Cynthia Erivo is opening up about Wicked.
The 38-year-old actress is on the cover of AnOther‘s Spring/Sumer 2025 issue, available now.
During the conversation, Cynthia got candid about pouring herself into roles, her connection with Ariana Grande, connections to queerness and racism in their hit movie, and much more.
Keep reading to find out more…
On playing roles:
“I don’t know how not to give each of the characters an actual part of myself. I don’t know how not to pour myself into the character. I think I’ve got very good at making sure that I take the time at the end of these projects to let them go a little bit and make some space for myself to come back in. I want to be able to give myself fully to whichever character comes along next. I think it’s because I really do care deeply about each of these characters. They become people I love.”
On conversations about Wicked, fitting in, queerness and racism:
“It’s a green witch. But I think what they see also is so many parts of me. There’s a deep understanding of what it feels like when you don’t fit, what it feels like to constantly want to be accepted and not be accepted, what it feels like to know what your responsibility is and to have to be brave enough to take it, what it feels like to feel like you have more to offer but nobody believes that you have that in you.”
“The green skin is like the umbrella under which the ‘other’ lives. So yes, it’s a conversation about racism, but it’s also a conversation about anyone who’s been othered. It’s a conversation about queerness. The green sets Elphaba apart from everybody else. She is the ultimate other. And I think there’s this added responsibility because I’m a Black woman underneath that green, so we can also really have the conversation about what it’s like to be a Black woman when nobody wants you there.”
On her closeness with co-star Ariana Grande, and meeting after they’d been cast:
“That feels so strange because it’s like I’ve known her for ever. I don’t think people realize that’s not a natural occurrence on a film set. It doesn’t happen very often. Yes, you make friends on a film, and acquaintances, you get close to people, but this, this kind of connection, doesn’t happen often.”
For more, head to Anothermag.com.
Find out what Ariana Grande just said about romance rumors between the two.
via Source
