Cynthia Erivo makes admission over reaction to Wicked fan-made poster controversy

‘I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine,’ said the actor

Wicked star Cynthia Erivo has made an honest admission as to why she chose to call out a fan-edited version of the film’s poster that obscured her face.

The official poster for the upcoming film was released earlier this month showing Erivo in character as Elphaba looking directly at the camera. Glinda, played by Ariana Grande, is whispering in her ear.

However, fan edits quickly emerged which essentially removed Erivo’s face, having the brim of her hat covering most of her face apart from her lips.

This drew the ire of Erivo, who reposted the image on her own Instagram Stories along with the following statement: “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful Ai of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘is your ***** green.’

“The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real life 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.

“Our poster is a homage, not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.”

Erivo followed up by posting an image of the unedited film poster, with the caption: “Let me put this right here, to remind you and cleanse your palette.”

Cynthia Erivo’s Instagram posts calling fan edits to the ‘Wicked’ poster ‘offensive' (Instagram)

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet at the CFDA Fashion Awards, Erivo was asked about her reaction to the poster with the 37-year-old explaining that she is “really protective” of her role.

“I’m passionate about it and I know the fans are passionate about it and I think for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment,” the star added. “I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine.”

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in Wicked trailer (Universal / screengrab)

Wicked is an adaptation of the acclaimed stage musical and book of the same name, which uses characters from The Wizard of Oz. The book’s writer, Winnie Holzman has also written the screenplay for the film.

Appearing alongside Erivo and Grande in the musical will be Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang and Peter Dinklage.

Wicked is set to be released in UK and US cinemas on November 22. A second instalment is expected to follow next year, although there has been speculation online that the movie may have been recut into a single film.