Cynthia Erivo's Shadiest Comeback Moments
Being a celebrity sounds like a dream come true: You get paid big bucks, and everyone knows your name — a win-win. Except when it's not. Just because someone is famous does not mean the public has a right to know every single thing about their personal life, which "Wicked" star Cynthia Erivo continues to remind interviewers. Unfortunately, many of her responses to arguably inappropriate or off-topic questions come across as rude, but there's nothing wrong with Erivo advocating for herself and setting those boundaries. Just like kids in grade school say, people need to mind their own beeswax.
With that being said, however, there have been times when Erivo was viewed as being shady without cause, sharing her feelings on matters with a no-holds-barred approach. She's had a stunning transformation over the years, and there's a reason why Elphaba from "Wicked" looks so familiar, having starred in other major films, including a biopic about Harriet Tubman, as well as the crime thrillers "Bad Times at the El Royale" and "Widows." But despite her talents, it's both her comments during interviews and on social media that have fans buzzing.
She gave a tense response to a fashion interviewer who asked an unrelated question
Cynthia Erivo and the rest of the "Wicked" cast have been doing a lot of press to promote part one of the two-film saga. Both Erivo and costar Ariana Grande looked fabulous — though many celebs who attended the L.A. premiere were dressed terribly — but it was during the NYC premiere that Erivo found herself in hot water with fans. Ajay Porter of Mystery Fashionist asked the stars to rate their outfits on a scale of one to ten and tell him who they were wearing. After they answered, Porter then followed up with, "What is a common misconception about y'all?" (via Daily Mail).
Grande's eyes widened, and she gasped dramatically gasped while Erivo immediately shut the question down. "I don't know what the common misconception is at all, but that's not a fashion question, is it?" Needless to say, fans felt like Erivo was a little too harsh on the interviewer. The video was posted to Instagram, and fans sounded off in the comments. "She sounds like an absolutely rotten person," one person said. "She was unnecessarily piercing, he asks about misconceptions during interviews often," wrote another.
She shut down Dax Shepard after he asked a super inappropriate query about bathroom procedures
Just because someone's a celebrity with a popular podcast does not mean they can ask whatever they want and not expect any consequences. When Cynthia Erivo stopped by Dax Shepard's podcast, "Armchair Expert," to promote "Wicked," Shepard took things a little too far. Erivo was sporting long, talon-like fingernails, which prompted Shepard to channel his inner 12-year-old and ask her how she wipes herself with those nails. Presumably, he was only kidding around, but Erivo was not having it, and rightly so. The actress expected Shepard to ask her that inappropriate question, so she had her reply ready. "My answer is that nobody uses just their fingers to wipe their backside," adding, "You use tissue, correct? And you wipe!" (via People).
That line of conversation should've ended then and there, but Shepard took things to the next level, point-blank asking a grown woman, "Then you're just feeling the little tickle of the nails on the crack of your butt sometimes?" Erivo denied that and later shared that she was irritated by these questions since she was an adult and didn't walk around smelling rank. Do better, Dax!
She shaded other actors who auditioned for Wicked
Cynthia Erivo plays Elphaba while Ariana Grande is Glinda in the "Wicked" movie, a casting choice Erivo was thrilled about after she found out the pop star had booked the role. In fact, Erivo shaded other Glinda hopefuls who auditioned. In an interview with the New York Times, Erivo was asked what her reaction was to learning Grande was going to be her costar. "Thank goodness, because it was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with," she admitted. Grande, who was doing the interview with her, was shocked by Erivo's comment, exclaiming, "Oh my God!"
Erivo didn't name names in that interview, but it's been reported that stars like Dove Cameron, Reneé Rapp, Amanda Seyfried, and Taylor Louderman auditioned for the film. Even if Erivo didn't like the actors she was auditioning with, fans felt it was still unkind to put them on blast like that. "So hateful!" one person posted on X, formerly Twitter. Another commented, "Lmaoo this is so unnecessarily shady."
She condemned a fan-made edit of the Wicked poster
When the poster for Jon M. Chu's "Wicked" dropped, one fan wished it had fully imitated the iconic Broadway poster. So, they made their own version of it, photoshopping a shadow to fully cover Cynthia Erivo's eyes and raising up Ariana Grande's hand to block more of her face. In the original poster, Elphaba's eyes are covered by a shadow, but when Erivo saw the fan-edited version, she was anything but pleased. She posted her disgust to her Instagram story.
Cynthia Erivo has reacted to viral edits of the 'WICKED' poster:
"This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting... Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face & hide my eyes is to erase me. That is just deeply hurtful" pic.twitter.com/y3P1Qh379S
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) October 16, 2024
"This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting ... None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us." she said (via Forbes). Erivo went on to explain that she purposefully chose to look directly into the camera and show her 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."
Fans took to X to voice their disagreement with Erivo's visceral reaction to an edit that most likely wasn't meant to be insulting. "They just edited it to mirror the original poster, I highly doubt they meant any harm in doing so," tweeted one person. Another fan wrote, "Maybe I'm going to sound mean, but Cynthia needs to chill out because it's not that serious, memes have always existed." Others even shared that Erivo's reaction turned them off from seeing the movie.
She said Beyoncé was so much older than her
Years before a "Wicked" movie was ever actually happening, Cynthia Erivo left a bad taste in fans' mouths when she took a dig at Beyoncé's age. After Essence tweeted that Disney was considering Beyoncé to play Nala in the live-action "Lion King" movie — which she ultimately did — Erivo responded, "*raises hand nervously* then says, can I try?" One fan commented how they loved that idea and felt like the "Formation" singer was too old to play the role.
Replying to the thread, another person said the two actresses were the same age, to which Erivo said, "Beyoncé is about 12 years older than me." When someone did the math and realized that wasn't true, Erivo just responded, "Ok.." (via Atlanta Black Star). In reality, Beyoncé was born in 1981, while Erivo was born in 1987, making them only six years apart in age, not 12 like Erivo claimed.