I was called a ‘black mamba’ for being dark – Lupita

Award winning actress Lupita Nyong’o now says she suffered backlash and ridicule from her peers over her dark skin.

During an interview with the New York Times, the Oscar Awards winner revealed that she was teased and called awful names such as ‘black mamba’ while growing up.

In the interview, Lupita added that she used to cry for not being considered beautiful.

“I was always confident, but I shed tears. They told me I was too dark for TV. But I came to accept myself. And a lot of that had to do with Alek Wek, the way she was embraced by the modeling industry,” Lupita told the New York Times.

“The whole narrative of me being told that I am too dark went to the extent that I even ended up being stood up at my prom.”

“You know what I gained? Compliments never grow old. They’re delightful every time,” added the actress.

The Kenyan-Mexican actress pointed out that something in her subconscious state shifted when she heard Oprah telling Wek how beautiful she was. Lupita claimed that the statement was very powerful to her.

Recently, black film stars led by Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith had called for a boycott of the Academy Awards for having a majority white-nominees.

She said that it was not easy growing up black but her parents did all they could to make her love herself.

“My parents shielded us from a lot. It would be dangerous for us to know things because then we could be a target. So they raised us with a semblance of normalcy. There were times when we were under house arrest and couldn’t go to school. I knew we were in a different situation than my friends,” she said.

“Even when things were out of sorts, my mother ran the house like always. You were in that bathtub at 6; you were in bed at 7.”

The 32-year old actress, however, added that one cannot let your emotions get the better of you.