Cynthia Erivo Calls Out The Misogynoir Behind The Viral Wicked Memes

Cynthia Erivo has finally addressed the racism and misogynoir that followed her throughout the Wicked press tour, and frankly, people should have taken her concerns seriously from the beginning. Instead, the internet turned a petite Black woman protecting her friend into a “bodyguard” meme, stripping the moment of context and turning her care into a caricature.

In a new interview with Variety, Erivo reflects on surviving the intensity of the Wicked publicity cycle, why she stepped back from Oscar campaigning, and how quickly the public cast her as “aggressive” for responding to a situation that security failed to control.

Before we get into what she said, it is worth revisiting how the backlash began and why so much of it was never as harmless as people pretended.

Reminder: Security Breach and Cynthia Stepped Up

In November 2025, during the Wicked: For Good premiere in Singapore, a man vaulted over a barricade and grabbed Ariana Grande. Given Ariana’s history with trauma after the Manchester bombing, her visible shock was understandable. What was harder to understand was the apparent delay from security.

Cynthia Erivo reacted immediately. She stepped in, pushed the man away and protected her friend in a moment that could have escalated badly.

The internet’s response was revealing. Instead of recognising that Erivo had acted quickly in a frightening situation, people turned her into a punchline. Memes framed her as a hulking “bodyguard.” Caricatures exaggerated her size, even though Cynthia is petite. Comments described her as “masculine,” “aggressive” and “controlling.”

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SZA called it out at the time and used the correct word: misogynoir. Yet many people dismissed the backlash as “just jokes.” Now Cynthia is making the same point herself. The mockery was never harmless. It was rooted in how Black women are too often stripped of softness, care and vulnerability, even when they are simply protecting someone they love.

Cynthia Claps Back (Politely, Because She’s Classy)

In Variety, Cynthia sat down with K.J. Yossman and gave us her perspective and here’s the excerpt where she goes on to say that the memes and jokes made her pull back from Oscar campaigning. And honestly? I don’t blame her.

From Variety:
“I think that we haven’t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women. And I’m sure people will read this and think, ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, it’s not about that.’ But it is. Because 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. 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. I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around. I just felt like my humanity had been bastardized. I felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not because of the way people see women who look like me… I didn’t want to put myself through it. I didn’t feel like I deserved it.”

That final line is devastating. Cynthia Erivo is a Tony-winning, Emmy-winning, Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated actress, yet the online backlash was so relentless that it made her question whether she even deserved to campaign. That is not merely unfortunate. It speaks to a wider cultural failure in how Black women are scrutinised, flattened and punished in public life.

The ‘Tall Poppy’ Excuse and Why It’s Garbage

The Variety piece tries to offer alternative explanations: “tall poppy syndrome,” “overexposure,” “the internet loves a backlash.” And sure, maybe that’s part of it. But as Cynthia herself points out, the nature of the backlash was specifically about her Blackness, her bald head, her physique.

Let me remind you of something: When a white woman protects a friend, she’s a hero. Remember when Gigi Hadid threw an elbow at a prankster? Headlines called her “badass.” When Lucille Ball told a host to take his hands off a woman, she was “brave.” But when Cynthia does it? She’s “weird,” “obsessed,” and a “bodyguard.”

I’m not saying Ariana didn’t get backlash too; she did, for the crying and the “theatre kid energy.” But the extra layer aimed at Cynthia was SPECIFIC. It was about making a petite Black woman with a shaved head into a monster. And that is the definition of misogynoir.

Final Thoughts: Cynthia Owes Us Nothing

Cynthia Erivo is still moving forward. She is taking on Dracula, a demanding one-woman production with 23 characters and roughly 20,000 words. She ran the 2026 London Marathon in 3:21:40, beating her previous time of 3:35:36. She is also set to play South African music icon Miriam Makeba in The Road Home, an apartheid-era musical drama featuring Hugh Masekela and Paul Simon. Cynthia is clearly refusing to let online cruelty define her career or steal her joy.

But what matters most is that she is naming the dynamic directly. Yes, race was part of it. Yes, misogynoir was part of it. And no, reducing the backlash to “just jokes” does not erase the harm.

As she noted in the interview, she and Jonathan Bailey, both proudly gay, played a straight romantic couple without issue. Yet some people could not handle a Black lesbian woman having a close, affectionate friendship with a white woman without turning it into a spectacle.

That says far more about the audience than it does about Cynthia. So the message to the people who mocked, flattened and caricatured her is simple: do better. Cynthia Erivo earned her place, her success and her joy. She should not have to shrink herself to make the internet comfortable.

What do you think, readers? Are you glad Cynthia spoke out? Did you see the misogynoir in real time? Let us know in the comments.