Cynthia Erivo has addressed the emotional interviews she and co-star Ariana Grande gave during the press tour for Wicked.
Over the course of their international promotional tour, the two stars, who portray Elphaba and Glinda in the upcoming musical film, have been playfully mocked for their teary appearances on social media.
During an interview on Friday’s Heart Breakfast, radio host Amanda Holden joked, “This movie should be sponsored by Kleenex. Every interview I’ve read, Cynthia, of you and Ariana, it just says that you end up in tears all the time.”
And now Erivo, 37, responded to the criticism, explaining that their emotional moments are a result of “reliving and rehashing all the things that they’ve been through” filming the spectacle.
“We do,” she said in agreement. “I think it's because people have come in with like, such energy, and their responses, their emotional responses, come into the room with them.
“This is the first time we've been able to really, like, talk about it so I think that we're both sort of reliving and rehashing all the things that we've been through and journey we've been on. So we can't help people get very emotional.”
Holden added that the production had to navigate several challenges, including COVID and the actors' strike, to complete the film.
Reflecting on their experience, Erivo, who appeared on the radio show alongside her co-star Jonathan Bailey, said: "In fact, the very last song was filmed after the strike. So we finished. We were meant to finish, and we couldn't we end up stopping, and then six months later, finished with that.”
The release date for Wicked Part Two has been set for November 21, 2025.
The highly anticipated sequel to the blockbuster film will arrive just one day shy of a full year after the first movie.
The announcement was made by the official Wicked Movie X account.
The two-part feature is based on the beloved Broadway and West End musical.
they're so real for this idc😭 pic.twitter.com/2BfuR8YFO1
— 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗻𝘆🫧💚 (@beyoncegarden) November 14, 2024
the interviewer asked “in what way has the person sitting next to you changed you ‘for good’ ” 🥲 pic.twitter.com/QSCsH06Dgx
— cameron (@cambeserious) November 8, 2024
Early reactions from moviegoers have been overwhelmingly positive, with many saying the film brought them to tears and left them forever changed.
Fans took to X to share their emotional responses, with one writing, "I was sobbing" and another saying, "I will never get over these two [Cynthia and Ariana]."
“This had me tearing up, they ate this so bad, I want pat 2 NOW,” another penned.
Critics have also chimed in, largely praising the performances of the leading stars. The Standard’s Nick Curtis, who gave the film three stars, said: “It’s a visually ravishing, emotionally freighted vehicle for the prodigious vocal and considerable acting talents of” the leads.
However added: “in some ways Chu’s version mitigates the irksome, eyes-aloft, this-is-my-moment self-consciousness of the big numbers in the stage show. But I suspect it will join the list of modern film adaptations of musicals – Phantom, Chicago, Sweeney Todd – chiefly loved by a fanatical core.”
