[MUSIC]. It is such a thrill and an honor to be here with the lovely Lupita Nyong'o, who Essence is honoring today for her breakthrough performance of, 12 Years a Slave. Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, thank you for having me. So you are unquestionably the it girl this season. We've seen you all over the place. At every award show and event. Looking fabulous. I do wonder how this event feels different or special to you. I think I'm going to meet a whole lot of, women especially who have really kept my dream alive, and have influenced me in a big way. And it's gonna be a room full of them. [LAUGH] So, I imagine it's going to be a very special energy just in sense of in the sense of, like celebrating a sisterhood. And I look forward to it. So you recently attended the premiere of your movie Nonstop. Which is, of course, very different from 12 Years a Slave. So I wonder where you see your acting career, what different branches you see going into and what genres interest you to explore. I think I'm in the beginning of an acting experience. I think a career is something that I will look back on at the end of my life. And I'm just looking for a varied experience. I, I wanna be challenged and and thrown out of my com-, comfort zone. That's something that 12 Years a Slave did for me. It really did invite me into a time in history, that I'd spent very little time considering, on an intellectual, emotional level. And so I hope to have such riveting experiences in the future. But I wanted them to be varied and different. I mean. I want to sink my teeth into a different role very soon. I hope I get to do that. [MUSIC]