Cynthia Erivo took offense to a fan-edited promotional poster for her upcoming film, Wicked, sparking online discourse and prompting a response from director Jon M. Chu and co-star Ariana Grande.
What Is The ‘Wicked’ Movie About?
Wicked, a film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical (itself an adaption of the 1995 novel) tells a revisionist, sympathetic origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz.
Emmy-winning actress Cynthia Erivo plays the part of the Wicked Witch, known as Elphaba, and Ariana Grande plays Glinda the Good, while Jeff Goldblum appears as the not-so-wonderful wizard.
Both Elphaba and Glinda are subverted beyond their original framing as “good” and “bad” witches, with Elphaba painted as a misunderstood outcast.
What Was The Controversial ‘Wicked’ Poster?
An iconic poster from the Broadway musical sees Glinda whispering into the ear of Elphaba, and the image was recreated by the two stars for the upcoming film.
The recreated poster frames the two characters differently, to ensure both of the actor’s faces can be seen.
Showing off the two stars made perfect sense to the film’s marketing department, but fans of the Broadway musical felt as though the striking image had lost its impact, and one fan edited the new poster to resemble the original.
The edit involved raising Grande’s hand to cover more of her face and covering up Erivo’s eyes entirely. After being shared online, the edited promotional poster found its way to Erivo, and the actor was not amused.
On Instagram, Erivo posted the altered poster and wrote: "This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting … None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us."
The "AI of us fighting" is an AI-generated video that transforms Grande and Erivo’s poster into a sparring match; the two engage in an unsettling, rubbery-limbed fight that looks just as uncanny as every other AI-generated video.
"The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION," Erivo added. "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."
Director Jon M. Chu showed his support for Erivo in his Instagram Story, screenshotting her statement and describing the actress as his “superhero.”
Online, many Wicked fans were surprised by Erivo’s response, as the fan edit was not intended as an insult, or act of erasure.
The fan who edited the poster, @midosommar, quickly deleted the image after Erivo took offense, but other commentators reposted the image and made memes about Erivo’s reaction.
Erivo’s statement about looking “down the barrel of the camera” was jokingly quoted by fans, and some took to posting pictures of the actress to make sure not to “erase” her.
Some even suspected that the controversy was just another form of marketing for the film.
After a few days of memes and catty jokes, some commentators expressed alarm that the backlash to Erivo’s statement had gone too far.
In an interview with Variety, Grande tactfully weighed in on the controversy, giving her thoughts on the AI-generated video and troublesome fan edit.
“I think it’s very complicated because I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it’s just kind of such a massive adjustment period,” Grande said. “This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.”
Grande concluded: “I have so much respect for my sister, Cynthia, and I love her so much.”
Once the dust began to settle, @midosommar reposted the edited image that had sparked the drama, clarifying that they meant no harm.
They wrote: “While I deleted initially as I felt it was the right thing to do, fan posters have been around for as long as movies have existed. I never meant to cause any harm and the poster is just a homage to the original broadway poster, just like the movie’s recreation is.”
@midosommar concluded: “Also, I will say that Cynthia is valid in having her feelings on the matter, and I’m also valid in wanting to keep my version of the poster up as I truly meant no harm with it and just made it as a way to show love for the original. Both can be true.”
Update Oct. 28: Erivo reflected on the controversy with Entertainment Tonight:
"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 said.
"I probably should have called my friends, but it's fine."
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