{"id":849,"date":"2024-12-18T12:13:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T12:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/?p=422888"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"cynthia-erivo-reveals-she-was-behind-the-choice-for-elphaba-to-have-micro-braids-in-wicked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/18\/cynthia-erivo-reveals-she-was-behind-the-choice-for-elphaba-to-have-micro-braids-in-wicked\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Erivo reveals she was behind the choice for Elphaba to have micro-braids in Wicked"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cynthia Erivo has opened up about some of the amazing details she brought to the role when she bagged <a href=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/tag\/wicked\">Elphaba in Wicked<\/a>, and she has now told us that one of the most distinct things about Elphaba&#8217;s design was the fact she came up with the idea that Elphaba should have micro braids for her hair style. In the entire history of Wicked, Cynthia Erivo is only the second Black woman to play the character.<\/p>\n<p>In a new interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2024\/artisans\/news\/cynthia-erivo-micro-braids-elphaba-so-that-wicked-could-honor-black-women-1236251657\/\">Variety<\/a>, Cynthia Erivo shared how Elphaba in the Wicked film came to have the distinctive and instantly iconic micro braids she has in the movie, and how she really pushed for it to be the way that we all saw in the final product.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked if we could reimagine that hair as micro-braids because I knew you\u2019d still have the movement, and you could still have the length, but there was a texture that was slightly different to what you would normally see on stage,&#8221; Cynthia Erivo told the publication.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a direct connection between me as a Black woman and Elphaba as a green lady,\u201d Erivo continued. She has opened up a few times about the ways Elphaba &#8220;connected to the person underneath me&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-445\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2024\/11\/MV5BN2FmYWExZDgtZjQwMi00OTNjLWI4OTUtMGI3OTkwM2QyZmJlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXZ3ZXNsZXk@._V1_.jpg\" alt=\"ephaba wicked shiz university\" width=\"1318\" height=\"741\" \/><\/p>\n<p>She also told Variety earlier that she hopes her portrayal is &#8220;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\u2019t been welcomed. To anyone who\u2019s walked into a room and felt like they haven\u2019t been welcomed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_29-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\">&#8220;I am really glad to be the conduit through which this character has been brought to the world.<\/p>\n<p>As well as the distinct push to have her hair as micro braids, Cynthia Erivo had previously told <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/cynthia-erivo-pushed-for-elphaba-to-have-micro-braids-in-wicked-8763215\">PEOPLE<\/a> how she used Elphaba&#8217;s nails as another detail to soak into the Wicked character.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was doing the research for this character, and I noticed that the original Wicked Witch had nails,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I wanted a progression. How she grows as a witch and a woman. Some people wear makeup, I always have my nails done. It\u2019s like another extended way of expressing myself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>For more like this and for the latest memes, quizzes, updates and general pop culture chaos \u2013\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thetabglobal\/\">like The Tab on Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;It was a direct connection between me as a Black woman and Elphaba as a green lady&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":704,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[42,65,4,43],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-ariana-grande","tag-cynthia-erivo","tag-film","tag-wicked"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.4 (Yoast SEO 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the Wicked film and pushed for the choice.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/thetab.com\/filmshrine\/2024\/12\/18\/cynthia-erivo-reveals-she-was-behind-the-choice-for-elphaba-to-have-micro-braids-in-wicked\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Film Shrine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-12-18T12:13:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.filmshrine.com\/uploads\/2024\/12\/unnamed-1439.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harrison Brocklehurst\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Harrison Brocklehurst\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta 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