Cynthia Ervio expresses how she feels after a fan-edited a Wicked promotional image of her.
The actress will play Elphaba in the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical, opposite singer Ariana Grande, who will play Glinda. As the film released new promotional photos before its November release, one fan seemingly edited a photo of Ervio and Grande as they paid homage to the original Broadway poster.
However, in the new photo, Ervio’s eyes are covered by her witch hat and she’s seen wearing red lipstick. After seeing the photo, she shared her thoughts about it on her Instagram story. “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 p***y green?”
She went on to say, “None of this funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us. 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,” Erivo continued. “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.”
Cynthia Ervio went to post the unedited promotional photo with the caption that reads, “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette.”
Wicked is set to come out in theaters on November 22.