Cynthia Erivo felt like her “humanity had been bastardised” after defending Ariana Grande at the Wicked: For Good premiere in Singapore.
The 39-year-old actress has opened up on her decision not to campaign for an Oscar for her role as Elphaba in the blockbuster musical sequel, and she admitted it was influenced by the fallout of the incident in November 2025.
The cast were walking down a yellow brick road during the event at Universal Studios Singapore when a man, Johnson Wen, vaulted the barrier and rushed at Ariana, with Cynthia stepping in to shield her friend.
She told Variety: “Nobody moved. Nobody moved. So I moved because my brain went, ‘Get him away! Get him out of here!’
“My immediate reaction was ‘Get him away from us.’ And what people couldn’t see is that he wouldn’t let go [of Ariana]. He wouldn’t let go. So I just kept pushing at him to get him off.”
Cynthia has blasted the fallout, with “insidious” memes and TikTok videos focused on her appearance as a Black woman.
She added: “And I’m sure people will read this and think, ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, it’s not about that.’ But it is.
“Because that’s 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 co-star and so I had to be controlling or protecting, and that was my role.”
Asked if that was part of her motivation to not campaign for an Academy Award, and she admitted “maybe in a way it did”.
Cynthia said: “I just felt like my humanity had been bastardised.
“I 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, and because of the assumptions that are made, and I just didn’t want to be a part of that, really and truly.
“I didn’t want to put myself through it. I didn’t feel like I deserved it.”
Cynthia also argued that there was “already a sort of upturned nose at the second instalment” of Wicked.
The actress noted that despite the whirlwind around the projects, there was still some positive impact too.
She added: “Wicked was its own storm in a teacup. It took over everything and — beautifully — changed my life.”
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