Cynthia Erivo says Pinocchio was her Glinda moment before Elphaba in Wicked
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Before Grammy and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo defies gravity as the green-skinned Elphaba in the two Wicked movies, she's getting her Glinda moment.
Erivo shines bright as the Blue Fairy in Disney's live-action, CG-animated Pinocchio, which is available to stream now on Disney+. The star appreciates the symbiosis between this role and Elphaba, the supposed Wicked Witch of the West she'll play opposite Ariana Grande's Glinda.
"The thing is I didn't realize it until I was like, 'Oh! I have my good witch fairy moment and now we're heading to Elphaba.' And I kind of love the two-four of it," she tells EW. "This is the good and what we thought was evil. But I love that they're so different. They're very, very different characters, but they both have pragmatism in them."
Disney and director Robert Zemeckis reached out to Erivo through her agents with the offer to play the Blue Fairy, the magical being who sings the classic song "When You Wish Upon a Star" and brings the little puppet Pinocchio (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) to life. She jumped at the chance. "Who doesn't want to be a Blue Fairy?" she remarks. Over a Zoom conversation with Zemeckis, the filmmaker behind Back to the Future and Forrest Gump told Erivo he wanted a fairy who was practical and pragmatic, someone who knows more than most people, but who is also warm and loving.
Disney Cynthia Erivo as the Blue Fairy brings a wooden puppet to life in Disney's new 'Pinocchio'
"I loved the idea of that beautiful dichotomy of qualities coming together in that person," Erivo recalls of that discussion. "And I asked him what he wanted her to look like. He was like, 'Well... you!' At the time I had bleach-blonde hair but still very short. I had my nails. As you can see in those clips [from the film], I've got the wonderful ear ornaments on. They really injected this character with parts of me that already exist, which I really appreciate."
Erivo also injects herself into "When You Wish Upon a Star," the melody from the original Pinocchio that now opens every Walt Disney Pictures production as the logo of the Magic Castle appears on screen. The actress, who previously brought Aretha Franklin to life in Genius, had already performed the song as part of a recorded duet with Vera Lynn's version.
"I knew that I didn't want it to become just a new, foreign piece of music," Erivo says. "When we did it, I thought, 'I just want it to feel as though it's coming from my heart.' It is a song about following one's dreams and being unafraid to wish, and I truly believe that's something I do. I wanted to make sure that I communicated that through the song, as well as making sure that people recognize this monumental piece of music that we hear every single time we watch a Disney film, or even a series. I approached it, first, as purely as I possibly could. What is the melody? What are things that I do with my voice naturally without pushing, and how do we marry the two things together?"
The Oscar nominee knows how to put her own stamp on classic songs. Since her Hollywood Bowl performance in 2021 at the Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, her performance of "Don't Rain On My Parade" from Funny Girl — with which she opened that concert — has gained a second wind in popularity. Larry Owens of A Strange Loop and Abbott Elementary posted a video to TikTok of him beside Erivo as she sang the piece on the streets of New York City.
Erivo says that moment was full of joy. Owens had been en route to meet a friend when he bumped into her, and he had heard she performed "Don't Rain On My Parade." "Then I just started singing it and he started recording it. I didn't realize what a big fan of the show he was," she says. "It was just kismet."
No one, however, has ever approached her about possibly starring as Fanny Brice in a production of Funny Girl. Though, Erivo loves Barbra Streisand. "I'm one of the purists who really love On a Clear Day You Can See Forever," she notes of Streisand's 1970 movie. "But no one's asked me to do [Funny Girl]. Who knows? The thing is right now, obviously, we know what's happening with Broadway and that's a really beautiful moment and I hope I get to see it at some point." (Lea Michele is currently starring as Fanny Brice in Broadway's Funny Girl, following Beanie Feldstein's departure from the role.) "But it's one of those pieces that I've always been a fan of. I've watched that movie enough times at this point to know it."
At the very least, Erivo thinks she might now incorporate "When You Wish Upon a Star" into her concerts. Maybe even at the Hollywood Bowl, to which she says she will return at some point. "That can be lovely," she remarks. "I like that idea a lot."
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