One month before its highly anticipated release in theaters, Wicked, a film adaptation of the 2003 hit Broadway musical, is getting publicity of the wrong kind. Actress Cynthia Erivo, who stars as Elphaba, sparked a controversy by slamming the internet after a fan-edited poster that altered her appearance was released on social media.
Wicked is a Broadway musical directed by Joe Mantello and is a prologue to the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and the film modification The Wizard of Oz from 1939. Wicked tells the story of a complicated friendship between Elphaba, a misunderstood, intelligent, wicked young girl with emerald-green skin who later becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and Galinda, a popular and bubbly girl who grows up to be Galinda the Good. As the story unfolds, the audience is taken on an emotional journey that is filled with bias and propaganda as told from competing points of view. After the premiere of the musical in 2003, it became a huge promotional success with a very committed fan base. At the 2004 Tony Awards, Wicked won 3 out of 10 nominations including Best Scenic Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Actress in a Musical awarded to Idina Menzel who played Elphaba.
Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, called out fans after an edit of her appearance on the film’s poster. “The original post is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real 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,” Erivo wrote on her Instagram story on October 16.
The AI-edited photo revamps the film’s photo to feature the same jesters as the musical’s photo. The edited photo moves Ariana Grande’s (Galinda) hand up more to cover her mouth and nose. The image also fades Cynthia Erivo’s (Elphaba) eyes out and colors her lips a dark red. Erivo was very upset over the fade added to cover her eyes and expressed her feelings on her Instagram story, “To edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me.” Cynthia’s co-star, Ariana Grande, spoke about the controversy to Variety at the Academy Museum Gala. “I think it’s very complicated because I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it’s just kind of such a massive adjustment period. This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits,” Grande said to reporters on October 19.
Wicked fans were shocked by Erivo’s reply, as the edit was not planned to attack anyone. The edited poster was quickly deleted by its original author, @midosommar, but fans continued to repost the image and a flurry of new memes making fun of the incident created. The story continued to grow and commentators started to wonder publicly about if this misunderstanding would affect the film. After a few days, Erivo spoke to the Los Angeles Times’ “The Envelope” and apologized to fans for overreacting to the image saying “and so in my little human moment I had… I fell out on the internet, when really I should have picked up my phone and called a friend.” Poster @midosommar also reposted the image while noting that “Cynthia is valid in having her feelings on the matter, and I’m also valid in wanting to keep my version of the poster up as I truly meant no harm with it and just made it as a way to show love for the original. Both can be true.” With that, all is seemingly good in Oz again.
