I felt my humanity was bastardised': Cynthia Erivo says reaction to Ariana Grande red carpet incident rooted in racism

A red-carpet incident at the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good involved a man who jumped a barrier and rushed toward Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Erivo said she moved to push the invader away because he would not let go of Grande, while others did not react. She emphasized that personal space belongs to no one, even when people feel familiar. The event drew social media speculation that she was acting as Grande’s bodyguard, which she rejected. Erivo linked the backlash to the insidious ways Black women are viewed, including mockery of appearance and assumptions that she was controlling or protective. She said the experience made her feel her humanity was distorted and put her off campaigning for Oscars.

"Erivo said that she and Grande were terrified when Johnson Wen jumped a barrier at Universal Studios Singapore and rushed towards them. Nobody moved. Nobody moved. So I moved because my brain went, Get him away! Get him out of here!' 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."

"Erivo added: A stranger is a stranger. Personal space is still personal space. It doesn't belong to anyone, even if you feel you know the person, she says. In that moment, we were all terrified. Wen, who has a history of disrupting public events, was sentenced to nine days in jail."

"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. 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. I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around. Saying I just felt like my humanity had been bastardised, Erivo s"

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