Ariana Grande is weighing in on her “Wicked” co-star Cynthia Erivo’s recent slam of fan edited “Wicked” posters and AI-generated memes.
A poster released by Universal was tweaked by a fan to mimic the original Broadway poster by lowering Elphaba’s witch hat to cover Erivo’s eyes. A meme that went viral earlier this week showed Glinda whispering into Elphaba’s ear with the caption reading, “Is your pussy green?”
“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,” Grande told me exclusively at the Academy Museum Gala Saturday in Los Angeles. “This is something that is such so much bigger than us and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.”
Ariana Grande at the Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala held at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 19, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Gilbert Flores
When I suggested that sometimes things can go “too far,” Grande said, “I think so. And I have so much respect for my sister, Cynthia, and I love her so much. It’s just a big adjustment period. It’s so much stimulation about something that’s so much bigger than us.”
Cynthia blasted the fan-edited poster and meme on Wednesday in an Instagram story. “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 p—- green?” Erivo wrote while sharing one of the photoshopped “Wicked” posters with her face covered. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
Cynthia Erivo at the Fourth Annual Academy Museum Gala held at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on October 19, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
Gilbert Flores
Universal and director Jon M. Chu have adapted the “Wicked” Broadway musical into a two-part movie, the first of which arrives in theaters in November. The musical is set at Shiz University in Oz as Elphaba and Glinda become roommates and unlikely friends. In addition to Erivo and Grande, the film’s supporting cast includes Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum and Bowen Yang.
I also asked Grande if she and Erivo could record original music together in the future. “I love being in the studio with her, even just as like a fly on the wall, hearing what she’s working on and having her there when I’m working,” she said. “I think we are stuck with each other, professionally and personally for the rest of our lives. So I would say absolutely.”
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