How Wicked: For Good Transformed Cynthia Erivo And Rewrote What A Defining Role Can Be

There are performances that elevate a film, and then there are performances that alter the trajectory of the person giving them. Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba in Wicked and Wicked: For Good is the second kind.

Speaking at the Critics Choice Association Wicked: For Good press conference, she reflected on how this role became a years long act of devotion that reshaped her life, her craft, and her sense of purpose, perfectly aligned with the filmmakers’ vision of Elphaba as the emotional core of this closing chapter.

Knowing Elfaba Would Change Everything

From the outset, Erivo understood she was stepping into something enormous, even if the full impact was beyond imagining.

“I, I don’t think I could have fully prepared for what has happened since, since the first movie and what is happening now. I think I knew that it would be a life changing project project from the beginning. I just, I don’t think I knew knew how. I think I didn’t quite know the the gravity of, please excuse the pun, of what, it would what it would be.

But I knew from the beginning that it would be something that would would change my life. I knew it was something that would challenge me. I knew it was something that, would, change the way I see my art or increase the love I have for it. Yeah.”

That awareness is not framed as ego or hype. It is an artist recognizing the weight of a mythic character and the responsibility of carrying a global phenomenon into a new era. Elphaba becomes both challenge and catalyst, the role that forces her to stretch vocally, physically, spiritually, and rewards her with a deeper connection to why she makes art at all.

The production notes echo that evolution, positioning Erivo’s work as the emotional spine of the finale:

“Portraying Elphaba required Erivo to embody a woman defined by contradiction: both feared yet misunderstood, and powerful yet deeply human.”

Taken together, her own words and the filmmakers’ perspective frame Elphaba not as a gig, but as a crucible. This is an artist meeting a character who refuses to be played at half measure.

Wicked: For. Good – The Ride Of A Lifetime, Measured In Human Impact

What cements this role as life altering for Erivo is not just what it demanded of her, but what it has already meant to audiences.

“The way in which people have, connected with these characters, and the way I’ve connected with the people who made this even possible in the first place. I feel really lucky. I feel really lucky. I feel really grateful. This has been the ride of a lifetime. I, I was doing a talk last night, and this young girl sort of shot up out of her seat and walked up to the stage where I was talking and and she said, I want to tell you that this character’s changed my life, and it’s made me feel really confident and, and I and I felt, you know, really scared sometimes.

And it’s these stories that keep coming from people who have watched this piece. It just, it really warms my heart. And, and to be a part of something that does that to people is, is, is a privilege. And I think that’s the thing that will will remain with me. 15, 20, 25, 30 years from now that to play a character like this wasn’t just, an adventure, but it changed things. It helped people that work like this can actually shift the way people feel and think about themselves and others. And that that is, that’s really special.”

Here, “career defining” is too small. Erivo ties her own transformation directly to fans who see themselves in Elphaba’s otherness, resilience, and refusal to accept the narrative forced on her. The role becomes a feedback loop: she pours everything into Elphaba, the audience sends that impact back, and it permanently recalibrates what she believes her work can do.

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Wicked: For Good is built to hold that power. It is a story about being mislabeled, exiled, and still choosing conviction, and Erivo’s response to fans confirms the film is landing exactly where it needs to, in the lives of people who need to feel less alone.

The Discipline Behind The Magic

For Erivo, this transformation is not abstract. It is hours, bruises, and choices stacked over years.

“Yeah, I think I there’s no way to prepare for something like this. There’s no way to prepare for something like this. But what it what it did teach me is that, it’s not all for naught, that the work you put in really does matter, that it that it does shift. But and actually, I’ve heard from a lot of performers and that actually is really, really cool that, that there’s something really gratifying in, in doing work that other performers recognize that other performers can see as, as hard work.

And sometimes I can sort of, discount the work that I’m doing because I love it. I’m in it enough. And I feel it. And so sometimes you can’t really see the way other people see it. And so for me, this sometimes it feels like water because I love it and I know it so much.

And so the hard work doesn’t feel so much like hard work until you step away and go, oh yeah, that was hard work. Because when you’re in it, you don’t even realize what’s going on because you’re moving from place to place and you know you’ll do whatever you need to do in order to get the story, to tell the story as truthfully as possible.

And so you will put yourself through crazy things. You will put yourself in a harness. You will have, be hoisted up into the air. You will do all the training at 3 a.m. in the morning. You will turn up and sit in the chair for 2.5 hours. 245 four hours to be green, head to toe if you need to be. And you will do all of those things, and it will feel like nothing until you’re done.”

This is the cost and the calling. The extreme physical and emotional load disappears into the process while she is inside it. Only once she steps back and hears others acknowledge that work does she recognize how much she gave, and why it mattered. That realization becomes part of how the role reshapes her: it confirms that total commitment is not invisible, that audiences and peers can feel when someone is giving everything.

Finding Purpose In Wicked: For Good, A Story About Being Misunderstood

At the heart of Erivo’s connection to Elphaba is a profound alignment with what the character represents.

“It helped people that work like this can actually shift the way people feel and think about themselves and others.”

Elphaba is a woman punished for being different, for seeing too clearly, for refusing to bend. Bringing that struggle to the screen in Wicked: For Good turns Erivo’s performance into more than spectacle. It becomes a vehicle for empathy, a challenge to how we judge others, and a statement about the power of being unapologetically seen.

In that way, Wicked: For Good does not just complete Elphaba’s journey. It completes a defining chapter in Cynthia Erivo’s own story: proof that when an artist meets the right role at the right time, the result is not only iconic cinema, but a redefinition of what they are here to do.

Wicked: For Good is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 21, 2025, with showings in standard formats as well as premium formats including RealD 3D, IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, ScreenX, and D-Box. Definitely go for the biggest and loudest format you can.

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About Wicked: For Good

Last year’s global cinematic cultural sensation, which became the most successful Broadway film adaptation of all time, now reaches its epic, electrifying, emotional conclusion in Wicked: For Good

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Does hearing Cynthia describe Elphaba as life changing, shift how you watch her in Wicked: For Good? When you see the green girl fight back, are you just seeing a character or the weight of everything she poured into her? And what do you think it means when a role changes both the audience and the actor playing it? Share your thoughts in the comments or @me so we can dig into it together.

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