Cynthia Erivo addressed her reaction to the edited ‘Wicked’ film poster during the 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards, admitting she may have reacted too quickly.
“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,” Erivo told Entertainment Tonight. “I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine.”
The fan-created image paid tribute to the iconic Broadway poster by trading Erivo’s green lipstick on the film version for the original red-lipstick smirk and covering her eyes.
The actress expressed her disappointment on Instagram, writing, “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. 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.”
She continued, “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posting the question, ‘is your p*** green.’ None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
Erivo is set to appear in the upcoming ‘Wicked’ film adaptation, alongside Ariana Grande as Glinda. The cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, and Marissa Bode.
The first part of the ‘Wicked’ movie waits for release on November 22, with the second part expected to come out in November 2025.
