Lupita Nyong'o is Hollywood's new fixation.

• Author: Herndon, Jessica
• Position: Living

Byline: Jessica Herndon

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Lupita Nyong'o is preparing herself for normalcy. After the frenzy that's followed her gripping performance in ''12 Years a Slave,'' she wants to be ready for life back home in New York.

''I try to keep my regimen -- rest, water, eat well, workout -- so that when this is all over, I don't experience a total hangover,'' she says, taking a bite of scrambled eggs in a recent interview at a Beverly Hills cafe.

She hasn't yet accepted that her life may never be the same. ''I have a very ostrich mentality,'' she says. ''I feel like I have my head in the sand so no one can see me.''

Before playing slave Patsey in Steve McQueen's brutal tale of a free black man kidnapped into slavery in the 19th-century South, Nyong'o was virtually unknown. Now, as a supporting actress Oscar nominee, she's become a breakout star.

When she received the call from McQueen saying she had landed the role, ''I was so elated,'' she recalls. ''But then I immediately panicked. I was so scared.''

No wonder; this would be her first major role after attending the Yale School of Drama. Yet shooting the film gave her the confidence she needed coming out of school. ''It was an amazing feeling,'' she says.

Now, with all eyes on what she'll do next, the actress refuses to stress about securing another role that's equally as celebrated.

''The bar has been set very high externally and internally,'' she says. ''But I don't want to feed into that pressure of expectation. This film was so fulfilling and artistic. I've tasted that and I obviously want to experience that kind of creative fulfillment again, but I also know that I can't replicate that. I want a varied acting experience, and that may include some failure and that's healthy.''

Actually, Nyong'o's next film is already in the can and ready for release on Feb. 28: She plays a flight attendant opposite Liam Neeson in the action-thriller ''Non-Stop.'' "It was what I needed to do,'' she says. ''It was the perfect antidote to '12 Years a Slave.' It was a different genre with different demands. It was very technical and fun.''

Growing up in Kenya, Nyong'o says her parents encouraged her and her five siblings to ''find out what we were called on this earth to do and then do it to excellence.''

Before former Kenya president Daniel Arap Moi allowed multiparty politics in 1991, Nyong'o' father, Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, was an advocate for democratic reform, opposing Kenya's autocratic...