Cynthia Erivo, who was awarded two handfuls of Grammys in addition to a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway revival of "The Color Purple," is speaking out against a fan-edited poster for "Wicked," which she stars in alongside Ariana Grande.
In the original poster for the film — in which Erivo plays Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West, for the adaptation of the stage musical based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel — she's seen in a witch's hat with a green face, staring straight ahead as Grande's character, Galinda Upland, whispers in her ear. But in the fan-edited poster, her hat is pulled down much farther, completely obscuring her eyes, which she takes considerable issue with. Especially since no edits were made to her co-star's likeness in the fan version.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful Ai [sic] of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘is your ***** green,’” Erivo wrote in a post to Instagram. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
Going on to highlight that the original poster "wasn’t even based on real actors, but was always just an illustration," as The Wrap points out, she furthers, “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. 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.” The publication adds that Grande has not publicly addressed the viral poster.
