Why Cynthia Erivo scaled back her awards campaign for “Wicked: For Good”: 'I didn't want to put myself through it'
Why Cynthia Erivo scaled back her awards campaign for “Wicked: For Good”: 'I didn't want to put myself through it'
Wesley StenzelWed, May 27, 2026 at 6:58 PM UTC
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Cynthia Erivo in Los Angeles on Feb. 2, 2025
Credit: Frazer Harrison/GettyKey points
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Cynthia Erivo said that she partially scaled back her awards campaign for Wicked: For Good after defending Ariana Grande from a fan in Singapore.
The actress said that the reaction to the Singapore incident made her feel "like my humanity had been bastardized."
She also said that she felt "a sort of upturned nose at the second installment" of the Wicked series.
Cynthia Erivo didn't go as hard in the paint during Wicked: For Good's awards campaign as she did for the first film in the musical series.
The Harriet actress reflected on the hubbub of the hit Wizard of Oz prequel movies in a new interview with Variety, and explained why she opted to take a diminished role in the second film's awards circuit.
Erivo, who was nominated for her second Best Actress Oscar for 2024's Wicked, said she might have been put off of a bigger campaign after being highly scrutinized for defending her costar Ariana Grande from an aggressive fan at the sequel's Singapore premiere.
"I just felt like my humanity had been bastardized," she said. "I felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not because of the way people see women who look like me, and because of the assumptions that are made, and I just didn't want to be a part of that, really and truly."
Cynthia Erivo in 'Wicked: For Good'
Credit: Universal
She continued, "I didn't want to put myself through it. I didn't feel like I deserved it."
Erivo, who was preparing for her West End turn in Dracula as Wicked: For Good's awards campaign ramped up, also opined that the sequel wasn't given a fair shake. "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," she said.
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The actress added that awards season lasts too long. "If it was a shorter stint of time, there is less potential for things to turn sour, and also there's more energy to keep it going," she suggested.
Erivo said that Grande helped her get through the intensity of the Wicked experience. "We were holding on by threads," she said. "And we were really trying to take care of each other."
Cynthia Erivo in London on Feb. 1, 2026
Credit: Ian West/PA Images via Getty
The actress also reflected on speculation about the nature of her relationship with the "Into You" musician. "It's very interesting, watching what people's perception is versus what the reality actually is," she said. "Lots of psychologists seated at home deciding who we were, what we were going through, what we were doing and why."
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Erivo said that she still texts Grande almost every day. "I think that people didn't really believe that we were actually friends," she said. "But that's also because people don't know me very well. If I'm a friend, then I'm a friend. If I'm not, then I'm not."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
