Celebrity
Cynthia Erivo Addressed Ariana Grande’s Scary Wicked Fan Encounter
“I just wanted to make sure my friend was safe.”
Wicked is a story of friendship, and a beautiful new one emerged from the two-part movie musical. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande formed a special bond that’s been evident ever since they took on their roles as Elphaba and Glinda. Perhaps the clearest example came during a scary moment at the Wicked: For Good premiere in Singapore on Nov. 13, when Erivo’s “instinct” was to protect Grande, as she explained on Today on Nov. 20.
A Heroic Act Of Friendship
During the alarming incident, Australian influencer Johnson Wen jumped over the barrier and managed to get an arm around Grande, per The New York Times. Footage from the red carpet shows Erivo quickly moving to protect her. She rushed over to push Wen away before security could get to him, and then she and co-star Michelle Yeoh comforted a shaken Grande. Wen was later arrested and given a nine-day jail sentence after pleading guilty to one charge of being a public nuisance.
“I wasn’t really thinking,” Erivo told Savannah Guthrie on Today. “I just wanted to make sure my friend was safe, you know? I’m sure he didn’t mean us harm, but I just, you never know with those things, and I wanted to make sure she was OK. That was my first instinct.”
The Wicked Bond
Erivo and Grande were cast in Wicked without a chemistry test, but they found the magic “instantly,” as Erivo put it on the Today show. She went into greater detail about their first meeting during a Deadline interview in November 2024, recalling how it was “really easy” right away.
“The first time we met was at my house,” she said. “We sat and chatted for a good few hours — five — and I think we just saw each other immediately. It was really easy. We didn’t have to think about it, we just were there and that has continued.”
Erivo added that their relationship has been the “most fruitful” of her life, and she’s not alone in valuing it so highly. One of the many times Grande sang Erivo’s praises was that June, when she told People, “There’s no one like her.”
“I hope we learned a lot from each other, but I learned so much as a person from her,” she said. “And she loves hard. She is a Capricorn, and she loves hard and honestly and right.”
More recently, on Nov. 19, Grande made it clear on The Tonight Show that their friendship will continue even once their Wicked obligations are done. “We’ve become quite codependent,” Grande said. “All of us.”
Erivo shared a similar sentiment on Today, saying, “This is a long-lasting friendship for us. We’re kind of like sisters at this point.”
They even have matching tattoos to prove it.
