What are your thoughts on Cynthia Erico’s and Ariana Grande’s behaviour?

[Graceey]

Obviously this is just light hearted gossip. They’re doing no harm.

But I absolutely fascinated by Ariana’s and Cynthia’s odd behaviour during the press tour for Wicked. They seem extremely close with one another. But I hate to say it comes across very contrived.

Ariana looks and acts like a fragile doll these days. In stark contrast to her previous pop star persona. And Cynthia has seemingly decided to play the role of her protector. It’s all very strange.

They have both lost a lot of weight. But what on Earth has happened to these two during filming?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nyfz2Uz9oI0&pp=ygUSY3ludGhpYSBhbmQgYXJpYW5h

This thread won’t be for everyone. But some of like to discuss the psychological aspects of behaviour. It’s obviously pure speculation

I think Margot Robbie started this with her Barbie tour.

I think it’s really bloody weird. So performative. It’s put me off seeing the films to be honest.

I personally don’t find think my interest in their dynamic has anything to do with race.

My preferred explanation would be that press tours are very boring and it's all for their own amusement - can they really be that neurotic and fragile?

They look like a pair of sesh friends.

To be fair the 'we are so close and soulmates and may be sleeping together but we will never tell hint hint' stuff could still be considered 'queer baiting' even with one of them being a lesbian.

They're both worryingly underweight but apart from that I don't know anything else really about their personalities. They look like they put on a kind of weird twinning trauma bond kind of closeness in front of the cameras on the red carpet. But it does look a bit forced.

Yes, exactly. It reminds me a lot of skin shipping/encourage of shipping gay relationships in K-pop!

Ariana has had an awful experience with the Manchester bombing and declined since. I think anyone criticising her is sick and should put themselves in her shoes. I'm not even a fan but it's dreadful the way she is gossped bout.

I don’t think we’ll know for a while but I think the truth will come out in a few years after the movie hype has died down. Like Lily Allen’s album, the Stranger Things lawsuit, Amber Heard on the Aquaman set, we don’t hear about these things at the time they’re happening.

Ariana has always seemed quite vulnerable, she’s talked about hair loss from stress, obviously there’s Manchester, her ex boyfriend’s suicide. She was also a TV child at Nickelodeon which I think is hard on all kids, and there was a recent-ish doc about another child star being molested by a Nickelodeon exec. That’s a lot for anyone.

I think Cynthia is the one who seems to be acting strange from the videos I’ve seen. I hadn’t heard of her until the movie came out, so maybe this is just her personality? I don’t like to comment on bodies but they do both look unwell

Why do the threads with a celebrity name in the title usually misspell the name?

Both barking mad
Look like they have competitive eating disorders.
AG looks unwell.

what happened to the guy playing the munchkin who left his wife and kid for AG? Nit seen anything of him on the press tour. Have they split up?

I agree she may well be affected, have ptsd from the bombing. I hope they’re ok and get some well deserved rest. I guess making the films has been quite gruelling. Saying that they filmed them back to back so surely they finished filming over a year ago?

Ariana has always been tiny but she is literally skin and bone right now, however is is going on tour in 2026 so hopefully she will get healthier in preparation for it, especially as once the marketing and press for wicked is done she will need to start working on preparation for the tour.

Ariana has had some tough times over the years, and I always admired her for coming back to Manchester and putting on a concert after what happened.

They've been working on the film since 2021 so possibly they've all become enmeshed with each other, it is long days on film sets

Yeah but she's "protecting" her by doing things like taking her hand away after someone shakes it a bit hard and stroking it/patting her head in a soothing manner. It's weird. She's not a child star - she is 32.

Release the Wicked Files

I agree. But I also found Pedro Pascal’s touchy feely behaviour towards his female co stars peculiar. Put me MASSIVELY off him.

I feel sad for Ariana - she used to be a badass confident woman and now looks and acts like an unwell child. I can’t comment on Cynthia as I had never heard of her til the movie came out, but she also acts and looks very odd

I can’t even watch them anymore.

That Cynthia seems awful.
She can’t let Ariana have 30secs without her.

Anytime that Ariana is having questions directed just at her or photos on her own, Cynthia will find a way to be involved by fiddling with her hair or make up and Ariana has to stop what she’s saying and let her.

I think she did it once with good intentions and it received a lot of good feedback so their managers told them to carry on - they are literally everywhere because of it and so it was working but now it’s just cringe.

They have both lost a lot of weight too.

It's always felt very exaggerated to me, they actually put me off wanting to see either film.

That said, Cynthia Erivo was a proper badass when that idiot ran at Ariana, the poor lassie looked absolutely petrified.

Better shut down mumsnet then on those grounds

Protecting when someone needs protecting is fine but Ariana is a grown woman and need in the limelight since a child.
She is able to stand up for herself.

But for me, it’s the constant touching from Cynthia and making sure the camera is always on her that is the most irritating.

Its actually offensive for her to be constantly trying to fix Ariana’s hair and outfits.
She’s a grown woman.

I think In the next year or so something will come out about Ariana being seriously ill. She clearly has an eating disorder and that combined with the skin lightening is awful. It’s like watching Michael Jackson all over again. She is seriously ill. Cynthia is just weird. She’s become possessive over Ariana and it’s uncomfortable to watch.

I find it heartbreaking to see how slim Ariana has got and it is worrying that Cynthia has lost weight too. I remember house sharing at uni and I was trying to recover from anorexia and another girl was almost certainly anorexic and our other two housemates lost a lot of weight that year. In fact my guilt at their weight loss and my despair at my friend helped me keep working towards recovery

I assumed they were all just on Ozempic/Mounjaro. Including Michelle Yeoh.

I thought she was naturally fairly pale skinned and just went through a fake tan /sunbeds phase?