You notice Cynthia Erivo's eyes first. Round, huge, black. Then the gap-toothed smile. Her hair is shorn close to her skull, sometimes dyed to match her outfit. If you can drag your gaze away from those big eyes, it's the nails you see next. Long doesn't describe them - 3.5cm, multicoloured, and with sharp, pointy ends. A ring on every finger.
Then she opens her mouth and you forget everything about her appearance as you're mesmerised by the sound that comes out of it. She compares her singing to the feeling of flying, before adding with a smile, "When I sing, it feels like sitting in the centre of joy."
Erivo has won Grammys, Emmys and Tony awards and was recently nominated for a Golden Globe in the best actress in a drama category for Harriet. She plays the titular character, Harriet Tubman, the former slave who became an emancipator in the underground movement that smuggled slaves to freedom in the US.
But it's for her Oscar nominations in both the Best Actress category (the only acting nominee "of colour" this year) and for Best Original Song, Stand Up - an inspirational gospel song she co-wrote and performs - from the same film that she is hogging the headlines. Harriet is also one of the few films in the Oscars this year that was directed by a black woman, Kasi Lemmons.
It's not common for actors to snag three major awards for a single performance, but Erivo did just that in 2015 for her role as Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, earning her a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy and putting her just one step away from the coveted EGOT club - the rare group of performers who have all those awards plus an Oscar.
If she does take home an Oscar, she'll be the youngest person ever to become an EGOT winner and in the least time: less than five years.
Trevor Noah joked: "I'm glad that at least one black woman was nominated for Best Actress. Although, it is kind of predictable that it was for playing a slave. And I'm not saying she didn't deserve it, but just imagine if every white actor that was nominated got it for playing a supervisor at Whole Foods. White people, you're more than just that."
The casting of the role created some controversy because Erivo is British and the story is about an American slave and the US's complicated history of division between the north and south, the ownership of humans, and the economic disparity between agriculture and the emerging industrial regions. That's the backdrop. But the film is actually about a woman's bravery and strength and the flouting of the role she was born into by changing her own destiny.
Harriet repeatedly confronts immense danger to help strangers demand the right to live freely. Tubman guided dozens of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad - a network of secret routes and safe houses established to help slaves escape.
The story is amazing - Tubman personally freed more than 70 slaves on the Underground Railroad and returned as a Union spy during the Civil War, leading 150 black soldiers, who freed 750 more slaves.
"Almost everything about the titular character and the project is [incredible], yet most of what you see is factual, very little of it is made up or re-imagined," says Erivo, the eldest daughter of Nigerian immigrants to Britain.
"The most important thing is to show the story so that more people get to see her. I'm more excited to take the narrative to people who haven't heard of her, because she's inspirational in general for women. It shows that women can achieve whatever they set their minds to."
Says Erivo, who began acting as an 11-year-old: "I learnt that Harriet hired a lawyer with the small amount of money she'd garnered from being hired out to different plantations. The lawyer drew up papers that showed her mother was supposed to be freed at the age of 45.
"For someone who didn't have means or education, couldn't read or write, but still managed to hire a lawyer and was brave enough to confront Ed Brodess [the slave owner] with a lawyer's letter - it was just amazing. There was so much in that little thing that showed both her strength, determination and courage."
Erivo still finds the time to talk to her school friends and is close to her mother and sister. She says her mum first noticed her talent when she began humming and singing at 18 months.
Erivo presses her palms together, fingers splayed and nails glistening in the Beverly Hills afternoon sun. She laughs: "I can't remember that. I remember singing Silent Night in a Nativity play as a shepherd. I was only five and they let me sing it solo."
The actress and singer describes herself as a Renaissance woman, one who wants to immerse herself in theatre, movies and music. She also loves to play around with fashion. "I change the colour of my hair often, play with clothes and colourful nails and jewellery. I want young girls to know that they have the freedom to do anything and look any way they want to."
I want young girls to know that they have the freedom to do anything and look any way they want to
— Cynthia Erivo
'When you're brought up as a black girl in the United Kingdom, you're subject to racism. It taught me to grow a thick skin and be strong in myself, and to really discover who I am. I was better off than Harriet, but I understand what it's like to be discriminated against. I used that experience in my performance," she says.
Although colourful in her appearance, Erivo insists: "I'm like a monk. I don't go out. I don't drink or smoke, I hydrate. I love my voice and I realise that it's a gift, so I try to take great care of it. I warm up before I sing, I steam, I stay away from dairy, I work out - it all helps improve the sound I make."
Now based in the US, she reflects on what a change of continents has taught her.
"I've learnt it's OK to be fully myself, with all the faults and good qualities I have. To express myself in lots of different ways. I've had fun really living that."
In the past few weeks, she's spoken out against Stephen King's comments that it's the quality of work that counts and diversity should not be taken into account in nominating works for Oscars.
She commented: "It's up to people used to doing things a certain way to shake things up and do things to make sure the room reflects the world we live in. If I can help, I will.
"It's not enough that I'm the only one. It just isn't," she said, adding that "so much work was done this year by incredible women and men of colour that should be celebrated".
Next up for Erivo is a portrayal of a person who's inspired her for a long time - Aretha Franklin.
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