Revelations in ‘Wicked’ Star Cynthia Erivo’s New Memoir, ‘Simply More’ and the Pact She Made with Ariana Grande
Cynthia Erivo spills her most empowering and emotional ‘Wicked’ moments
Cynthia Erivo is most famous for her role in Wicked and Wicked: For Good, and in her new memoir, Simply More—out now—the actress is opening up about what that experience really meant to her. From her first time seeing Wicked on stage to her friendship with Ariana Grande, Erivo leaves nothing out. Below we share the most ‘thrillifying’ moments from the book.
Cynthia Erivo’s first experience with‘Wicked’
Erivo saw Wicked the musical in London, years before her star-making turn in the movie version. In Simply More she writes, “I saw Wicked on stage for the first time on my twenty-fifth birthday. I’d saved up to buy tickets to a few West End shows as a present to myself: The Lion King, a stage version of The Lord of the Rings, which was really beautiful, and Avenue Q with the Muppets.”
And it made quite the impression. “Wicked was startling and breathtaking. I had sung the music for years, and now the entire show—lights, music, voices, sights—was unfolding in front of my eyes, filling my entire being. I was lifted by the music and transported by the story that was so deftly staged. When the flying monkeys came into the aisle, I felt like a kid. Oh my God! What the heck?” she writes. “That experience seared itself into my being. And yet, for as much as I adored seeing the show, and for as much as I’d found singing that very music downright irresistible for years, I didn’t really picture myself ever playing Elphaba. I didn’t dare dream it. And that’s for one simple reason. I had never seen someone like me in that role. My brain didn’t make the connection that such a thing would ever be possible. It’s hard to become what we don’t see.”
Cynthia Erivo reveals how she trained for ‘Wicked’
Filming Wicked was not an easy task for Erivo, who did all her own stunts and sang live on set. To prepare, she writes about how she “ran while singing the Wicked songs, back and forth, singing just to get them fully into my body. I wanted the music and dialogue to all be so deeply embedded inside me that when I got to the audition I wouldn’t be thinking about lyrics, or the melody or lines. All that would just be a part of my DNA.”
“I ran the lines constantly. In the shower, I sang the songs over and over and over again. On the day of the audition, I even swam laps trying to sing the songs while swimming,” she writes. “With every week and day and hour and minute that passed, I brought myself closer and closer to being ready to do what I knew I could do. Into becoming Elphaba.”
Cynthia Erivo spills on her bond with Ariana Grande
Erivo’s friendship with Ariana Grande has gone mega-viral since the first film, and in Simply More, she explains that their friendship came to be after the pair made a pact.
“We committed to protecting and caring for each other through this process. We hear often how female costars—or really, any costars—can sometimes let their egos get in the way until they battle each other, destroying the creative process for everyone involved. We were determined to do the opposite. To be the opposite,” Erivo writes. “To build on each other’s strengths, to encourage the other, to see if, like our voices, we could become more than the sum of our parts. We were two women determined to become simply more—with the help of the other.
“Day to day, we made decisions together, always moving together. It was never ‘I’m over there and she’s over here. No, we worked in tandem,” Erivo continued. “We were always looking out for each other. Our partnership was important. We shared a strong synergy, a commitment to authenticity, and that, combined with the natural connection we fostered both on and off set, allowed us to support each other emotionally and professionally.”
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