CYNTHIA ERIVO: BECOMING Elphaba

GO BEHIND THE GREEN CURTAIN OF HOW THE STAR TRANSFORMED FOR THE BLOCKBUSTER FILM WICKED

- HEDY PHILLIPS

Going all in on Elphaba Thropp’s green look was an easy decision for Wicked star Cynthia Erivo— even if it meant sitting in the makeup chair for up to four hours every day to play the young sorceress in training fated to become The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. “I had the choice of being green while shooting or to have it added in later with CGI,” Erivo has said. She opted for the glory of real-life green: “I love transformation and being able to become someone I’m not. I wanted to make sure that you could see that that green isn’t just on her, it’s in her—it’s part of her DNA.”

Elphaba—born green in the Oz prequel, based on a novel and hit Broadway musical—required custom makeup for the movie. Makeup and hair designer Frances Hannon says she checked “every green” makeup on the market but nothing was quite right. “Every time I trialed [the shades], I couldn’t get it to work in all the lights that I knew Cynthia would need to walk through” while filming, Hannon explains. “In a dim light or shadow, the makeup would go gray.”