{"id":463443,"date":"2026-05-27T23:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/463443\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T23:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T23:46:11","slug":"cynthia-erivo-addresses-ariana-grande-friendship-misconceptions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/463443\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Erivo Addresses Ariana Grande Friendship & Misconceptions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tCynthia Erivo<\/a> knows about how popular it was for the internet to dissect her friendship with Wicked costar Ariana Grande<\/a> last year, something the Tony winner addressed in a Variety<\/a> cover story published Wednesday (May 27).<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile reflecting on the whirlwind promotional run of the Wicked films that lasted throughout 2024 and 2025, Erivo addressed some of the misconceptions about herself and the pop star that ran rampant online for months. \u201cIt\u2019s very interesting, watching what people\u2019s perception is versus what the reality actually is,\u201d she told the publication. \u201cLots of psychologists seated at home deciding who we were, what we were going through, what we were doing and why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think that people didn\u2019t really believe that we were actually friends,\u201d she continued, noting that she and Grande still text each other just about every day. \u201cBut that\u2019s also because people don\u2019t know me very well. If I\u2019m a friend, then I\u2019m a friend. If I\u2019m not, then I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe internet\u2019s theories about the costars were wide-ranging, with some commentators speculating that they were romantically involved and others deciding that Erivo and Grande were either too close or secretly competing against each other. It was also common to see netizens comparing the two women\u2019s appearances, especially after the Pinocchio star pushed away a man who\u2019d rushed onto the red carpet<\/a> at Wicked: For Good\u2018s Singapore premiere in November and grabbed the \u201cYes, And?\u201d singer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think that we haven\u2019t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women,\u201d Erivo told Variety. \u201cAnd I\u2019m sure people will read this and think, \u2018Oh, for goodness\u2019 sake, it\u2019s not about that.\u2019 But it is. Because that\u2019s what was being made fun of. It was my physique; it was my shape; it was the fact that I was bald; it was about what I looked like. And because of that, there was this assumption that I was bigger than my costar, and so I had to be controlling or protecting, and that was my role. I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe added that \u201cin a way,\u201d the incident \u2014 which resulted<\/a> in the perpetrator spending nine days behind bars before he was banned from Singapore \u2014 discouraged her from campaigning for Academy Award recognition after the second Wicked film premiered last fall. \u201cI just felt like my humanity had been bastardized,\u201d the performer said. \u201cI felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not because of the way people see women who look like me \u2026 I just didn\u2019t want to be a part of that, really and truly. I didn\u2019t want to put myself through it. I didn\u2019t feel like I deserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tErivo added that \u201cit felt like there was already a sort of upturned nose at the second installment, even though we all knew there was a second film coming and we were just doing our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter growing close over the course of working on Wicked and promoting the Jon M. Chu-directed franchise, Grande and the Broadway veteran are now hard at work on different projects. The Victorious alum is gearing up to drop new single \u201cHate That I Made You Love Me\u2019 on Friday (March 29), while Erivo is starring in a one-woman production of Dracula on the West End.<\/p>\n

\n\tSee Erivo on the cover of Variety below.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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