The world of musical theater has joined forces with fans of pop culture following the announcement of “Wicked,” a movie adaptation of the well-renowned Broadway musical that initially opened in 2003.
The show featured Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth as its stars, embodying the loveable characters of Elphaba and Galinda. Since then, the new film has passed the torch to two new leads: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.
At the movie’s initial premiere, Menzel was approached by a reporter from Entertainment Tonight on the yellow carpet. When asked about her passing down the role to Erivo, Menzel said, “Everyone asks me if I gave her any advice, and honestly I didn’t because she is a force of nature.”
Erivo certainly is a force, and maybe not a positive one.
Recently, the actress has been facing a decent amount of backlash for her public reaction to a fan-made edit of the movie poster. In the edit, a few simple adaptations were made to reflect more similarities to the show’s original Playbill.
The original Playbill depicts the show’s two main characters, most notably Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, being whispered to by Galinda the Good Witch. Being that she is a witch, Elphaba’s hat is drawn to cover her eyes.
As an homage to the original art, the fan edited the position of Erivo’s hat to do the same in the poster. What seemed to most to be a harmless and creative way to celebrate the musical’s upcoming adaptation was apparently an outrage to Erivo.
In an offended frenzy, Erivo took to her Instagram story to express her thoughts on the fan-made poster.
She labeled the poster as “the wildest, most offensive thing” she had ever seen, comparing the poster to an AI generated video that showed a physical fight between the movie’s costars.
Erivo went on to say, “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us. The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION.”
Looping Grande in with the word “us” obviously proved to be a poor choice, as Grande has beat around the bush time after time when asked to comment on her costar’s meltdown.
Yet still, there was more to say. Erivo said, “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.”
To be completely blunt, the incredibly intense and overly emotional manner in which Erivo executed her response to the poster has transformed her image to be something of a joke to many people.
Erivo states that to erase her eyes in this poster is to erase her, as if this poster displays her true, authentic self. Personally, I don’t buy it, considering the fact that she is literally painted bright green.
Since the outburst on social media, you can find at least one comment mocking Erivo in every post related to the “Wicked” movie. Any parody, song cover, art, or edit has been tainted with the looming dread of how the actress will react as people sarcastically comment, “Cynthia isn’t going to like this.”
At the end of the day, Erivo is a prime example of why celebrities have a PR team to keep them in check. There have been multiple comments made by fans of the upcoming movie who have stated that they are less inclined to watch it due to their new-found distaste for Erivo’s attitude.
One quick Google search will reveal the edited version of the poster, so everybody can see for themselves what monstrosity could have possibly stripped these poor women of their individuality. But you won’t necessarily find the offensive material you’re looking for.
I am no celebrity, so maybe I will never know what it is like to have less than a quarter of my face hidden on a poster; but is it not something to be grateful for that your work is loved enough to be edited and shared by thousands?