Yahoo Movies Why is the Wicked movie poster controversial?
Cynthia Erivo has hit out at fans for being 'deeply hurtful'
The hotly-anticipated release of Wicked has been hit with controversy after star Cynthia Erivo called out some fans for a "deeply hurtful" edit of the film's poster.
Wicked is being adapted into a two-part film from the stage production, which tells the origins of Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, from The Wizard of Oz. In the lead up to its release the marketing team has created a number of promotional campaigns to support it.
One such campaign saw Erivo and her co-star Ariana Grande recreating the theatre production's poster, which features their characters Elphaba and Glinda the Good Witch. But this poster created controversy of its own amongst fans before Erivo's comments about it being altered, here is everything you need to know about why.
Why is the Wicked movie poster controversial?
In the poster, Elphaba is seen with her face in shadow and smiling a half-smile while Glinda is whispering into her ear. Fans of the Wicked musical were disappointed by the poster for the movie adaptation because it wasn't an exact recreation of the theatrical poster.
Read more: Wicked
As a result, one person altered the poster to more closely reflect the theatrical version so that Erivo's face was in shadow and she was smiling in the same way as the illustration. The user also added bright red lipstick to match the original poster, and altered Grande's hand positioning so that it covered her face in the same manner as the theatrical version.
Erivo shared the recreation in order to express her unhappiness over it, writing that the changes "erase" her and "degrades" both her and Grande.
In a statement shared on her Instagram stories, Erivo wrote: "This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equal to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people posing the question ‘is your ***** green.’ None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
The Tony winner went on: "The original poster is an ILLUSTRATION. I am a real life human being, who chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer... because, without words we communicate with our eyes.”
"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." The actor then shared the film's poster to "cleanse your palette".
Erivo's reaction to the edited poster went on to become a viral topic of debate, with some saying they felt she was taking it too seriously while others said her feelings are valid and shouldn't be undermined. The film's director Jon M. Chu shared Erivo's post and wrote that she was his "super-hero".
Grande was asked about the poster controversy by Variety, and she shared her support of Erivo by saying: "I think it's very complicated because I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it's just kind of such a massive adjustment period. This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.
"I have so much respect for my sister, Cynthia, and I love her so much. It's just a big adjustment period. It's so much stimulation about something that's so much bigger than us."
Speaking to Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet at the CFDA Fashion Awards on 29 October, Erivo said of her decision to speak out: “I’m passionate about it and I know the fans are passionate about it and I think for me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba, and it was like a human moment. I probably should have called my friends, but it’s fine.”
Wicked premieres in cinemas on Friday, 22 November.
