Cynthia Erivo fires after being mocked as Ariana Grande’s ‘bodyguard’

Nigerian-British actress Cynthia Erivo has spoken out after she was mocked online for protecting her Wicked co-star Ariana Grande during a frightening red-carpet incident.

The Oscar-nominated actress said the jokes that followed the incident exposed what she described as the “insidious” way Black women are often viewed.

Erivo, 39, was with Grande at the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good when a fan suddenly rushed towards them on the red carpet and grabbed the American singer.

The incident quickly drew international attention, with reports saying the Australian man involved was later sentenced to nine days in prison.

Speaking to Variety, Erivo said the moment was terrifying because the man would not let go of Grande.

“Nobody moved. Nobody moved,” she said.

“So I moved because my brain went, ‘Get him away! Get him out of here!’ My immediate reaction was, ‘Get him away from us.’”

According to Erivo, many people who watched the viral clip did not understand what was happening in the moment.

“What people couldn’t see is that he wouldn’t let go of Grande. He wouldn’t let go. So I just kept pushing at him to get him off,” she said.

“A stranger is a stranger. Personal space is still personal space. It doesn’t belong to anyone, even if you feel you know the person. In that moment, we were all terrified.”

But after the video went viral, social media users began making jokes about Erivo acting as Grande’s “bodyguard.”

The actress said the reaction was painful because people reduced her instinctive act of protection to jokes about her body, appearance and role beside Grande.

“I think that we haven’t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women,” Erivo said.

She added that some of the jokes focused on her physique, shape and bald look, creating the impression that she was expected to be the stronger, controlling or protective one.

“That’s what was being made fun of. It was my physique, it was my shape, it was the fact that I was bald; it was about what I looked like,” she said.

“And because of that, there was this assumption that I was bigger than my co-star and so I had to be controlling or protecting, and that was my role.”

Erivo said she doubted the reaction would have been the same if the roles had been reversed.

The actress also revealed that the incident affected her emotionally, saying she felt her “humanity had been bastardised.”

She said what she did was purely instinctive, but the online reaction turned it into something else because of how some people see women who look like her.

“I felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not,” she said.

Erivo, who plays Elphaba in the hit Wicked films, also addressed the public scrutiny surrounding her close friendship with Grande.

According to her, many people made assumptions about their bond without knowing the reality.

“I think that people didn’t really believe that we were actually friends. But that’s also because people don’t know me very well,” she said.

“If I’m a friend, then I’m a friend. If I’m not, then I’m not.”

The actress said the backlash and mockery made her uncomfortable with the idea of campaigning for awards, as she did not feel she deserved to be put through another round of public scrutiny.