Wicked star Cynthia Erivo seemed to admit that she may have taken things a tad too far in her reaction to a fan-made poster earlier this month.
“‘I probably should’ve called my friends” before taking to Instagram to call the poster “the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen,” she told Entertainment Tonight, “but it’s fine.”
Erivo expressed her disapproval for the fan art to Instagram, where she posted that she was “deeply hurt” that her eyes were covered. However, if you look at the original image from the Wicked playbill, Erivo’s character Elphaba has her eyes covered with her hat—a detail the fan art was aiming to replicate.
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“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION,” Erivo said in response to the photoshopped image. “Our poster is an homage, not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me.” She added at the time, “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.” She went on to write that the poster “degrades me.”
The Tony, Emmy and Grammy Award-winning actress now seems to be rethinking the way she’d gone about the situation, as she told Entertainment Tonight that she should waited a beat before reacting. That likely would’ve saved her some side-eye from fans, many of whom posted some version of “It’s not that deep” on social media.
“It wasn’t necessarily a clapback,” Erivo told Entertainment Tonight, downplaying the post. “I think I’m really protective of the role. I’m passionate about it, and I know that the fans are passionate about it.”
Erivo’s Wicked costar Ariana Grande weighed in last week, telling Variety, “I think it’s very complicated because I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it’s just kind of such a massive adjustment period.”
“This is something that is so much bigger than us,” Grande added, “and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits. But she also stated her unwavering support for Erivo: “So much respect for my sister, Cynthia, and I love her so much.”
