The Wicked films made Cynthia Erivo a household name, but the 39-year-old actress is eager to move on from the hit musical franchise. Erivo also believes that some of the 'insidious' memes about her and her Wicked co-star Ariana Grande were racially charged.
Erivo and Grande went viral during the Wicked press tour for their unusually close bond, as well as what some fans deemed to be Erivo's protective nature towards the petite pop star. While most of the memes painting Erivo as Grande's 'bodyguard' appeared to be in good fun, the Oscar-nominated performer thinks they played into negative racial stereotypes about black women.
'I think that we haven't really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view black women. And I'm sure people will read this and think, "Oh, for goodness' sake, it's not about that." But it is,' she told Variety. 'Because that's what was being made fun of. It was my physique; it was my shape; it was the fact that I was bald; it was about what I looked like. And because of that, there was this assumption that I was bigger than my co-star and so I had to be controlling or protecting, and that was my role,' she continued. 'I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around.'
Erivo and Grande were inseparable during both press tours for Wicked and its sequel Wicked: For Good, and were even seen clasping hands and posing cheek-to-cheek. Grande, 32, previously admitted that she needs to hold Erivo's hand during events. 'I do, I do. I channel a lot of energy through my hands. And so I'm always holding a hand,' the actress said during a chat on the podcast Good Hang with Amy Poehler. During the Wicked press tour in late 2024, Grande was seen holding onto Erivo's finger, a gesture that soon went viral. 'Yeah, because I didn't know what the f*** was going on,' Grande admitted. 'I just wanted to be supportive. I was like, oh my God. And it felt sweet. It felt beautiful. And it was beautiful,' the Love Me Harder hitmaker added.
Erivo also rushed to Grande's rescue when a crazed fan lunged at the younger star during the Wicked: For Good Asia-Pacific premiere in Singapore last November, further cementing their close bond. Erivo's heroic moment went viral on social media, with fans praising the actress for rescuing Grande. Grande appeared visibly shaken and disturbed by the incident. The fan, later identified as 26-year-old Australian Johnson Wen who goes by the nickname Pyjama Man online, was quickly apprehended by security. Wen was arrested and charged with public nuisance and sentenced to nine days in jail, after which he was barred from re-entering Singapore again.
Speaking to Variety, Erivo now says that the experience with Wen and the way that the moment was turned into a meme soured her on campaigning for an Oscar for the second Wicked film. 'I just felt like my humanity had been bastardized,' she told the publication. 'I felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not because of the way people see women who look like me, and because of the assumptions that are made, and I just didn't want to be a part of that, really and truly,' she continued. 'I didn't want to put myself through it. I didn't feel like I deserved it.'
Erivo now says that she's done discussing Wicked and is looking forward to discussing her other projects. While playing a game of 'Does Cynthia Erivo know her lines?' with Variety, the actress baulked when presented with lines from Wicked. 'Do you mind if we do another question that isn't about Wicked, because I feel like I've spent the last two years talking about it and I think that we have an opportunity to start talking about something else,' she said. 'Is that okay? I love Wicked, but I've just talked about it ad nauseam.'
Erivo is currently wrapping up her theatrical stint in Dracula in London's West End. She has a number of movie projects in the works, including the all-black fantasy film Children of Blood and Bone and the British drama Prima Facie.
