{"id":2435270,"date":"2026-05-28T09:29:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2435270"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:29:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T09:29:49","slug":"cynthia-erivo-addresses-reaction-to-defending-ariana-grande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/cynthia-erivo-addresses-reaction-to-defending-ariana-grande\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Erivo Addresses Reaction to Defending Ariana Grande"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cynthia Erivo<\/strong><\/a> is speaking candidly about the public reaction to her defending Ariana Grande<\/strong><\/a> from an intruder at the Wicked: For Good<\/em><\/a> Singapore premiere last year.<\/p>\n

Erivo, 39, leapt to Grande\u2019s defense after Australian man Jonathan Wen<\/strong> attempted to rush the actress<\/a> and singer on the red carpet in November 2025. Wen was subsequently jailed for nine days<\/a> for being a public nuisance and banned from Singapore.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody moved. Nobody moved. So I moved because my brain went, \u2018Get him away! Get him out of here!\u2019 My immediate reaction was \u2018Get him away from us,\u2019\u201d Erivo recalled in an interview with Variety<\/em><\/a> published on Wednesday, May 27. \u201cAnd what people couldn\u2019t see is that he wouldn\u2019t let go [of Grande]. He wouldn\u2019t let go. So I just kept pushing at him to get him off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA stranger is a stranger. Personal space is still personal space. It doesn\u2019t belong to anyone, even if you feel you know the person. In that moment, we were all terrified,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

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\n Related: <\/span>Cynthia Erivo Addresses Rumors She and Ariana Grande Were ‘Lovers’<\/span><\/a>
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\n\t\t\tCynthia Erivo is reflecting back on how her friendship with Ariana Grande captivated fans during their Wicked press tour. \u201cAt first, I think people didn\u2019t understand how it was possible for two women to be friends \u2013 close \u2013 and not lovers,\u201d Erivo, 39, told the U.K. outlet The Stylist in a Tuesday, February 10, [\u2026]\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While the actress was praised for her quick thinking, Erivo told the outlet that she was perturbed by some of the online reaction to the incident. Variety<\/em> noted that the episode \u201cprompted jokes, memes and TikTok videos portraying Erivo as Grande\u2019s \u2018bodyguard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Erivo told the outlet, \u201cI think that we haven\u2019t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women. And I\u2019m sure people will read this and think, \u2018Oh, for goodness\u2019 sake, it\u2019s not about that.\u2019 But it is. Because that\u2019s what was being made fun of. It was my physique; it was my shape; it was the fact that I was bald; it was about what I looked like. And because of that, there was this assumption that I was bigger than my costar and so I had to be controlling or protecting, and that was my role.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around,\u201d the Oscar nominee added.<\/p>\n

The Singapore event, Erivo said, put her off campaigning for an Oscar for Wicked: For Good<\/em>, in which she reprised her role as Elphaba. (Erivo was previously nominated for Best Actress for 2024\u2019s Wicked<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think maybe in a way it did [put me off], actually. I just felt like my humanity had been bastardized,\u201d Erivo revealed. \u201cI felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not because of the way people see women who look like me and because of the assumptions that are made, and I just didn\u2019t want to be a part of that, really and truly. I didn\u2019t want to put myself through it. I didn\u2019t feel like I deserved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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