'What you see is really me,' says 'Wicked' star Cynthia Erivo
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There's a moment in the new movie, Wicked: For Good, when Elphaba, the so-called Wicked Witch, stops defending herself to a world that has misunderstood her and embraces her own power. Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba, sees a connection between her character's trajectory and her own.
"There were so many sort of real parallels — the relationship with her father, the relationship to being in spaces that don't really include you," Erivo says. "The feelings you see in the movie are very real feelings."
Erivo grew up in London as the child of Nigerian immigrants. From an early age, it was evident that she had a powerful singing voice. She attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but felt like an outsider.
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"It was a tough experience to be there. I just didn't think I fit," she says. "And I think there was sort of a lack of wanting to understand where I was coming from or who I was as a person."
Erivo first broke through on Broadway in
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