Cynthia Erivo Reacts to "Offensive" Fan Edits of the 'Wicked' Poster: "It Degrades Me"
The actress was hurt by the fan art.
Cynthia Erivo has condemned "offensive" fan edits of the Wicked movie poster.
On her Instagram Stories on Oct. 16, the actress reposted fan art originally posted by the account @wickedmexicofans, which is an edited version of the official movie poster. The edits modified the real poster to make it look like the Wicked Broadway poster, in which Elphaba's eyes are covered as Glinda whispers in her ear.
On the movie poster, Erivo's Elphaba's eyes are looking directly into the camera as Ariana Grande's Glinda whispers in her ear.
Alongside the edits, Erivo wrote, "This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen I have seen equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posting 'is your ***** green?'
"None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us."
She continued, "The original [Broadway] poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real life human being, who chose to look 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."
Cynthia Erivo expressed her hurt over fan edits of the Wicked poster on Instagram Stories.
In a second Story, Erivo posted the movie's actual poster with the words, "Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette" along with two green heart emojis.
The movie's director, Jon M. Chu, reposted the actress' message with the words, "@cynthiaerivo is my superhero."
Jon M. Chu showed his support for Cynthia Erivo on Instagram.
There's not much longer to wait now, with the movie set for release in theaters on Nov. 22. It also stars Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, and Grande's boyfriend Ethan Slater.
