Cynthia Erivo’s awards season keeps on going tonight at the Critics Choice Awards. The Best Actress nominee, who performed at the Grammys just days ago, wore a sultry deep-cut peplum column gown this evening. The patent-effect look was by Giorgio Armani Privé and had hand-embroidered camellias at the waist. She posed on the red carpet by herself.
Erivo spoke in ELLE’s 2024 Women in Hollywood issue about her experience shooting Wicked. The Elphaba actress sang live and performed her own stunts for the film, which led her to develop a strict regimen. “I was up at six o’clock in the morning on my treadmill training,” she said. “I would run and sing on the treadmill. I was always making sure that my body was ready. I needed to get my body used to being on wires [for the flight scenes]. There’s a thrill that I got from it. I enjoyed the powerfulness of being able to get on a wire and be flipped upside down. It’s not going to go right the first time—maybe the second or third—and that’s okay.”
She also opened up about her relationship with Ariana Grande, who played Glinda. “I’ve gained a sister,” Erivo said. “At this point, we speak almost every day. Both of us were blown away by how connected we were immediately. I remember the first day we got to come together. It was at [director] Jon M. Chu’s house, and Stephen Schwartz [who wrote Wicked’s music and lyrics for both the OG Broadway musical and the film] was over. He played some songs for us, and we sang together for the first time. It worked. It’s a very intimate thing to sing with someone. There’s a really beautiful dance—I need to follow you, you have to follow me. It was one of the most gratifying things to know that there was someone who was that open and available, because she was, and that meant I could be as well.”
