Cynthia Erivo Addresses Fans Calling Her Ariana Grande’s “Bodyguard”

Cynthia Erivo opened up about a scary incident on the Wicked press run, when a man got over the barricades and grabbed onto Ariana Grande at the November 2025 Singapore premiere. In a video of the altercation, Erivo defended Grande, pushing the man off of her and hugging her afterwards. Afterwards, some fans referred to Erivo as Grande’s “bodyguard” — a term that did not sit well with the British actor.

When asked about the “bodyguard” comments in a Variety interview, published May 27, Erivo explained her perspective on that particular narrative. “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,” she said. “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.”

According to Erivo, this assumption was a double standard. “I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around,” she added.

During the interview, Erivo recalled the exact moment the man approached the cast and held onto Grande. “Nobody moved. Nobody moved,” she said. “So I moved because my brain went, ‘Get him away! Get him out of here!’ My immediate reaction was ‘Get him away from us.’ And what people couldn’t see is that he wouldn’t let go [of Grande]. He wouldn’t let go. So I just kept pushing at him to get him off.”

She added, “In that moment, we were all terrified.”

Erivo also said that this online conversation impacted (at least, somewhat) her Oscar campaign for Wicked: For Good, preventing her from vying for an award. “I think maybe in a way it did, actually,” she ssaid. “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, and because of the assumptions that are made, and I just didn’t want to be a part of that, really and truly. I didn’t want to put myself through it. I didn’t feel like I deserved it.”

Plus, the sequel wasn’t generating as much Oscars buzz as its predecessor. “It felt like there was already a sort of upturned nose at the second installment, even though we all knew there was a second film coming and we were just doing our jobs,” she added.