Despite her tiny frame, Cynthia Erivo’s presence loomed large in The Elvis Suite on Main Street during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.
Her black-and-white Cruella de Vil-esque coat, high heels, iconic long nails and equally stylish maltipoo named Caleb held in her arms all contributed to her striking impression Friday afternoon.
Erivo is now globally recognized for her most recent role as Elphaba in “Wicked,” which earned her second Oscar nomination for the Best Actress Award. She’s now one of only two African women of color to be nominated twice for the award, film critic and interviewer Elvis Mitchell told the panel attendees.
The news of the nomination came out early Thursday morning, and Erivo spoke about the feeling of hearing the news for the first time.
“I was on a plane flying here,” she said. “And my phone goes nuts. I had just fallen asleep and then woken up and my phone is going off, and I just proceeded to weep, just cried my eyes out. It’s one of those moments where you’re sort of like, I guess I didn’t know how much I wanted it. I didn’t know how much it would mean to me.”
Elphaba was the most recent in a string of characters Erivo has portrayed who are in some way freed through their character arc, Mitchell said.
“You play so many characters who we see take possession of themselves,” he said, talking briefly about Harriet, Celie in “The Color Purple,” Aretha Franklin and now Elphaba. “I think this is your affinity. You found a way to do this in so many different ways.”
“I think I enjoy it,” Erivo said. “I enjoy giving the chance to women who don’t get the chance to show who they are and get to possess themselves, the chance to possess themselves. I think there’s something really wonderful about discovering a character who has the chance to do that. I think it makes me tick, maybe because those roles are challenging. … There are ways to play them where it’s actually more sympathetic and they become just the sadness.”
She spoke about her process of discovering how to portray these women, to uncover the truth of their experiences.
“I want to tell the truth of the character, and I can’t mimic someone else and tell the truth at the same time, because mimicry is mimicry. It’s pretending,” Erivo said. “For me to be able to tell the story of another person, I want to know what makes them tick, I want to know what’s truth for them, and I want to know what makes sense for me to be able to do.”
She and Mitchell discussed how at times her approach has been met with criticism, especially for characters like Elphaba and Franklin who are beloved by many. But Erivo said she’s not afraid to make space for herself and her creative process, something her characters tend to do as well.
“I ask people to give me the space to be all of the things I could possibly want to be. And let me have the room to make mistakes. Let me have the room to try new things. Let me have the room to play because that’s how I discover,” she said. “If I know I want to do something or be something, then I’m going to find a way, and I believe that there is a way. It doesn’t matter how many things are telling you, ‘No, it’s not happening, you can’t, it’s impossible.’ I just don’t believe that. … I think a little bit of that ends up falling into these characters that I’ve played.”
As she discussed her career, Erivo treated the room to snippets of songs she’s performed, slipping into her singing voice to demonstrate the nuance explored through musical numbers. It was a choice that almost unconsciously illustrated her own belief about the musical genre.
“The purpose of a musical is that the songs come when there’s no other words that can be said,” she said. “I can’t speak it anymore, but I am going to sing it, but actually I’m going to start in a space where I’m still discovering and I’m still figuring it out. And then when I understand what it is that I’m singing, then we can open up, and then we get to the belt.”
Her voice is one of her super powers, and Erivo said part of what she does to keep her voice healthy is by choosing roles that speak to some truth about the world, which may help viewers “to be able to see each other as living, breathing, sentient human beings who each deserve a piece of the world equally.”
“Yes, you can do the practical things — drink your water, make sure you vocalize, make sure you do your warm ups, make sure you eat the right food. But also, use your voice for the right things. If you don’t use your voice for the right things, then you won’t have your voice to use,” she said.
Friday night at the Sundance gala, Erivo was honored with the Visionary Award for her “uncompromising work and notable contributions to the entertainment industry.”