She’s an Oscar-winning actress, whose widely acclaimed performances include 12 Years a Slave, Us, and Black Panther, but despite her universally agreed-upon talents, Lupita Nyong’o says that creativity doesn’t always come easily to her.

In the latest episode of Harper Bazaar’s Life Lessons series, our November cover star argues that she has to “work at” unleashing her artistic side. Just like the rest of us, the 41-year-old admits she can often get bogged down in the mundanity of the day-to-day, which leads to her creative talents being suppressed.

“There’s a lot of administrative work, lots of emails to answer – dishes in the sink!” she laughs. “It can take away a lot of my vitality.

“So for me, creativity is something that I have to safeguard, I have to make time for it, and I have to be very deliberate.”

Looking at her impressive repertoire of work, we can perhaps assume Nyong’o may just be being modest. Born in Mexico City to Kenyan parents before relocating to Nairobi, Nyong’o grew up put on performances for her family and acting in school plays. Even before she took up acting professionally, her earliest job saw her in close proximity to film sets – she worked as part of the production crew in the early noughties for films including The Namesake and The Constant Gardener.

Wool dress, Alaïa; gold and pearl earrings, CompletedWorks

“I always, always loved acting,” she explains. “It took me a long time to give myself permission to want to be an actor, so I harboured that desire for a number of years, even if I was still doing it, and then finally in my twenties, I said it out loud – ‘I want to be an actor’ – and I went after it.

“The one piece of advice I’d give to someone just starting out in this industry is to love every stage of your career. It’s important to have goals and dreams, but your life is being lived now, so just enjoy it while you have it.”

Acting is clearly a career Nyong’o enjoys. “What I find most rewarding is the opportunity to play different characters, which means my life is always exciting and there’s a lot of change,” she says. “I think it’s really good for my brain and will hopefully keep me quite spritely.”

Draped dress, Stella McCartney; gold and diamond earrings, De Beers

However, while she has established herself as a mainstay amongst Hollywood A-Listers, Nyong’o doesn’t take her constant stream of work for granted, saying that she’s learned success is “fleeting”.

“If you measure your success by how much praise you get, you’re going to be spending a whole lot of time feeling inadequate,” she adds. “It’s important to have both external measures but also internal measures of success.

“For me, in 2020, when the world shut down, I chose to work on things that I’d been longing to work on, like speedreading. No one was going to congratulate me for the fact that I read a little faster, but I consider that a success.”

Similarly, Nyong’o argues that confidence also needs to come from within.

“You have to work at it,” she says. “It’s not something that you have one day and then you have it forever, your confidence will always be tried, and so it’s important to put in the work to keep it alive, keep it taut, keep it in play.”

Embroidered coat, silk velvet trousers, Giorgio Armani; rose gold earrings, De Beers; heels, Stella McCartney

Nyong’o herself has seen her confidence grow as she becomes accustomed to light in the spotlight – something that has translated into her impeccable style. While she established herself as one of the world’s best-dressed women thanks to that now iconic blue Prada dress at the 2013 Academy Awards, Nyong’o admitted that she initially had a distinct set of no-goes for red carpets.

“When I first started working with my stylist Micaela Erlanger, I gave her a list of things I would never wear,” she says, adding that “velvet, frills and peplums” were all initially banned. “Anyway, I’ve worn all of it, so I guess I’ve grown more daring.”

However, Nyong’o adds, it’s important to become comfortable with your own style at events – imparting some very important advice that her mother taught her.

“What I have learned about style over the years is that it doesn’t have to change with the trends – you can establish your own style and build on it at your own pace,” she says. “The best piece of fashion advice I’ve ever been given was by my mum: always dress to respect yourself and the event that you’re going to.”

Watch the full Life Lessons video with Lupita Nyong’o above.