Cynthia Erivo says RADA refused to let her do Westlife job: “It was a weird looking down on a backing-vocals gig”

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Westlife because they “looked down” on the backing vocals gig.The Wicked star attended the prestigious drama school – the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Central London – in the late 2000s, and in 2024, she was appointed vice president of the institution.In a new interview with The Guardian, Erivo spoke about the school and the regressive attitudes she felt it had when she studied there.

Recalling that she had secured a gig as a backing singer for the Irish boy band, she said that RADA prevented her from taking up the job.Explaining that it would have required her to miss the first two weeks of her course, she said: “The people running the place don’t necessarily understand people who aren’t given everything.

They don’t understand what that experience looks like.”“There was another student in a play, missing two weeks, and that was fine,” she continued. “It was just a weird looking down on a backing-vocals gig”.She went on to explain that she had to work at a shirtmaker during her time on the course, unlike most of her fellow students, resulting in her being more tired than most. “I got penalised for it.

I’d come in exhausted, and they’d say: ‘Well, she’s not dedicated. She’s not concentrating’. It took me a long time to make people understand that I wasn’t lazy – I was just tired.”Erivo was nominated last week for an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Elphaba, the soon-to-be Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked.