Cyntia Erivo is not a fan of some of the fan-doctored art her upcoming movie musical “Wicked” has inspired.
After images surfaced of a fan-doctored version of the official movie poster, edited to hide Erivo’s face, much like the cover art of the original Broadway Playbill, Erivo had strong words for its creators.
“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,’” she wrote in a caption of a post to her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Oct. 16, People magazine reported. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
She added, “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.”
Despite the fact that the edited version was edited to look like the original Playbill, the actress explained, “Our poster is a homage, not an imitation.”
She continued, “To edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply painful.”
Recommended Stories
Reactions to Erivo’s reaction have been mixed online, with some siding with her and agreeing the edits were disrespectful at best and potentially a racist erasure at worst. Then there are those who feel it could have been an unintended slight, given how long “Wicked” has held a massive and deep-running cult following. It’s possible the creator just wanted a film poster version of their Playbill and was not attempting any deeper commentary.
Regardless, Erivo makes a point in noting that a movie poster is not meant to serve the same purpose as a Playbill. A Broadway production’s posters and Playbills are often illustrations or even sometimes just the play’s logo because the cast is ever-changing. A movie’s cast, once it’s fully wrapped, will never change, so there’s no point in obscuring any of the cast members’ faces — especially when both are well-established celebrities.
Erivo is also not wrong to be on the defensive, given the frequent backlash received by Black female leads in high-profile adaptations. Earlier this year, actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers received intense online abuse after it was announced she had been cast in a production of “Romeo and Juliet” by the Jamie Lloyd Company theater group alongside Tom Holland. Let’s also not forget the backlash Halle Bailey received after it was announced she had been cast in Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid.”
Erivo eventually followed up with a repost from the film’s director, Jon M. Chu, of the real movie poster accompanied by the caption, “Let me put this here to remind you and cleanse your palette.”
Erivo stars alongside Ariana Grande in the highly anticipated movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, originally based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel of the same name. “Wicked” arrives in theaters November 22.
