- Cynthia Erivo has opened up on the Ariana Grande red carpet incident last year.
- Erivo protected her Wicked co-star when a TikTok prankster grabbed Grande, who suffers from PTSD.
- Erivo said the reactions to the incident put her off campaigning for the Osca
Actor Cynthia Erivo has opened up on the public response to a viral incident last year in which she protected Wicked co-star Ariana Grande from a fan. The 39-year-old criticised the reactions to the incident, calling them an example of the “insidious nature of how we view Black women.”
In November, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande were attending the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good when a TikTok prankster grabbed Grande, who had been diagnosed with PTSD after 22 people were killed by a suicide bomber at her 2017 Manchester concert. Erivo stepped forward to protect her co-star, earning a variety of reactions for her swift actions.
Now, the 39-year-old has opened up on the public scrutiny after the incident, revealing that it put her off campaigning for the Oscars.
In an interview with Variety, Erivo said that she and Grande were “terrified” when the incident occurred. She added that nobody was moving when the fan grabbed Ariana so she tried to get him away from them.
The incident gained traction, with several people calling Erivo as Grande's “bodyguard”. The singer-actor said that the reactions made fun of her physique and shape.
“I think that we haven't really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women,” Erivo said, talking about the reactions.
She added that people assumed she was “bigger” than her co-star and so she “had to be controlling or protecting”. “I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around,” she explained.
Erivo recalled that the incident put her off campaigning for the Oscars, saying that it “felt like my humanity had been bastardized”. She said that she did not want to put herself through the campaigning and claimed “it felt like there was already a sort of upturned nose at the second installment, even though we all knew there was a second film coming and we were just doing our jobs.”
Cynthia Erivo's Next Projects
Cynthia Erivo was last seen in Wicked: For Good. The film collected $541 million at the box office, and did not receive any Oscar nods, unlike the first part.
Up next, she will be seen in Children of Blood and Bone alongside Idris Elba. She will also star in Bad Fairies.
