Cynthia Erivo has made it clear she is done talking about Wicked — at least for now. The 39-year-old British star, who played Elphaba in Jon M. Chu’s blockbuster adaptation, shut down a question about the film during a recent appearance on Variety’s “Know Their Lines” series.
When asked to perform her iconic “Defying Gravity” riff, Erivo curtly replied “No” and handed the card back. After being handed another line from the musical, she said: “Oh, we’re really trying to get one from Wicked, aren’t we?” She then asked the producers: “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 we have an opportunity to start talking about something else.”
Erivo clarified that she loves the film but has discussed it “ad nauseam”. The interview came as she continues to promote her work beyond Wicked.
In a separate interview with Variety, Erivo also addressed a viral incident at the Wicked: For Good premiere in Singapore, where she protected co-star Ariana Grande from a fan who jumped the barricade. The fan was later revealed to be a TikTok prankster. Erivo criticised the online response that painted her as Grande’s “protector”, arguing it reinforced harmful stereotypes about Black women.
“I think that we haven’t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women,” she said. “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 added that the reaction would likely have been different had the roles been reversed.
