Lupita Nyong’o is addressing speculation about a supposed romantic relationship with singer-songwriter Janelle Monáe.
In a piece published Monday in Rolling Stone, the Oscar winner said she gets why fans have wondered if the two were ever more than just friends.
“She has magnetism that they were obviously picking up on. She is that enigmatic,” Nyong’o said. “People are curious about enigmatic people.”
Dating rumors first took off when the pair met at the 2014 Met Gala in New York, shortly after the “12 Years a Slave” star landed an Oscar for her breakout performance in the acclaimed historical drama.
“[Monáe] came up to me and just gave me the realest hug,” Nyong’o told Rolling Stone. “We may have swayed to the music. She was just like, ‘I’m so proud of you, and just thank you for being you.’”
After that, the two quickly forged a close bond. So Nyong’o said she is “not surprised” by the speculation about her relationship with Monáe, and gushed that “I don’t mind being associated with her in any capacity.”
Nyong’o and Monae.
Donato Sardella via Getty Images
Elsewhere in the conversation, the “Black Panther” actor dished out props to her “extremely gifted” friend, who has taken up acting in recent years with 2022′s “Glass Onion” and other projects.
“It’s built into her spirit,” Nyong’o said. “It’s really cool to see her move from one thing to another and do it with such mastery.”
Despite their connection, Nyong’o also said she appreciates that Monáe — who is notoriously tight-lipped about her personal life — keeps some things to herself.
“Just because you’re a close friend of hers doesn’t mean you get to know everything about her,” she said. “That’s what makes her interesting as an artist.”
Monáe, for her part, told Rolling Stone why she prefers to stay silent on topics like love.
“I have a policy and agreement with myself — that is a part of my life that I want to keep private,” the singer shared. “I’m not obligated to share my story. Nobody’s obligated.”
It’s unclear if Monáe, who became an LGBTQ+ icon after coming out as queer in 2018, is currently dating anyone. But she’s been linked to multiple other stars over the years, including “Thor” actor Tessa Thompson and her creative collaborator Nate Wonder.
Monáe’s latest album, “The Age of Pleasure,” is set to drop June 9.
It’s just about the end of the year and you know what that means: Time for superlatives rounding up the very best from the past 12 months. And when it comes to celebrity fashion, we had a lot to work with in 2022.
We dug deep through the fashion archives (i.e. red carpets, events, concerts and so forth from January to December) and found 22 stars that we felt defined the year 2022. (Though, we must admit, it pained us to cut some notably stylish celebs from the list.)
Whether it was a fashion-show front row (who can forget when Anne Hathaway paid homage to her “Devil Wears Prada” character?), an industry event like the Met Gala or CFDA Awards (where TikToker-turned-showstopper Addison Rae really shined), an award ceremony or a film festival (no one does it like Jodie Turner-Smith), these people traveled around the world to do what they do best: look fucking amazing in front of the cameras.
From Julia Fox taking the crown for the most ambitious dresser, to Taylor Russell emerging as our newest fashion darling, scroll through to see Fashionista’s best-dressed celebrities of 2022.
Addison Rae
Stylists: Ryan Hastings, Kyle Luu, Chloe & Chenelle Delgadillo
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Addison Rae in vintage Gareth Pugh at the 2022 CFDA Awards in New York City.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Addison Rae in vintage Jean Louis de Scherrer at the 2022 LACMA Art + Film Gala in Los Angeles.
Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
Addison Rae in ONRUSHW23FH at the 2022 WIF Honors in Beverly Hills.
Anne Hathaway
Stylist: Erin Walsh
Photo: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for ELLE
Anne Hathaway in Ralph Lauren at Elle‘s 2022 Women in Hollywood celebration in Los Angeles.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Michael Kors
Anne Hathaway in Michael Kors at the Michael Kors Spring 2023 show in New York City.
Anne Hathaway in Valentino at the Valentino Haute Couture Fall 2022 show in Rome.
Ayo Edebiri
Stylist: Laura Sophie Cox
Photo: Mike Coppola/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute
Ayo Edebiri in Giambattista Valli Haute Couture at the 2022 Gotham Awards in New York City.
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Ayo Edebiri in Loewe at the 2022 Time100 Next ceremony in New York City.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Ayo Edebiri in Thom Browne at the 2022 HCA TV Awards in Beverly Hills.
Bella Hadid
Stylists: self, Law Roach
Photo: Theo Wargo/Getty Images
Bella Hadid in vintage Dior at the 2022 Prince’s Trust Gala in New York City.
Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Bella Hadid in vintage Versace at the “Cannes 75” anniversary dinner for the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in Cannes.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Bella Hadid in Michael Kors at the 2022 Golden Heart Awards in New York City.
Carey Mulligan
Stylist: Andrew Mukamal
Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Los Angeles Confidential/Hamilton Behind the Camera
Carey Mulligan in Gucci at the 2022 Hamilton Behind The Camera Awards in Los Angeles
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
Carey Mulligan in Valentino at the 2022 Academy Awards in Los Angeles
Photo: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for FLC
Carey Mulligan in The Row at the red carpet event for “She Said” during the 60th New York Film Festival
Danai Gurira
Stylist: Thomas Carter Phillips
Photo: Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for GreenSlate
Danai Gurira in Versace at the 2022 Gotham Awards in New York City.
Photo: Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images
Danai Gurira in Schiaparelli at the 2022 SFFILM Awards Night on Dec. 5 in San Francisco.
Photo: Timothy Norris/Getty Images
Danai Gurira in Gabriela Hearst at the “Walking Dead Live: The Finale Event” event on Nov. 20 in Los Angeles.
Doja Cat
Stylist: Brett Alan Nelson
Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Doja Cat in Mônot at the Mônot Spring 2023 show in Paris.
Photo: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images for Daily Front Row
Doja Cat in Viktor and Rolf at the Daily Front Row Fashion Media Awards in New York City.
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Doja Cat in Atelier Versace at the 2022 Grammy Awards in Las Vegas.
Emma Chamberlain
Stylist: Jared Ellner
Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for GQ
Emma Chamberlain in vintage Prada at the 2022 GQ Men of the Year Party in West Hollywood.
Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Emma Chamberlain in Roberto Cavalli at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival in Venice.
Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images
Emma Chamberlain in Louis Vuitton at the 2022 Met Gala in New York City.
Emma Corrin
Stylist: Harry Lambert
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Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Emma Corrin in Miu Miu at the 2022 Met Gala in New York City.
Photo: Kate Green/Getty Images for BFI
Emma Corrin in JW Anderson at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival for the “My Policeman” European premiere in London.
Photo: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Emma Corrin in Loewe at the 2022 Olivier Awards in London.
Florence Pugh
Stylist: Rebecca Corbin-Murray
Photo: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images
Florence Pugh in Rodarte at the 2022 British Independent Film Awards in London.
Photo: Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images
Florence Pugh in Valentino at the Valentino Fall 2022 Haute Couture show in Rome.
Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Florence Pugh in Valentino at the 2022 Venice Film Festival in Venice.
Hailey Bieber
Stylists: Karla Welch, Dani Michelle
Hailey Bieber in Saint Laurent at Elle‘s 2022 Women in Hollywood celebration in Los Angeles.
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Tiffany & Co.
Hailey Bieber in Saint Laurent at Tiffany & Co.’s “Lock Collection” launch in Los Angeles.
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images
Hailey Bieber in Saint Laurent at the 2022 Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles.
Jodie Turner-Smith
Stylists: Wayman + Micah
Photo: Presley Ann/Getty Images for LACMA
Jodie Turner-Smith in Gucci at the 2022 LACMA Art+Film Gala in Los Angeles.
Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Jodie Turner-Smith in Gucci at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival in Venice.
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Jodie Turner-Smith in Gucci at the 2022 Academy Museum Gala in Los Angeles.
Julia Fox
Stylist: Briana Andalore
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Julia Fox in Valerievi at the 2022 CFDA Fashion Awards in New York City.
Photo: Jason Mendez/Getty Images for NYFW: The Shows
Julia Fox in Wei Ran at the Parsons MFA Student Show in New York City.
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Julia Fox in Han Kjøbenhavn at the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills.
Keke Palmer
Stylists: Wayman + Micah, Law Roach
Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Michael Kors
Keke Palmer in Michael Kors at the Michael Kors Spring 2023 show in New York City.
Photo: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images
Keke Palmer in Valentino at the U.K. Premiere of “Nope” in London.
Photo: JP Yim/Getty Images for TIME
Keke Palmer in Christian Siriano at the 2022 TIME100 Next Gala in New York City.
Lizzo
Stylists: Brett Alan Nelson, Jason Rembert
Photo: Rodin Eckenroth/FilmMagic
Lizzo in Gucci at the 2022 BET Awards in Los Angeles.
Photo: Udo Salters/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Lizzo in Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture by Glenn Martens at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards in Newark.
Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP
Lizzo in Giambattista Valli at the 2022 Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
Lupita Nyong’o
Stylist: Micaela Erlanger
Photo: John Phillips/Getty Images
Lupita Nyong’o in Alexander McQueen at the European premiere of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in London.
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Gotham Film & Media Institute
Lupita Nyong’o in Prada at the 2022 Gotham Awards in New York City.
Photo: Momodu Mansaray/Getty Images
Lupita Nyong’o in Prada at the 2022 Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Olivia Rodrigo
Stylists: Chloe & Chenelle Delgadillo
Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Olivia Rodrigo in Shushu Tong at the 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Los Angeles.
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Olivia Rodrigo in Area at the 2022 Billboard Women in Music in Inglewood.
Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Olivia Rodrigo in Vivienne Westwood at the 2022 Grammy Awards in Las Vegas.
Rihanna
Stylist: Jahleel Weaver
Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Fenty Beauty by Rihanna
Rihanna in Coperni at a Fenty Beauty x Ulta event in Los Angeles.
Photo: Rich Fury/Getty Images for Fenty Beauty & Fenty Skin
Rihanna in Attico at a Fenty Beauty party in Los Angeles.
Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Rihanna in Rick Owens at the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” premiere in Los Angeles.
Marvel’s fantastical films require a huge amount of visual effects, but not everything can be made out of thin air. For Lupita Nyong’o, returning in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” as warrior spy Nakia required brutal underwater workouts — which she shared Saturday on TikTok.
“Swimming down to Talokan was not as easy as it looked!” Nyong’o captioned the video, with a reference to the film’s underwater kingdom. “Safely supervised by @XPTLife and #MarkRobertsFitness.”
The clip starts with Nyong’o submerging herself into a pool with an overlaid caption reading: “How I trained to Swim in Wakanda Forever.” While the footage spans only 54 seconds, the rigorous training on display undoubtedly felt longer in person — and required weights.
Nyong’o begins by holding a sizable dumbbell to her chest while swimming underwater with only her right arm. She then flutter kicks her way through the pool before moving to the ground with a dumbbell in each hand, which help hold her underwater as she bear crawls along the floor.
With a swimmer’s cap and scuba goggles in place, Nyong’o also climbed up some underwater stairs in a farmer’s walk with the dumbbells at her sides. She then does so yet again with the aforementioned bear crawl, scaling the steps horizontally — first downward and then back up.
After farmer’s walking around the bottom of the pool with her weights in hand, Nyong’o leaves them at the bottom and springs back up to the surface. Her exhausted look at the camera with an overlaid caption reading, “I felt like a crawfish,” suggested this was a rather intensive day.
circa 1963: British film director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) poses with a seagull and a raven … [+] perched on either arm in a promotional still for his film, ‘The Birds’. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
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Right in time for Halloween, Lupita Nyong’o shared an Instagram Reel of the films producer Jordan Peele suggested she watch prior to filming 2019’s horror thriller Us.
The films range from classics like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds to newer levels of introspective terror in Let The Right One In, a 2008 adaptation of a Swedish novel focusing on the romance-horror relationship between a bullied kid and his vampire next-door-neighbor.
The other films in the lineup include The Shining, Dead Again, The Sixth Sense, A Tale of Two Sisters, Funny Games, Martyrs, It Follows and art-horror’s newest cult classic The Babadook.
Each of these films are standouts in the genre of modern horror paired with psychological thriller. A Tale of Two Sisters, for example, was the first South Korean film to be screened in American theaters. Director Kim Jee-Woon won major accolades for the Joseon Dynasty-era folktale about two sisters, one of whom was hospitalized in a mental institution and came home to discover a step-mother was abusing her sister. (There are twists of course, but no spoilers here.) At one time, it was lauded for being South Korea’s highest-grossing horror film. It’s also oft-
Jack Nicholson peering through axed in door in lobby card for the film ‘The Shining’, 1980. (Photo … [+] by Warner Brothers/Getty Images)
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lauded as one of the top ten horror films to come out of the nation.
On the other side of things, The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick and adapted by Diane Johnson from a novel of the same name by Stephen King, remains one of the most-watched psych-horror films of all time. In 2018, the United States National Film Registry, which is part of the Library of Congress, selected The Shining to be preserved forevermore due it being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
The films aren’t for everyone though, as many viewers of 2007’s Funny Games, a film about the casual torture of a nice family who let the wrong neighbors in while on vacation in the country, oft attest. The film smashes storytelling conventions and is one that leaves some people unable to finish the viewing due to the subject matter, but again, no spoilers.
What’s interesting here is that Peele didn’t recommend your typical scary slasher films or typical monster films or typical ghost stories that bring in the most money at the box office. Each of these films listed is scary not solely because of a monster or a ghost. They are fearsome thrillers because a character’s humanity – and sometimes their soul – is challenged. And most times, it’s the human on film that is the scariest character of all. Sounds like Us, doesn’t it?