Ariana Grande Calls ‘Wicked’ Meme Controversy ‘Complicated’ After Cynthia Erivo Slams Fan Edits
Ariana Grande is weighing in on the Wicked memes after Cynthia Erivo called certain AI-generated videos and fan-made edits “offensive” and “deeply hurtful.”
While speaking to Variety on the Academy Museum Gala red carpet Saturday (Oct. 19), the pop star said that she thinks the situation is “very complicated.” “I find AI so conflicting and troublesome sometimes, but I think it’s just kind of such a massive adjustment period,” she continued. “This is something that is so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.”
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“I think so,” Grande responded when asked whether fans sometimes go “too far” with their edits. “And 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.”
The R.E.M. Beauty founder’s comments come three days after Erivo made headlines for slamming one fan’s Wicked edit, for which they’d photoshopped the upcoming film’s poster to look more like the original poster for the Wicked Broadway musical. “This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen,” the Pinocchio star wrote at the time. “Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me.”
Erivo went on to say that the altered poster was “equal to that awful Ai of us fighting” — referring to a viral AI-generated video that animated a fight between the Emmy winner and “Yes, And?” singer using their likenesses on the same movie poster — and “equal to” a long-running, vulgar joke in the Wicked community.
“None of this is funny,” she’d added. “None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
The premiere of the first of two Wicked films is set for Nov. 22, featuring Erivo as Elphaba and Grande as Glinda. Directed by Jon M. Chu, the duology will also star Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater and Bowen Yang.
The project’s soundtrack — which also arrives Nov. 22 — will showcase the live vocals Erivo and Grande performed on set. While speaking to Variety, the “We Can’t Be Friends” artist confirmed that she’d “absolutely” love to work with her fellow-leading lady on more music beyond the films, saying, “I think we are stuck with each other, professionally and personally for the rest of our lives.”
Watch Grande share her thoughts on the Wicked meme situation below.
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