Cynthia Erivo Embraces Her Black Queer Identity, Calls ‘Wicked’ a ‘Love Letter’

From tear-jerking interviews along the Wicked press tour, to holding space for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity,” Cynthia Erivo‘s run as the green-skinned Elphaba has been nothing less of a whirlwind. In a new interview with Variety, Erivo opened up about how her identity as a queer Black woman has helped others connect further with the ostracized Wicked Witch of the West.

“I feel like I’ve been given this incredible gift of a character whose raison d’être is to show that all of your difference is what makes you special,” Erivo said. “That you can soar above anyone’s expectations, that you can be everything you’re meant to be, and that the search to finding that can be hard, but when it happens, it can be really freeing, really beautiful.”

Erivo joins a slim company of Black women who have starred in the leading roles of the popular musical. In February 2022, Brittney Johnson became the first Black actor to star as Glinda in Broadway’s Wicked, concluding her run after a year. Lucy St. Louis and Alexia Khadime began starring as Glinda and Elphaba, respectively, in a London production last year.

“I hope it’s a bit of a love letter to everyone who feels different, who feels out of place, to all of the Black women who have walked into rooms and felt like they haven’t been welcomed,” Erivo said. “To anyone who’s walked into a room and felt like they haven’t been welcomed. I am really glad to be the conduit through which this character has been brought to the world.”

Erivo came out as queer publicly in 2022, in a British Vogue cover story. In May, the Wicked star was honored at the Los Angeles LGBT Center Gala, where she shared that she related to her onscreen counterpart’s feelings of otherness and how those characteristics helped her discover her superpower.

“Wicked is a reclamation and a reimagining of the labels used against her,” Erivo said as she received the Schrader Award. “It is the proclamation of her right to exist in all her power. If that sounds familiar to you colorful, magical people in this room — it should.”