Cynthia ERIVO

For the Nicked star, every character is achance to know herself more deeply.

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CYNTHIA ERIVO'S ELPHABA HAS MICRO BRAIDS. They're new for the character, who was made iconic on Broadway with straight hair under her pointy hat. But when Erivo was cast in the new film version of Wicked, her first ask was for the witch to have a textured hairstyle. "It connects to who I am underneath the skin," Erivo says. "There's a complete connection between me and her-we're not just erasing who's playing this character."

Helping to create this Elphaba-from her freckles to her eye color and nails-was a detailed process that "allowed me to really fall in love with this woman," Erivo tells me as we're seated on a couch at the Equinox Hotel in New York. It's not an opportunity she would have envisioned for herself. There has never been a full-time Black Elphaba on Broadway; Alexia Khadime remains the only Black woman to hold that distinction, from her London West End run (2008-2010; 2023present). "Why would that change for the film? I couldn't even dream about wanting it," Erivo says. "When you're in this skin and you walk around, you are immediately an 'other.' It was a really wonderful experience to be able to step into this role, outside of my own skin, and into someone else's, who has also been 'othered.' It's important to know what it feels like. I hope that this shifts and changes things across stages."