Graceful as ever. After a stupendous year, Lupita Nyong’o continues to WOW us as she covers the July 2014 issue of Vogue.

As she poses for some a flexible and fierce spread, Lupita also talks about her experiences on the red carpet, her family and more. “My family is very close-knit,” she says. “My aunt, who was an actor herself, would get all us children together to write and perform plays. I loved manipulating my parents’ emotion.”

Hit the jump for more.

JaaiR (JR)

On Her Red Carpet Experiences:
Before she embarked on her fashion marathon, “everyone said, ‘Brace yourself, Lupita! Keep a granola bar in that clutch of yours!’ ” she confides. “I didn’t really understand what they meant, and it was only once it was past that I realized that my body had been holding on by a thread to get through this very intense experience. Nothing can prepare you for awards season,” she continues. “The red carpet feels like a war zone, except you cannot fly or fight; you just have to stand there and take it.” She considers for a moment. “I hope they don’t make that the big quote!” she says, laughing. “Because that would be sad! Tell them not to do that!” She is quick to note that her “red carpet” self “is just one aspect of me; it doesn’t represent the entirety of me, which I am at peace with.”

On Her Family
“My family is very close-knit,” she explains. “My aunt, who was an actor herself, would get all us children together to write and perform plays. I loved manipulating my parents’ emotions.” When her mother, Dorothy, cried out at the tragic denouement of one of the plays, Lupita remembers “feeling very powerful.” They are clearly close; Dorothy has often accompanied her to awards shows, as have her siblings, including her acting-mad little brother, Peter. In Morocco, hearing that Dorothy fretted that her daughter wasn’t eating enough, Lupita spelled out I Love You with her Ksar Char-Bagh breakfast fruit and sent it to her as a charming freeze-frame iPhone video on Mother’s Day.

On Her Private Life (the magazine references K’Naan as her boyfriend)
She keeps her private life just that. “The safest thing is when I’m indoors in my world,” she says, which for the moment is an apartment in Brooklyn. When she isn’t cooking at home (“I like to cook whole fish. And I make some mean salads”), she is enjoying the borough’s unpretentious restaurants and bars.

You go girl! Don’t forget, check out the gallery for the flexible Lupita!

SOURCE: Necole