Yahoo Lifestyle “I Fell Out On The Internet”: Cynthia Erivo Has Once Again Reflected On Her Divisive Reaction To Viral “Wicked” Fan Art
Cynthia Erivo hit the headlines last month after she took to her Instagram story to call out a piece of Wicked fan art, which she accused of erasing her.
For context, Universal had just dropped its latest promotional image for the upcoming movie, which stars Cynthia as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda.
The poster is a direct homage to the iconic Broadway music poster, which is an illustration of Glinda whispering in Elphaba’s ear.
In the theater poster, Elphaba’s eyes are concealed by a witch's hat, and she is smiling coyly while wearing bright red lipstick. Meanwhile, Glinda’s hand covers most of her face.
But the production company opted to switch things up for the movie poster, with both Cynthia and Ariana more prominently featured. As Elphaba, Cynthia’s full face is visible, and she is staring directly into the camera while wearing green lipstick instead of red.
Meanwhile, Ariana’s hand is positioned much lower on her face, concealing just her mouth.
Soon after the poster was released, hardcore fans of the theater production decided to make some edits to see what the movie poster would look like if it were more similar to the original.
One X user shared their fan art edit, which included Elphaba’s hat being lower, covering her eyes, and Glinda’s hand being higher. The now-deleted tweet quickly went viral, gaining hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets at the time.
However, Cynthia herself was left less than impressed by the art, and took to social media to address the situation.
Sharing the edit to her story, Cynthia wrote: “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the question, 'is your ***** green.'"
"None of this is funny. None of this is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us. The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer ...because, without words we communicate with our eyes," she went on.
"Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is deeply hurtful," Cynthia claimed, before reposting the original movie poster and writing: “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette."
But many struggled to understand why Cynthia had been left so upset by an innocent fan edit, and she was broadly accused of overreacting. She was also called out for hypocrisy, with it being pointed out that she’d previously reposted a comedic fan edit depicting her as Elphaba in a war zone.
And the star appeared to regret her public outburst when she was asked about it by Entertainment Tonight shortly afterward, with the star laughing the incident off and claiming that “it wasn’t necessarily a clapback.”
When asked why she thought that the artwork had gotten under her skin, Cynthia explained: “I think I’m really protective of the role. I’m passionate about it, and I know that the fans are passionate about it.”
Emphasizing that the misguided post was “a human moment of wanting to protect Elphaba,” Cynthia added: “I probably should’ve called my friends, but it’s fine.”
And the actor has reiterated this stance in a new interview, telling the Los Angeles Times’ The Envelope that she was simply being “human and sensitive.”
"Having that passion for what this piece is and loving it so much and knowing how much I want to communicate through Elphaba, that’s probably where that came from," she explained. "And so in my little human moment I had… I fell out on the internet, when really I should have just picked up my phone and called a friend."
"We have these human moments," Cynthia went on. "And me being human and sensitive, I shared something that I think is part of the little girl in me. I realize that there are so many people who love this just as much as I do."
Wicked will be released worldwide on Friday, Nov. 22.
“I Probably Should’ve Called My Friends”: Cynthia Erivo Reflected On Her “Passionate” Reaction To The “Offensive” Fan-Made “Wicked” PosterEllen Durney · Oct. 29, 2024
Cynthia Erivo Called A Fan Edit Of A "Wicked" Poster "Deeply Hurtful"Natasha Jokic · Oct. 16, 2024
After Cynthia Erivo Called "Wicked" Fan Art "Offensive," Ariana Grande Has Offered Her Thoughts On The SituationLarry Fitzmaurice · Oct. 20, 2024
