Cynthia Erivo is speaking out against “Wicked” fans who used photoshop to edit one of the recent posters for the upcoming film adaptation of the Broadway musical. Warner Bros. released a “Wicked” film poster this month that evoked the original Broadway poster, 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 after the poster dropped to issue photoshopped corrections, with Elphaba’s hat being lowered and her lips getting a bold red lipstick in order for the film one-sheet to exactly match the Broadway one. Erivo found such alterations hurtful.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the the question ‘is your p—- green?” Erivo wrote on her Instagram story while sharing one of the photoshopped “Wicked” posters with her face covered. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
“The original poster is an Illustration,” Erivo added. “I am a real life human being, who chose to to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer …because, without words we communicate with our eyes. Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”
In addition to the poster, Erivo called out the viral AI-created video that featured the poster morphing into a fight between the two stars/characters. The actor also criticized the infamous “is your p—- green?” memes that have long circulated around the musical.
Universal and director Jon M. Chu have adapted the “Wicked” Broadway musical into a two-part movie, the first of which arrives in theaters next month. The musical is set at Shiz University in Oz as Elphaba and Glinda become roommates and unlikely friends. In addition to Erivo and Grande, the film’s supporting cast includes Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum and Bowen Yang.
“Wicked” opens in theaters Nov. 22 from Universal Pictures. A second film will arrive in 2025.
From Variety US