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On a bright day in a dark bar in Los Angeles, Cynthia Erivo is as animated as a music box, gilded and tuneful. Her ring-covered hand\u2014its lengthy nails dotted with rhinestones\u2014rests on a pile of gold necklaces across her chest while she runs me through a list of her favorite vocal performances. She starts, of course, with Sisq\u00f3\u2019s \u201cThong Song.\u201d After a year of viral moments following the press tour for Wicked<\/a>, the record-busting smash hit that generated as many box-office dollars as it did memes, Erivo recently delighted the internet by describing her passion for the vocal stylings of the 1999 anthem about butt floss. Sisq\u00f3 even got in touch with Erivo to express his gratitude. \u201cFor me to really respect her as a vocalist and as an actor, and for her to shout me out with these accolades, I was both humbled and pleasantly surprised,\u201d he later said on his podcast, SisQ\u00f3 Live.<\/p>\n \u201cHe sings it with the most guttural passion you can,\u201d Erivo says, still incredulous. We\u2019re sitting beneath an illustrated scene of Black life, not unlike a Corky McCoy drawing, where people are dancing, chatting, smoking, sipping, moving; a Kwame Braithwaite portrait hangs by the door. \u201cHe could\u2019ve given falsetto, he could have given gentle, he could have given a little hot, but he gave full out, and I thought it was just fab.\u201d<\/p>\n Erivo, 38, is poised, well-mannered, and warm, like a perfect kindergarten teacher\u2014if kindergarten teachers were allowed to wear knee-high boots with six-inch heels and vintage John Galliano dresses. (She\u2019s fastidious about protecting her body, so her only real vice is shopping, and it\u2019s serious; an hour after we part, she texts me her purchases from a vintage shop I\u2019d recommended.) She is kind and exacting and takes herself seriously, even when others don\u2019t.<\/p>\n She just came off a few days of vocal rest after completing her run in the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl. That a Black, queer, bald woman played Jesus Christ didn\u2019t come without its controversy, but the strength of Erivo\u2019s performance drowned out any detractors; the Los Angeles Times\u2019s rave review said she could \u201cpierce the heavens with her mighty voice.\u201d<\/p>\n Since making her Broadway debut in The Color Purple in 2015, Erivo has accomplished more than most performers can hope to achieve in their entire careers. She\u2019s won an Emmy, a Tony, and a Grammy (all for The Color Purple, a show that became known, in part, for the roaring standing ovations Erivo would receive), and she\u2019s been nominated for three Oscars and two BAFTAs. <\/p>\n The devil may work hard, but Erivo works harder. After our interview this past summer, she was due to perform in concerts in Chicago, Clearwater, Florida, Washington, D.C., and San Diego that would include covers of songs that are important to her: \u201cDon\u2019t Rain on My Parade,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Be Misunderstood,\u201d \u201cI Put a Spell on You,\u201d \u201cPurple Rain.\u201d She\u2019d spend some time in her hometown of London, shooting Prima Facie, the film adaptation of Suzie Miller\u2019s one-woman play about a defense lawyer who is sexually assaulted. That would wrap in October, then she\u2019d embark on the press tour for Wicked: For Good,<\/a> the highly anticipated conclusion to the two-part Wicked epic, out in November, followed by rehearsals for Dracula in London\u2019s West End early in the new year.<\/p>\n But now, for a few weeks, she was back to moving through the world as simply Cynthia, the homebody who likes to sit in her big green chair, surrounded by plants, with a cup of tea; the doting dog mom; the athlete who likes to push herself to the limits. (She once ran a half marathon before a two-performance day of The Color Purple.) She admits that she gets itchy if she\u2019s idle for too long. Jon M. Chu<\/a>, the director of both Wicked films, does an impression of Erivo during her weekends off from filming: \u201c\u2018Yeah, I was living behind a waterfall with no food or drink.\u2019 \u2018Yeah, I\u2019m going away this weekend because I\u2019m gonna run a marathon really quick.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n She\u2019d just shaved her head\u2014she does it herself\u2014and while she\u2019s talking, her cheekbones get caught in the light. For a moment, she resembles the Braithwaite portrait on the wall. \u201cThis is what I want to look like,\u201d she says. \u201cI love a heel, I love a nail, I love a jaw, I love a bald head, I love a good outfit. It is legitimately a way of just expressing parts of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not lost on her that the source texts for her two most famous characters, The Color Purple\u2019s Celie and Wicked\u2019s Elphaba, make it clear that the women are supposed to be considered ugly. Erivo has never seen them that way. For Elphaba, she wanted to be intentional that what you saw\u2014long micro braids, expertly manicured nails, a corset showing off her body-ody-ody\u2014doesn\u2019t match up with what you\u2019re being told. The viewer has to make decisions about right and wrong and who to believe.<\/p>\n In Wicked, the viewer meets Elphaba in the process of becoming\u2014accepting who she is, warts and all, while also remaining open to change, bucking convention. I meet Erivo fully realized, a performer of the most rarefied caliber: the image, refined; the acting, acute; the voice, god tier. Chu initially calls her \u201cour Barbra Streisand\u201d before correcting himself. \u201cWell, she\u2019s our Cynthia Erivo, and she\u2019s iconic,\u201d he says. She is no longer \u201cjust\u201d a regular-degular Black girl from South London who had to plead for auditions or lend her voice to a different actress while she sang from backstage.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really glad that fame has come to me later, because I feel so fully myself right now that it\u2019s not knocking me off my axis,\u201d she says. She realized she was famous after starring in Netflix\u2019s 2023 thriller Luther: The Fallen Sun, when she got recognized in a store in the United Arab Emirates. The release of the first half of Wicked last fall took that fame to the stratosphere, as did her turn hosting the Tony Awards earlier this year. She liked that people were seeing her be her, \u201cbeing in my skin tone, as a Black woman, on mainstream TV, hosting, not even playing a character.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s seen a wave of self-acceptance that she\u2019s inspired with her distinctive look, with more people allowing themselves piercings and tattoos. \u201cIf it\u2019s the only thing I put into this world, that everyone\u2019s individual beauty is worth seeing and experiencing, and you don\u2019t have to change it for anyone else other than yourself, then I\u2019m happy. If you want to change and you want to get a new nose, you want to get new lips, fine. If that\u2019s good for you, then that\u2019s good for you\u2014as long as it\u2019s for you.\u201d<\/p>\n Erivo\u2019s next addition to the song syllabus is Lalah Hathaway singing \u201cCherish the Day,\u201d from Robert Glasper\u2019s Black Radio. Erivo pulls it up on her phone. Even though she\u2019s listened to the song dozens of times, as soon as Lalah\u2019s voice streams through the speakers, Erivo is bewitched. \u201cIt\u2019s like velvet,\u201d she says. \u201cShe sounds like the ghosts of your ancestors.\u201d In addition to her myriad other jobs, Erivo serves as the vice president of her alma mater, London\u2019s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She segues into professorial mode as the song continues: \u201cListen to this\u2014the choices, the low notes in a major key, minor key. It\u2019s silly. She keeps flipping into the major.\u201d And to further her point, she sings it, slow and smoky, like the last drink of the night. \u201cThat major note should technically not be there, but it works because of the way that she\u2019s phrased it.\u201d The music runs through her. While counting out the notes, she swings the top half of her body back and forth, grooving along to the melody. There are other songs on the playlist, including the Bee Gees\u2019 \u201cHow Deep Is Your Love\u201d (\u201cOne of the best songs ever written\u201d) and Donny Hathaway\u2019s \u201cI Love You More Than You\u2019ll Ever Know.\u201d (The father and daughter \u201csound like each other; where she has smoke, he has sugar.\u201d)<\/p>\n Erivo herself is a testament to song, her body adorned with tattoos of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, each of them a paragon of translating emotion into music, able to prompt a tear or a smile in just a few notes. Before transferring to RADA, Erivo first embarked on a degree in music psychology, learning what music can do. \u201cIt helped me understand innately what effect you can have on people, depending on what you choose to sing and how you choose to sing it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n That uncanny ability to emote, seen most spectacularly, of course, in the mighty warrior call that comes at the end of Wicked\u2019s \u201cDefying Gravity,\u201d has resulted in the biggest year of her professional life.<\/p>\n To navigate all of it, she relies on a network of aunties and big sisters in the industry: Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Debbie Allen, Whoopi Goldberg. \u201cI\u2019ve been checking in on her a lot,\u201d says Jada Pinkett Smith, who considers Erivo a \u201cdear sister.\u201d \u201cA lot of times, it\u2019s difficult if you haven\u2019t been through something like that, being popped into stardom in a certain manner.\u201d Being a woman in Hollywood is hard enough, but being a queer Black woman? Heavy-duty. Smith helps remind Erivo of what\u2019s important: \u201cReally nourishing the truth within you, and recognizing the beauty and the power that you possess, and, you know, not looking to others to buoy you up in a certain manner, because that\u2019s a big trap.\u201d<\/p>\n This fall, Erivo will publish Simply More, whose title comes from a speech she gave upon receiving a GLAAD Media Award earlier this year. Though Erivo came out publicly in British Vogue in 2022, she dedicated her speech to those who may still be keeping their identity to themselves. \u201cIn their quiet solitude, that\u2019s still a measure of rebellion and still deserves a little light,\u201d she tells me. \u201cWhat I wrote about was [that] those of us who are in the light, who are walking around with our lanterns shining bright, should just change the direction of the lanterns and shine it back on people who don\u2019t know where their path is yet.\u201d<\/p>\n She feels especially compelled to talk about people who use they\/them pronouns and the ceaseless fight for simple dignity. \u201cTeaching people on a daily basis how to address you, and dealing with the frustration of reteaching people a word that has been in the human vocabulary since the dawn of time: they\/them,\u201d she said in the speech. \u201cWords used to describe pedantically two or more people; poetically, a person who is simply more.\u201d The book, she emphasizes, is not a memoir but rather teachable moments from Erivo\u2019s life.<\/p>\n It also reflects Erivo\u2019s relationship to privacy: controlled, targeted, intentional. She\u2019ll tell you a story if there\u2019s a lesson to be learned from it. Otherwise, she stays mum. Despite the fact that she has been linked to the actor and writer Lena Waithe for years, she won\u2019t, on the record, comment or even confirm their relationship. \u201cHer talent is in modulating every moment,\u201d says her Wicked costar Bowen Yang. \u201cIf she is speaking to you, it is incredibly soft but still powerful. It makes you lean in. She\u2019s controlling her instrument, but she\u2019s also inviting you to get on her level.\u201d<\/p>\n There were some stories Erivo was hesitant to share, like the one about an administrator at RADA who barred her from taking time off to do a lucrative gig. Other students were able to pursue external opportunities, but something about Erivo was different. \u201cI\u2019m lucky that now the debt is paid off, but if I was another person who hasn\u2019t had the success and the luck and the good things that have come this way, they might still harbor resentment.\u201d<\/p>\n And there were other things that she felt compelled to share, like her estrangement from her father. Erivo and her younger sister were raised by their mother, Edith, in Stockwell, London, after her parents left Nigeria years earlier to escape the country\u2019s civil war. When Erivo was 16, her father disowned the girls. Though it\u2019s a painful story, Erivo calls it a crucial one, a through line of her inner life, the event that puts everything into perspective. \u201cI don\u2019t know what my life would be like if he was still around, and I can\u2019t say whether it would be better or worse,\u201d she says. \u201cBetter not to find out. I\u2019ve never daydreamed about that, because it\u2019s not going to happen. And the life that I have, I am so happy in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Her elbows resting on the bar, Erivo sips her mug of tea, musing about her time between Elphabas. The first installment of Wicked, released last November, grossed more than $750 million worldwide. And while the second half, Wicked: For Good, will likely be tonally different\u2014gone are the poppy sing-along songs; in their place, dark and searching ballads, including two completely new songs\u2014it\u2019s bound to repeat the success. \u201cElphaba will be part of my life forever, but we need separation,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re not one and the same anymore, but we can be friends.\u201d<\/p>\n The first Elphaba, she says, taught her about being okay with the person you are and the body you live in. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the most important beholder is yourself. The second Elphaba is more steadfast in her fury, understanding what she deserves. By the second film, Elphaba has gained hold of the full expression of her rage. \u201cWhat I love is having had the chance to play her when she has to figure out what she is and play her again when she knows.\u201d<\/p>\n She could say the same thing about herself: self-assured, able to put both her strength and her softness on display. What Erivo now knows, particularly after weathering the latest round of discourse around Jesus Christ Superstar, is that she has a stronger faith than she thought\u2014in herself, in the universe, in possibility. \u201cWe have the habit of limiting ourselves, based on the bodies we come to earth in and other people\u2019s perceptions,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd when you can let go of those things, it\u2019s very freeing.\u201d<\/p>\n Makeup: Joanna Simkin for Clinique; manicure: Clawz by Dior<\/p>\n You Might Also Like<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links.” On a bright day in a dark bar in Los Angeles, Cynthia Erivo is as animated as a music box, gilded and tuneful. Her ring-covered hand\u2014its lengthy nails dotted with rhinestones\u2014rests on a pile of gold necklaces across her chest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2121752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[402847,40246,354478],"class_list":["post-2121751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-balenciaga-couture","tag-cynthia-erivo","tag-jesus-christ-superstar"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Cynthia-Erivo-Is-Unstoppable.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2121751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2121753,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121751\/revisions\/2121753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2121752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2121751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2121751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2121751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n
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This article appears in the November issue of Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/a>.<\/h4>\n