Cynthia Erivo had one request when it came to Elphaba’s hair.
Erivo, 37, opened up about the micro braids she donned while playing Elphaba in Wicked, while chatting with Variety on Tuesday, December 17. While other actresses who played Elphaba wore their hair in black waves, Erivo opted for braids to feel “a direct connection between me as a Black woman and Elphaba as a green lady.”
“I asked if we could reimagine that hair as micro-braids because I knew you’d still have the movement, and you could still have the length, but there was a texture that was slightly different to what you would normally see on stage,” Erivo explained. She added that the hair added a connection “to the person underneath [the green paint], me.”
While playing Elphaba, Erivo styled her plaids in bigger braids, ponytails, half-up coifs and more.
The hit Broadway musical Wicked is being adapted into two films, and Cynthia Erivo loves that the movies expand upon the stage version. “What’s wonderful about the show is that you get an insight into why this woman becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, but you have only three hours to do it in,” […]
Erivo, who shaved her hair and eyebrows ahead of playing Elphaba so her scalp could be painted green too, previously got candid about rocking micro-braids in November. “I wanted to show how versatile braids could be, and how much fun you could have with them,” she told The British Blacklist. The singer added how “emotional the hair could be,” in scenes where lots of “movement” is required.
Cynthia Erivo Karwai Tang/WireImage
Besides her hair, Elphaba goes through a nail transformation as she grows into her powers. As Elphaba gets stronger and transforms into the Wicked Witch of the West, her nails get longer and darker, courtesy of her longtime manicurist, Shea Osei.
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in ‘Wicked.’ Universal Pictures
Erivo gave Osei a shoutout via Instagram after filming wrapped, gushing, “Meet my dear friend @shadesofshea_, who I’ve known and have been working with since I was 16!! 💚,” she wrote alongside a post of her dressed in Elphaba’s costume. “She was the first person I thought of when we decided to have Elphaba’s nails grow and change throughout the films, in tandem with her personal transformation.”
Not everyone can pull off Cynthia Erivo’s style. Erivo, 37, looked wicked chic while visiting CBS Studios on Tuesday, December 2. For her outing, she sparkled in a black dress featuring silver specks, a high neck, long sleeves and a chrome zipper on the front. The most eye-catching detail of her frock was the protruding […]
Erivo also sported long, green bejewled nails during the Wicked press tour, mixing Elphaba’s signature color with her own sparkling personality.