Cynthia Erivo is speaking up about an “offensive” fan-edited poster of the upcoming film adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Wicked.
Fans were not bewitched by the previously released poster of the Wicked movie, which aims to recreate the iconic 2003 poster for the musical. In the original poster, Elphaba — who will be played by Erivo in the upcoming movie — is seen smirking and wearing bright red lipstick with her eyes covered by her hat. Glinda, on the other hand, is whispering in her ear, clad in an all-white ensemble.
What did Cynthia Erivo say about the edited Wicked poster?
An edited poster attempting to recreate the original circulated online. Erivo, however, is not happy about it. Through an Instagram story, the actress expressed her disappointment.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the question, ‘Is your ***** green.’ None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us,” Erivo wrote.
She continued, “The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real life human being who chose 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.”
She then accompanied it with another Instagram story, sharing the actual poster of the movie adaptation, saying, “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette.”
Wicked also stars Ariana Grande as Galinda, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jeff Goldblum as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, among others.
The movie serves as the first part of Jon M. Chu’s film adaptation of the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman. It is set to hit theaters on November 22, 2024.
