It’s not rare for celebs to garner controversy over their social media presence, as back in 2018, James Gunn was briefly fired from Marvel after one of his past tweets resurfaced. Cynthia Erivo too found herself in a similar boat after she was cast in the biopic of abolitionist Harriet Tubman.
While the film proved to be a breakthrough project for her, whose upcoming release, Wicked, is set to premiere next month, one of her past tweets landed Erivo in heavy controversy among the black community.
Cynthia Erivo Claimed Her Comments Were Taken Out of Context
After it was announced that Cynthia Erivo was set to lead Harriet Tubman’s biopic, some weren’t thrilled by the casting choice, given her Nigerian ancestry rather than being an American descendant of enslaved people. But these weren’t the lone rebuttals against the actress, as one of her tweets from 2013 further escalated the situation, as many called out the actress for seemingly mocking the “ghetto accent”.
Addressing the hoopla, Erivo clarified her comments were taken out of context, adding that her intention behind the tweet was “to celebrate a song I had wrote when I was 16”.
As for the tweets, taken out of context without giving me the room to tell you what it meant–and it wasn’t mocking anyone really. It wasn’t for that purpose at all. It was to celebrate a song I had wrote when I was 16.
The actress further stated that she would never speak negatively of people, as it serves no other purpose than bringing negativity into her life.
Cynthia Erivo Is Deeply Hurtful Over Altered Wicked Poster
This wasn’t the lone time the actress caused a stir on the web, but this time around, it’s Erivo, who is calling the shots over a controversial fan edit. With Wicked set to premiere next month, which stars Evior as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, the former took to her IG story to call out one fan edit of the film’s poster. Opposed to the original one, in which Elphaba is staring down the camera, in the altered version, her face is concealed by a hat.
Even though the altered version closely aligns with the Broadway musical art, Evori expressed that it was “deeply hurtful”, stressing “it degrades us”.
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.
Considering how protective the actress has been of Elphaba, it’s not surprising to see why the altered version rubbed her the wrong way.
Wicked is set to release on 22 November 2024.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
