{"id":105320,"date":"2025-10-28T14:15:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105320\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T14:15:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:15:09","slug":"cynthia-erivo-discusses-the-ugly-description-of-her-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105320\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Erivo Discusses the \u201cUgly\u201d Description of Her Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

No matter how a character is written, Cynthia Erivo<\/a> knows how to find their beauty.<\/p>\n

In her November 2025 cover story<\/a> for Harper\u2019s Bazaar, the Oscar nominee<\/a> opens up about the fact that two of her biggest roles to date\u2014as Celie in The Color Purple and Elphaba in Wicked\u2014have centered around characters who are identified as \u201cugly\u201d in their source texts. But Erivo doesn\u2019t see them that way.<\/p>\n

As writer Jazmine Hughes notes: \u201cFor Elphaba, [Erivo] wanted to be intentional that what you saw\u2014long micro braids, expertly manicured nails, a corset showing off her body-ody-ody\u2014doesn\u2019t match up with what you\u2019re being told. The viewer has to make decisions about right and wrong and who to believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"cynthia<\/p>\n

Cass Bird<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s the only thing I put into this world, that everyone\u2019s individual beauty is worth seeing and experiencing, and you don\u2019t have to change it for anyone else other than yourself, then I\u2019m happy,\u201d Erivo says.<\/p>\n

The London native\u2014whose look is characterized by piercings, tattoos, and what has become her signature: long nails<\/a>\u2014is also supportive of people altering their appearance. \u201cIf you want to change and you want to get a new nose, you want to get new lips, fine. If that\u2019s good for you, then that\u2019s good for you\u2014as long as it\u2019s for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erivo will be arriving to screens as Elphaba once again, when Wicked: For Good<\/a> is released in theaters on November 21.<\/p>\n

In her chat with Bazaar, our Wicked Witch reveals that it was enriching to play a character who becomes so confident in herself over time. \u201cWhat I love is having had the chance to play her when she has to figure out what she is and play her again when she knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a final thought, Erivo leaves her readers with this: \u201cWe have the habit of limiting ourselves, based on the bodies we come to Earth in and other people\u2019s perceptions. And when you can let go of those things, it\u2019s very freeing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No matter how a character is written, Cynthia Erivo knows how to find their beauty. In her November…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,2115,76225,2117,156,2462,111,139,69,76224],"class_list":["post-105320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-571f06b2-6a6e-44b8-8edb-0695784d31b3","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-locale-us","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-shorttitle-cynthia-erivo-doesnt-see-her-characters-as-ugly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}