Cynthia Erivo Felt A ‘Kinship’ With ‘Wicked’s Elphaba And Her Experience Of Pushing Past People’s Judgment

Cynthia Erivo says she relates to her Wicked character Elphaba in more ways than one.

The film, garnering critical acclaim and Oscar buzz, is anticipated to storm the box office this weekend and fans have been obsessing over the film, as well as the press run that Erivo and co-star Ariana Grande have been on.

Though she has typically used her talent for singing on stage, Wicked really marks the first time that Erivo has been able to perform in film and television. For the singer and actress, it was super important for Wicked to be the project for which her singing transitioned from stage to screen.

“It [is] really, really special for it to be this music [and] this musical…to be able to use my voice in ways that I haven’t been able to before,” she told Blavity’s Shadow and Act in our interview with the cast. “I feel really privileged to be able to sing this music and I’m glad I get to share with people.”

She also went into detail about the ways in which Elphaba’s journey and feelings kind of track with her feelings in the industry and Hollywood.

“With Elphaba, I felt really like a kinship with her…not just because of her othering, but just because of her story, the difficulty that she has with her father, the connection between being an older sister and having a younger sister and navigating what that is,” she explained. “I think that the walk through this industry looking like myself, a Black queer woman, it can sometimes be hard to work past that and work past people’s preconceived notions. I think that understanding that sometimes people judge you immediately and then you have to push past that so that they can see your whole person can sometimes be hard, but actually in the end, when a person can see your heart and who you are past what you look like, it’s deeply satisfying. [It] can be frustrating to get there. But when you do, it’s really satisfying.”

Watch the full cast interview with Erivo, Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Marissa Bode and Ethan Slater, above.

Wicked is in theaters now.