Many anticipated the upcoming film of “Wicked” which was released on November 22. A fan edit attempted to replicate the original poster from the 2003 broadway musical “Wicked” which sparked controversy with actress Cynthia Erivo as she felt insulted by the edits made of her.
On October 16, Cynthia Ervio addressed the fan art with an Instagram story relating to an edit made on her face and stated her opinion on the art.
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen,” Ervio said. Ervio later explaied how this edit was “degrading” and “not funny.” She made it clear that the poster was more than fan art and seemed to have been made to degrade her as a human being.
“The original poster is an illustration, I am a real life human being who chooses to look right down at the camera, to you the viewer…. Because without words we communicate with our eyes,” Ervio said.
Ervio talks about how fans trying to hide her face is their way of trying to “erase her.” She expressed how deeply hurtful and upsetting this was to see, as a proud actress of the character Elphaba in the film.
“To edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful,” Ervio said.
Ervio later goes on to apologize about her comment on the poster feeling as her reaction was “largely overblown” and how it was just an innocent fan edit.
“The last few days have been wild and have helped me realise that my initial reaction was largely overblown. This is, and always was, an innocent fan edit to pay homepage to the original Broadway poster, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Ervio said.
