Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo (born 8 January 1987) is an English actress, singer, and songwriter.
She is known for her performance as Celie in the Broadway revival of The Color Purple, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Musical, the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album, and the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Musical Performance in a Daytime Program, the latter two she shared with the rest of the cast.
Erivo ventured into films in 2018, with roles in the heist film Widows and the thriller Bad Times at the El Royale. In 2019, she portrayed abolitionist Harriet Tubman in the biopic Harriet, for which she earned nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Zack Sharf Digital News Director Cynthia Erivo admitted to Entertainment Tonight that she “probably should have called” her friends about her frustrations with “Wicked” poster fan edits instead of publicly speaking out on her Instagram story earlier this month.
The Tony winner and Oscar nominee blasted fans for editing the “Wicked” film poster to obscure her face. Erivo called the edits that hid her face erasure. “I’m really protective of the role,” Erivo told ET about speaking out on the posters. “I’m passionate about it and I know the fans are passionate about it and I think for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment.” “I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine,” Erivo added.
Universal Pictures debuted a “Wicked” poster this month to announce that tickets were on sale for the movie. The image on the poster evoked the original Broadway one sheet, with Ariana Grande’s Glinda whispering into the ear of Erivo’s Elphaba.
Only the film poster had a few tweaks, mainly lifting Elphaba’s hat so you could see Erivo’s eyes. “Wicked” fans loyal to the Broadway musical flooded social media with photoshopped corrections, notably lowering Elphaba’s hat.
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