Cynthia Erivo says being different had “something to do with” her role as Elphaba in ‘Wicked: Part 1.’ : NPR

For greater than 20 years, the musical Depraved has been a Broadway favourite. Now, The Wizard of Oz prequel is making the shift from the stage to the display. Since 2000, actresses all around the nation — and the world — have performed Elphaba, and the most recent powerhouse singer to don inexperienced face paint and belt that signature gravity-defying excessive word is Cynthia Erivo.

Erivo is not a stranger to excessive notes. She made her Broadway debut in 2015, starring as Celie Harris within the revival of The Colour Purple – a task that gained her the 2016 Tony Award for Finest Actress in a Musical.

Erivo visited NPR’s New York studio earlier than the movie’s launch to speak with All Issues Thought-about host Scott Detrow about moving into the long-lasting function.

This interview has been edited for size and readability.

Interview highlights

Scott Detrow: From the primary few seconds of the movie, I used to be simply so blown away by the visuals and the world of Oz, and the way in which that [the movie] portrays it. I am simply questioning, what did it really feel prefer to step onto that set in full costume and make-up and simply inhabit that world for the primary time?

Cynthia Erivo: I imply, it was actually, actually overwhelming. And I believe the beauty of doing it the way in which we have now, is that the whole lot is actually sensible. So [production designer] Nathan Crowley and his great set designing workforce created the world of Oz so after we have been on the set, we have been on the set. Little or no inexperienced display, little or no blue display. You’ll be able to contact it, you possibly can really feel it. It felt like you possibly can kind of disappear into the world. I liked the sensation. It was very overwhelming. That very first day was lots. (laughs)

Detrow: Going into this, I am curious, how a lot did Depraved the musical or The Wizard of Oz – how massive did these two loom in your thoughts rising up? You are a lifelong theater particular person, musical particular person…

Erivo: Clearly, The Wizard of Oz for me — was first. It was lots of my childhood. We used to look at it as a household. And in London, you used to have Saturday movies, weekend movies, and they might come on, I believe it was Channel 4. After which, once I was at drama college, I believe I used to be about 20 years previous, that is once I heard about Depraved as a result of I began studying the music. A good friend of mine would steal away with me to a piano room, and we’d sit on the piano and we’d be taught the libretto. By the point I left drama college at about 23, I knew the music just like the again of my hand – and I would by no means seen the present!

By the point I used to be 25, once I might afford a ticket to go to the West Finish, I purchased myself a solo ticket and took myself on a date – it was my birthday – to see Depraved. I believe there’s one thing a couple of story — about an individual who looks like they’re on the skin — who’s handled like they’re completely different. That kind of clung to me. I obtained it instantly.

Detrow: What do you suppose you’d have thought in that second if anyone stated, “And down the road, you may be starring within the film model of this, going all around the world speaking about it”?

Erivo: I might most likely have stated, “I am going to imagine it once I see it.” You realize, I barely believed that I used to be going to go to Broadway with The Colour Purple, so I do not know if I might have believed them, to be sincere.

Detrow: When you concentrate on the themes of Depraved, there’s a very highly effective “us vs. them” present working via the film. Have you ever given thought to how related that’s on this specific second in time?

Erivo: Yeah, and it retains developing about how related it’s proper now. However I do not suppose that ever adjustments. I believe that it stays related. I believe we maintain being reminded of it. We’re nonetheless shunning sure individuals. We’re nonetheless not making area for individuals. However there may be room to vary. There may be room for empathy, there may be room for development. So, I do suppose it is all the time going to be related. I believe it was related when The Wizard of Oz got here out, and I believe it is related proper now.

Depraved tells the origin story of Elphaba, the Depraved Witch of the West (Cynthia Erivo), and her friendship with Galinda, who turns into Glinda the Good (Ariana Grande).

Giles Keyte/Common Footage

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Giles Keyte/Common Footage

Detrow: This can be a film that, as a musical – as you effectively know – so many individuals have related with so deeply as a result of so many individuals have felt in a technique or one other like an outsider. What do you say to anyone who’s listened to that soundtrack 7,000 instances as a result of they really feel like an outsider?

Erivo: I might say that that factor that makes you are feeling like an outsider is that factor that additionally makes you particular. I am positively not like your cookie-cutter, regular, on a regular basis being. I am very completely different, ? And it takes time to be okay with that. However the second you’re, it’s totally releasing.

There’s one thing about you. You are completely different, and that is okay. And it is perhaps the factor that will get you precisely the place that you must be. I do not suppose that if I did not perceive what it’s prefer to really feel completely different, what it is prefer to really feel such as you’re on the skin, that this [role] would have come my approach. This can be a large second, and my desires are coming true, however I believe it positively has one thing to do with how completely different I really feel and have been, ?

Be courageous. You may be okay.