Yahoo News Lana Condor Says Michelle Obama Gave Her Advice on Dealing with 'Imposter Syndrome'
Lana Condor couldn’t believe she was actually a presenter at the DVF Awards Wednesday night in D.C., where Ruth Bader Ginsburg and human rights activist Priti Patkar were among the event’s honorees.
“Michelle Obama [who presented Ginsburg her award] talked a lot to me about the idea of Imposter Syndrome,” Condor, 22, tells PEOPLE. “That feeling that you don’t belong and that you haven’t earned your place in a room.”
Asked if she feels she suffers from it, the star of Netflix’s To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You admits she’s been “combating it.”
“I’m surrounded by these amazing, amazing people,” she continues, “I keep reminding myself, ‘This is a real thing, and I deserve to be here. And I’ve worked hard to be here.'”
“But I don’t care how old I’ll get, or whatever I’ve done in my life, I’ll always be floored and honored and grateful to be able to be in the Library of Congress,” she says, pointing to the historic venue where the awards took place. “And to be able to present to someone like Priti Patkar, I don’t care, I could be 1 million years old and still be like, ‘What?! I can’t believe it.’”
Condor’s romantic comedy sequel dropped last week on Netflix. Next she’s filming Girl’s Night, then a space movie — and after that, she has her sights set on getting behind the camera.
“I’m producing, something,” she tells PEOPLE. “I’m gonna keep it real vague.”
But while she’s very excited, she’s “also terrified,” she says. “Because I have no idea what I’m doing. It’s a whole different world. Behind the camera is way different than in front of it.”
“Ultimately, I need to do it,” she says. “I want to employ my friends. And I want to have an actual say in the creative narrative. And the only way I can do that, is through producing. So, I’m really excited.”
After that, a whirlwind two years since the first To All the Boys put her on the map, she hopes to rest.
“I want to sleep for like a week,” she says. “That would be nice.”
