The Wicked press tour has officially gone on for so long that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are commenting on their own comments. Or, in the vernacular that arose like beautiful magic a few weeks ago, they’re taking a viral moment from a past junket with Out Magazine and really holding space with that and feeling the power in that.
Well, Erivo might be. Grande apparently “didn’t know what any part of it meant,” as she explained in a recent interview with Variety. She’s talking, of course, about journalist Tracy Gilchrist’s assertion that people were “taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that,” which prompted an emotional response from Erivo, and Grande to hold just one of her fingers in turn. “I didn’t understand the first sentence, and then I definitely didn’t understand… how you (Erivo) responded,” Grande continued. “I just wanted to be there. Because I knew something big was happening, and I didn’t know how to be there.”
Something big is right. The much-memed moment has found its way across social media, onto t-shirts (one of which is currently heading Grande’s way), and even into the vocal warmups of the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus. But Erivo, who seemed so moved by Gilchrist’s comments in the moment, apparently also “didn’t know what that meant.”
“I was surprised because I was like, ‘I had no idea.’ I hadn’t been looking,” Erivo continued. “After a while, I didn’t know how to be there.” All that confusion prompted Grande’s now-infamous finger grab, which she said she did because Erivo “might need something,” but she “didn’t know what the tapping was about.” (“Release of tension,” Erivo guesses.)
For her part, Gilchrist—who Grande took a moment to praise as “an amazing interviewer and a lovely person”—defined “holding space” in a previous Variety interview as “being physically, emotionally and mentally present” with something. She also explained that she had found “solace” in the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” in the wake of Trump’s election.
Grande and Erivo are also finding solace in the public’s response to the moment. “I do love how the world has gone with it,” Erivo said. Ariana, on the other hand, felt “really relieved that the world had the same experience with this moment that I did, because I felt like, ‘Oh, I’m not broken.’”
You can watch their full response below: