Ariana Grande Weighs in on Cynthia Erivo’s Criticism of Fan-Edited ‘Wicked’ Posters and NSFW Meme: ‘I Find AI So Conflicting and Troublesome Sometimes’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Ariana Grande is weighing in on her “Wicked” co-star Cynthia Erivo’s recent slam of fan-edited “Wicked” posters and AI content.
A poster released by Universal was tweaked by a fan to mimic the original Broadway poster by lowering Elphaba’s witch hat to cover Erivo’s eyes. In addition to the poster, Erivo called out an AI-generated animation that featured the poster morphing into a fight between the two stars as their “Wicked” characters.
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“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,” Grande told me exclusively at the Academy Museum Gala Saturday in Los Angeles. “It’s so much bigger than us, and the fans are gonna have fun and make their edits.”
When I suggested that sometimes things can go “too far,” Grande said, “I think so. 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.”
Erivo blasted the fan-edited poster and AI-generated video on Wednesday in an Instagram story. She also criticized the “is your p—- green?” memes that have long circulated around the musical. “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 p—- green?” Erivo wrote while sharing one of the photoshopped “Wicked” posters with her face covered. “None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”
Universal and director Jon M. Chu have adapted the “Wicked” Broadway musical into a two-part movie, the first of which arrives in theaters in November. The musical is set at Shiz University in Oz as Elphaba and Glinda become roommates and unlikely friends. In addition to Erivo and Grande, the film’s supporting cast includes Michelle Yeoh, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum and Bowen Yang.
I also asked Grande if she and Erivo could record original music together in the future. “I love being in the studio with her, even just as like a fly on the wall, hearing what she’s working on and having her there when I’m working,” she said. “I think we are stuck with each other, professionally and personally for the rest of our lives. So I would say absolutely.”
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