Entertainment

Lupita Nyong'o Picks Up Big Win

by Kate Ward

Last year, at the 2013 Screen Actors Guild Awards, Jennifer Lawrence blew up Twitter while climbing the stage to accept her Best Actress award, her dress appearing to split at the seams. (It was the first of two GIF-able Lawrence moments during 2013's awards season.) Really, audiences were just seeing sheer lining on Lawrence's gown, but it was enough of a TV moment to make movie fans (and, likely, the SAG Awards alike) to hope for Lawrence's return to the stage for the 2014 SAG Awards. But it turns out they might have to wait until 2015. Because, despite Lawrence's 2014 Golden Globe win for her role in American Hustle, it was 12 Years a Slave 's Lupita Nyong'o who picked up the 2014 SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Though we certainly love Lawrence, Nyong'o's win seems not only more deserved, but more necessary. After all, this awards season could use a good bit of diversity following the whitewashed Golden Globes.

Taking the podium to accept her award, Nyong'o — only the fourth black woman to take home the prize — saluted her fellow actors, saying, "Being recognized by fellow actors is an honor of the highest order," before thanking 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen: "Thank you for taking a flashlight and shining it under the floorboards of this nation."

Nyong'o continued, "I also want to thank my family, who have kept it real. My dad, I called him — he was the first person I called when I got this role. And I said to him, Daddy, do you know Brad Pitt? I'm going to be in a movie with him. And he said, I don't know him personally, but I'm glad you got a job. So am I. So am I."

Nyong'o's SAG Award comes just two days after her 2014 Critics' Choice Award. Is Oscar next? Let's hope the actress gets her own GIF-able moment come March.