‘Wicked’ Stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Finally Explain Their Side of the ‘Holding Space’ Interview (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have been holding space for the concept of “holding space.” While being interviewed alongside their “Wicked” director Jon M.

Chu for a forthcoming Variety feature, the actors reflected on their experience of being part of the funniest and most inscrutable meme to come out of awards season so far.

Last month, journalist Tracy Gilchrist, interviewing Erivo and Grande for Out magazine at a “Wicked” junket, remarked that “people are taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that and feeling power in that,” which prompted Erivo to have an emotional response and Grande, in turn, to clasp one of Erivo’s fingers. “I was surprised, because I had no idea.

I hadn’t been looking that much,” Erivo reflected, on why she seemed quite so struck by Gilchrist’s comment; she was then a bit surprised to learn that the phenomenon of people holding space may not have been as widespread as Gilchrist’s question had made it seem, once Gilchrist made clear she’d seen the phenomenon a couple of times, in part due to her role as a writer in “queer media.” “I honestly didn’t know what that meant — am I also in queer media, maybe?,” Erivo recalled. “Work!