Cynthia Erivo Says Publicly Slamming ‘Wicked’ Fan Posters as ‘Offensive’ Was a ‘Human Moment,’ but ‘I Probably Should’ve Called My Friends’ Instead

Cynthia Erivo admitted to Entertainment Tonight that she “probably should have called” her friends about her frustrations with “Wicked” poster fan edits instead of publicly speaking out on her Instagram story earlier this month. The Tony winner and Oscar nominee blasted fans for editing the “Wicked” film poster to obscure her face. Erivo called the edits that hid her face erasure.

“I’m really protective of the role,” Erivo told ET about speaking out on the posters. “I’m passionate about it and I know the fans are passionate about it and I think for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment.”

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“I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine,” Erivo added.

Universal Pictures debuted a “Wicked” poster this month to announce that tickets were on sale for the movie. The image on the poster evoked the original Broadway one sheet, with Ariana Grande’s Glinda whispering into the ear of Erivo’s Elphaba. Only the film poster had a few tweaks, mainly lifting Elphaba’s hat so you could see Erivo’s eyes. “Wicked” fans loyal to the Broadway musical flooded social media with photoshopped corrections, notably lowering Elphaba’s hat. Erivo found such alterations hurtful.

“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the the question ‘is your p—- green?” Erivo wrote on her Instagram story while sharing one of the photoshopped “Wicked” posters with her face covered. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”

“The original poster is an Illustration,” Erivo added at the time. “I am a real life human being, who chose to to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer …because, without words we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”

Variety caught up with Grande after Erivo’s criticism went viral, and the Grammy winner said the “Wicked” press tour is “such a massive adjustment period” for all involved in the movie because “this is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.”

“I have so much respect for my sister, Cynthia, and I love her so much,” Grande added. “It’s just a big adjustment period. It’s so much stimulation about something that’s so much bigger than us.”

“Wicked” opens in theaters Nov. 22 from Universal Pictures. A second film will arrive in 2025.

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