Universal Pictures
Cynthia Erivo shaded the actresses who auditioned for the role of Glinda in the “Wicked” movie, expressing her gratitude that Ariana Grande ultimately landed the part.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Erivo, 37, and Grande, 31, spoke about the casting process.
Asked how they reacted after learning the other one had been cast, Erivo responded, “Absolutely no surprise whatsoever.”
“I said, ‘Thank God,’” Grande recalled.
Erivo then made a dig at the other women who were being considered to play Glinda in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical.
“Thank goodness, because it was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with,” Erivo said, implying that two other actresses that auditioned to play Oz’s famed Good Witch were not up to snuff.
The remark left Grande gobsmacked. “Oh my God!” she said.
“Thank Goodness” is also the name of a song in “Wicked.”
Aside from Grande, actresses Amanda Seyfried, Dove Cameron, Reneé Rapp and Taylor Louderman also auditioned for the role of Glinda, according to reports.
Erivo went on to reveal that she didn’t think she would be considered to play Elphaba.
“Historically, Black women have never really been seen for the role,” she said. “If they have, they haven’t gotten the role, and if they do, they usually are the alternate or first cover. There’s only one woman I know on record that has done it on the West End [in London]. So I just didn’t think they were looking for me.”
Erivo added that, while she didn’t know why so few black women have been considered for the role since the show’s debut in 2004, she suggested, “Maybe it’s a symptom of the time when it was made.”
The Broadway vet has been making headlines while promoting “Wicked,” which hits theaters Nov. 22.
After a fan-edited version of the movie’s poster, which obscured Erivo’s eyes, went viral, the star took to her Instagram story to express her outrage.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting,” she wrote on Oct. 16.
“None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us. 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.”
The fan-edited movie poster was meant to make the promo art more faithful to the Broadway poster’s design, after many on social media criticized the official poster. But in Erivo’s view, to create an “imitation” of the original poster that would “hide my eyes” would consequently “erase me.”
“Our poster is an homage not an imitation,” she wrote on her Instagram story, adding, “to edit my face & hide my eyes is to erase me. That is just deeply hurtful.”
The actress also shared the movie’s official poster in a separate post on her Instagram story, writing, “Let me put this right here, to remind you and to cleanse your palette.”
Later that month, Erivo admitted that she “probably should have called” her friends rather than hopping on social media to vent her feelings.
“I’m passionate about it and I know the fans are passionate about it and I think for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment,” she told Entertainment Tonight at the 2024 CFDA Fashion Awards on Oct. 28
“I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine.”