missteps on Oscar night. Not Nyong’o. Not tonight. Not on her Best Night Ever. Already one of awards season’s most fashionable It Girls, the “12 Years a Slave” star wowed the Oscars red carpet with a stunning pale blue Prada gown, a plunging, utterly dreamy number that served as the perfect culmination of months of equally impressive sartorial choices.
Once in the Dolby Theatre, Nyong’o approached everything with her trademark style, including grooving with Best Song nominee Pharrell as he (and his now-trademark big hat) jammed to his “Happy” and hopping in host Ellen DeGeneres’ record-breaking selfie.
When it was finally time for her to take the stage to accept her statue, it was only after she hugged her brother, Liza Minnelli, Brad Pitt and Chiwetel Ejiofor in quick succession.
Nyong’o didn’t even need to make it to the stage to have one of the most memorable wins in recent history, but she did — Jennifer Lawrence, you can keep your adorable stumbles — where she gracefully accepted her Oscar with a moving and heartfelt speech, sharing with the audience, “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 Patsey for her guidance, and to Solomon [Northup]: thank you for telling her story and your own.”
Always classy, Nyong’o thanked all of the appropriate people, including a special shout-out to her director Steve McQueen, deeming their experience working on the film as “the joy of my life.”
Nyong’o ended her acceptance speech on her Indisputable Best Night Ever with a message to her fans (basically, probably just everyone in the world): “Every time I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you’re from, your dreams are valid.”
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