Tony Award-winning and Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba Thropp (better known as the Wicked Witch of the West of Wizard of Oz fame) in the upcoming movie version of the musical “Wicked,” has taken umbrage to a fan modifying a promotional image for the movie to more closely resemble the illustration used for the stage presentation. 

The high drama, or low comedy if you prefer, started on October 9, 2024, when a side-by-side of the movie poster and the illustration used for the stage presentation appeared.

THE ICONIC WICKED POSTER HAS BEEN RELEASED pic.twitter.com/lt1Zzyl8Yp

— ໊ (@buffys) October 9, 2024

A fan decided to play with Photoshop and make the movie poster look more like the theater poster. At the site of this, Erivo had a public freak out.

Cynthia Erivo reacts to edits of the ‘Wicked’ poster and the viral AI fighting animation:

“Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.” pic.twitter.com/R7jGz0Nxnx

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 16, 2024

The full text of Erivo’s philippic will be studied for decades as a prime example of what happens when a celebrity takes a non-personal issue so personally that they completely lose their mind.

This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen,

There’s a lot to unpack here.

If this digital reworking of a movie poster to look like the familiar play poster is the wildest, most offensive thing Erivo has ever seen, she is in dire need of getting out of the house more often. Or going online more often. Would anyone care to forward her a link to some of the videos that Hamas terrorists filmed on October 9, 2023? 

Rape, mutilation, murder, putting babies in ovens, stuff like that? One would hope she has never seen such. Or footage from the liberation of concentration camps in World War Two. If she has, and she still finds something a fan did presumably out of admiration for, and excitement about, the upcoming film to be the ultimate in horrific … Lord have mercy.

equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the question "is your ***** green"

I have far better things with which to occupy my time than looking for an AI-generated video of Erivo and Ariana Grande, who co-stars in the movie as Galinda, who eventually becomes Glinda the Good, going MMA on us. As to the “is your ***** green” question, logic dictates it comes with the territory when your character is — you know — green. Lighten up, Francis Cynthia.

None of this is funny

I wouldn’t be so sure about that, as your hysteria-laden overreaction has us in hysterics.

None of it is cute

It wasn’t meant to be. It was a loving tribute to a beloved musical.

It degrades me

Only in your feverishly self-obsessed mind.

It degrades us

On behalf of offended green-skinned witches everywhere, we apologize.

The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION.

Of FICTIONAL FANTASY CHARACTERS, JUST LIKE THE ONE YOU PLAY IN THE MOVIE.

I am a real life human being,

Playing a green-skinned witch in a fantasy land.

who chose to to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer ...because, without words we communicate with our eyes.

Hang on, let’s look at the stage presentation illustration again. We see only one character’s eyes, said character whispering something to the other person, who is smirking. Which, without eyes, tells us a lot about what is happening. We know these are the good and wicked witches from Oz. The good witch is trying to dissuade the wicked witch, who is having none of it. At least that’s my impression.

Now, compare that to the movie poster. The blank stare on Erivo’s character’s face makes it difficult to tell if Grande’s character is telling her a secret, trying to move her away from pursuing evil, or asking her about her car’s extended warranty. The problem here is not hiding Erivo’s eyes. It’s how the Elphaba in the illustration is a better actress.

Our poster is an homage not an imitation,

The dictionary defines homage as “respect or reverence paid or rendered.” Let us review. A modification of the well-known image is an homage, but a modification of the modification to more closely resemble the original is an affront? Really?

to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful.

Get. Over. Yourself. 

You’re playing a green-skinned witch in a fictitious land, not Harriet Tubman. (For the record, Erivo has played Tubman on screen.) Taking personal offense over a fan-created image made out of love for and in honor of your latest flick is the greatest act of project destruction since the summer of 2023 when Rachel Zegler trashed the Snow White character after playing her in a movie. Disney still hasn’t released the film.

It must be nice to live in Cynthia Erivo’s world, one in which lashing out at fans, otherwise known as the people who pay her salary by buying movie tickets, does little more than raise a few eyebrows online. Nice … but utterly pathetic.