Kevork Djansezian/Getty ImagesLupita Nyong'o has been gaining recognition on the red carpet for her impeccable fashion sense, but tonight, she was honored for her amazing work as an actor.
The starlet won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work on 12 Years a Slave, and during her heartfelt speech, she shared a sweet and funny story involving none other than her costar Brad Pitt.
"I also wanna thank my family, who have kept it real," she said while on the podium. "My dad, 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!"
The newcomer beat Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, June Squibb and Oprah Winfrey for the Actor, and made sure to thank absolutely everyone that was part of her transformation process for the role.
"Being recognized by fellow actors is an honor of the highest order and I wanna thank all of you so much. First of all, I wanna thank the man without whom this would not have been possible at all, so Solomon Northup, thank you so much for a life well lived and a story hard to tell but a story told so well," she began.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you Steve McQueen. Thank you for taking a flashlight and shining it underneath the floorboards of this nation and reminding us what it is we stand on. You are love personified. I wanna thank Fox, Searchlight, New Regency, Plan B, River Road for making this film possible.
I also want to thank my fellow actors—the ones in the film, of course—who embraced me from the very beginning and I can call my friends."