Apparently, shadows are racist.
Then again, so is breathing. And yoga. And dust. Why not shadows?
Cynthia Erivo, who plays Elphaba in the upcoming film rendition of "Wicked," is lashing out at a fan who altered a movie poster to cast half Erivo's face in shadows, with the actress calling it “the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen.”
Which, if that's indeed true, points to a remarkably sheltered life. But I digress.
It also started when the studio released this poster for the film, featuring Glenda - played by Ariana Grande - whispering in Elphaba’s ear:
A fan then took that poster and altered it to look more like the famous Broadway film version, in which Elphaba’s eyes are shadowed by her iconic wide-brimmed black hat. The edited version also changed Elphaba’s lips to red and tilted them up in a slight grin, also similar to the Broadway poster.
For those who’ve seen it, the original poster art reflects the presumed “wickedness” of Elphaba’s misunderstood character, with the shadows symbolizing the secrecy she shares with Glenda, and having nothing at all to do with race.
But despite the edited poster being one fan's obvious nod to the original Broadway artwork, Erivo, who is black, called the fan-altered movie poster “degrading.”
“This is the wildest, most offensive thing I have seen, equality to that awful AI of us fighting, equal to people post the question ‘is your ***** green’ None of this is funny. None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us,” Erivo ranted in an Instagram post.
“Our poster is an homage not an imitation, to edit my face and hide my eyes is to erase me. And that is just deeply hurtful,” Erivo added. She left no doubt that she was deeply offended by the faked movie poster.
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“The original poster is an illustration. I am a real life human being, whose chose to look right down the barrel of the camera to you, the viewer…because without words we communicate with our eyes,” she went on.
And our rear ends, it seems.
While most people with half a brain thought Erivo’s little outburst was ridiculous, a few of her fans took up for her on social media, backing her suggestion that the edited version of the poster is somehow racist.
"All of you supposed 'wicked fans' should be f---ing ashamed of yourselves. I don’t care how much you love the original poster. For a show that's all about prejudice and the color of a young woman’s skin the racism couldn’t be any clearer. You do not deserve this film," one X user posted.
“Re: the Wicked poster controversy: the optics of editing a Black, queer woman’s face aren’t great. All they’ve done to Ariana is move her hand, while they’ve hidden Cynthia’s eyes and changed her mouth,” another wrote.
Or...maybe a longtime “Wicked” fan just wanted to make a movie poster that looked like the famous playbill art, which has been featured at the Gershwin Theater for more than 20 years.
Someone should really let Erivo know that not everything is about her. And while they’re at it, tell all these leftwing nutbags with too much time on their hands that not everything is about race.
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