Cynthia Erivo ripped for throwing shade at actresses who lost Glinda’s role to Ariana Grande in ‘Wicked’

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Cynthia Erivo has some thoughts about the casting for 'Wicked', and she’s not exactly keeping them to herself.

The actress — who plays Elphaba in the highly-anticipated movie adaptation — recently shared her “relief” that Ariana Grande was cast as Glinda—and, well, she threw a little side-eye at some of the other actresses who auditioned for the role.

The movie releases in US theaters on November 22.

Cynthia Erivo says 'thank goodness' Arianna Grande was cast as Glinda

In a recent chat with The New York Times, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande spoke about what it was like when they found out they would be starring alongside each other in 'Wicked'. Cynthia didn’t seem even a little surprised that Grande had landed the role.

“Absolutely no surprise whatsoever,” she said. And Ariana added, “Thank God.”

But then Cynthia let her intrusive thoughts win. “Thank goodness, because it was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with,” she said, not-so-subtly hinting that a couple of other actresses vying for Glinda weren’t exactly up to her standards.

Ariana was apparently just as surprised as the rest of us—she could only respond with a shocked “Oh my God!”

'Wicked' hopefuls included Amanda Seyfried, Dove Cameron, Renee Rapp, and Taylor Louderman, the New York Post reported. Cynthia didn’t drop any names, but that didn’t stop fans from reading between the lines.

Cynthia Erivo's shade does not go down well with fans

Let’s just say, Cynthia Erivo’s comments did not go over well online. Fans on social media couldn’t believe that the actress playing Elphaba—a character known for her fierce kindness—would throw shade like this.

"Shes so messy lawd," one posted on X.

"Oh come on that was so unnecessary," a second user added.

"She didn’t need to say that omg," another chimed in.

"Sad we have such an unkind Elphaba. Idina would never!" read a comment.

"This ain’t it. You can lift someone up without tearing others down. This is not at all in the spirit of the show," someone else offered.

"Can’t believe Cynthia Erivo is nearly forty and still hasn’t learned to get over herself," another fumed.

Cynthia Erivo makes history with Elphaba's role in 'Wicked'

Despite the drama, Cynthia Erivo's casting as Elphaba is groundbreaking.

“Historically, Black women have never really been seen for the role,” she noted. “If they have, they haven’t gotten the role, and if they do, they usually are the alternate or first cover. There’s only one woman I know on record that has done it on the West End [in London]. So I just didn’t think they were looking for me.”

She went on to suggest that it might have something to do with the era when the 'Wicked' show first came out in 2004. “Maybe it’s a symptom of the time when it was made," she observed.

Notably, Cynthia also made waves with her reaction to a fan-edited version of the 'Wicked' movie poster.

In the fan version, her eyes were obscured—a nod to the original Broadway artwork—but Cynthia was not having it. She hopped on Instagram Stories to vent.

“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting,” she wrote on October 16.

Clearly, she felt like covering her eyes was erasing part of her presence in the role.

“None of this is 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," she wrote.

“Our poster is an homage not an imitation,” she added on her Instagram story. “to edit my face & hide my eyes is to erase me. That is just deeply hurtful.”

She shared the official poster in a follow-up post. “Let me put this right here, to remind you and to cleanse your palette," she wrote.

Later on, however, Cynthia admitted that maybe her reaction was a little intense. At the CFDA Fashion Awards, she joked to Entertainment Tonight that she “probably should have called my friends” instead of venting on social media.

“I’m passionate about it and I know the fans are passionate about it and I think for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment,” she said on October 28.

“I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine.”

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.