On the latest episode of the Las Culturistas podcast cohosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, Cynthia Erivo spilled some piping hot behind-the-scenes tea on how the SAG-AFTRA strike of 2023 — and a subsequent illness that had her feeling sick for over a week — had a deep impact on filming the iconic "Defying Gravity" musical number in the Wicked movie.
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Yang, who plays Pfannee in Wicked: Part One, described how Erivo (Elphaba) and Michelle Yeoh (Madame Morrible) woke up at 5 a.m. every day on set to run, walk, and do Pilates, which had him in awe. "But there was no other way to do this role," Erivo explained. "I needed the physical movement not just for the actual physicality of it, but for the emotion of it all. I needed to be physical because I needed to make sure my body was ready for the flight work and harness work."
Erivo was, of course, referring to the triumphant and high-stakes "Defying Gravity" musical number, which prompted Yang to remember that the Wicked production only "had 12 days left of shooting [when] the SAG strike happened," adding that "the way things were segmented, 'Defying Gravity' was the last thing there was [to film]."
Yang continued, "So I'm thinking, 'Wow, Cynthia is holding onto this,' and considering that it's all leading up to this thing, [which] is going to be talked about, and will be very difficult to pull off, and it's a collaborative thing with you, and Jon [M. Chu,] and everybody… and then the strike happens. Wiiild! Wild sort of, like, stoppage."
"You're at the bridge, and then you don't cross it," Erivo agreed.
Cynthia Erivo in 'Wicked.'
Universal Pictures
"What was that like for you?" Yang asked. "What was it like to go back to it?"
Erivo explained:
"At first, it started off like torture because I felt like I was ready. We had gotten right there, and I was like, 'OK, we're ready. I'm game. I'm fit. I'm good to do this.' And then I had to accept we weren't coming back quickly. But you don't let go of… they don't go anywhere. The character is sort of, like, sitting in you. So, I'm still getting my body ready, working out, working like I'm still on set, but not on set."
"I'm doing all those things: trying to feed my body, making sure that I'm working out the way I need to work out, making sure that I'm keeping my voice the way I need it to be," she continued. "But also having to let it go, just a little bit, so that I don't drive myself insane. Because it's still there, and I'm still waiting — there's the anticipation of having to do it. It never really left, until we came back."
And yet, even as the SAG-AFTRA strike of 2023 came to a close, that still wasn't the end of Erivo's gravity-defying journey to film this showstopping musical number. "When I come back, I'm ready to do it, and then I get ill," she reveals.
"Ohhh, I forgot about this!" Yang exclaimed. "What happened?" Rogers asked.
Erivo described "the worst kind" of illness that even had her skin hurting. "I was in on my birthday," she recalled, "rehearsing and training for 'flying.' The next day, totaled."
"I remember I had wrapped, and I came back to New York," Yang said. "And then they were like, 'Cynthia's sick.' I was like, 'God, let this woman live! Let this woman know peace!'"
Erivo went on, "I was so sick. Like, running a fever, the fever would break, [and] then the fever would come back again. I was like, 'When is this going to stop?' It just went on for like a week. A whole week and a half, I was done, down."
"So, I was like, 'OK…? When are we going to do this?' Because at this point, I'm annoyed with myself!" she said, remembering her frustration. "I'm like, 'Why is this happening now?!'"
Yang asked, "Is there something in retrospect, now, where you're like, 'God, it was like one last mountain to scale,' or something?"
"Yeah, I think so," Erivo replied. "I think the universe was forcing me to earn it, really earn it."
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in 'Wicked.'​
Universal Pictures
Yang, Rogers, and Erivo shared a laugh about the absurdity of this entire situation that led up to the filming of "Defying Gravity" in Wicked. "But it really was that last… sort of, like, 'Let's see. Do you really want to do this?'" Erivo mused. "It really felt like that. So, when we got there, I was like, 'Right, let's go. Let's do this.'"
"You f*cking earned it, that's all we can say," Yang remarked. "But god, it is… This is what I'm telling people; this is my little press quote: my favorite last 10 minutes of a film in cinema history."
"It's epic," Rogers agreed, and Erivo thanked them.
You can watch Cynthia Erivo's full episode on Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang on iHeartRadio's official YouTube channel — and make sure to see Wicked when it premieres Friday, November 22 in theaters.
