Cynthia Erivo Protects Ariana Grande From Aggressive Fan at ‘Wicked: For Good’ Singapore Premiere

Another Wicked press tour is here, this time for Wicked: For Good! And, as expected, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo continue to be the sweetest besties in cinematic history (both on- and offscreen). The latest development? Cynthia literally jumped in to protect Ari when she was attacked by an aggressive fan at the Singapore premiere—and if that’s not true friendship, then IDK what is!!

Despite being busy taking in the lyrics to “Defying Gravity” and holding space for that, we found time to do a deep-dive on Ariana and Cynthia’s very sweet friendship—which largely consists of hyping each other up, tenderly holding fingers, and shedding tears during interviews. So how did these two get so close? In honor of Wicked: For Good premiering oh-so-soon, let’s just go ahead and put things into a timeline.

November 2021

Cynthia and Ari are cast in Wicked, and they promptly send each other cute notes and flowers.

These two then meet for the first time at Cynthia’s house, and the rest is history. (History which we are about to go over in great detail.)

October 2022

Ari and Cynthia officially start preparing for their roles and getting into character as Glinda and Elphaba.

December 2022

Filming for Wicked begins in London!

March 2023

Ari and Cynthia are about halfway through filming (reminder: they were essentially making two movies at once between parts 1 and 2, so production was loooOoooOooOoOoong).

January 2024

Filming for Wicked concludes! (Note: the cast took a break from production due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, which is why filming took longer than expected.)

February 2024

Ari and Cynthia head to the Super Bowl in matching ‘fits.

March 2024

Then they present at the Oscars (in outfits we can all agree Elphaba and Glinda would enjoy).

Kevin Winter – Getty Images

May 2024

Cynthia and Ariana casually perform at the 2024 Met Gala and give fans a taste of what’s coming.

Also their red carpet pics are the cutest.

met gala — Kevin Mazur/MG24 – Getty Images

Soon afte, Ari drops a bunch of BTS pics from Wicked and I, personally, am flooded with jealousy and bitterness that I wasn’t part of the production.

July 2024

The duo heads to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Consider the press tour soft-launched!

August 2024

Ari and Cynthia refer to each other as “best friends” in this joint post.

September 2024

Time for more cute BTS pics:

Annnnnd then the world’s longest press tour begins!

October 2024

These two reunite at the 2024 Academy Museum Gala and their outfits are on another level.

Then Wicked screenings officially begin.

November 2024

Cynthia chats about her friendship with Ari, saying, “I think we found a little piece of ourselves in each other. I think there are little pieces of us that, when we got together to do this together, when we first started, each of us was missing a little chunk.”

Then it’s finally here! The OFFICIAL premiere of Wicked—specifically, in Australia.

After that, the Wicked premiere tour arrives in sunny Los Angeles.

And then Mexico City!

Cristopher Rogel Blanquet – Getty Images

And then New York!

And then Europe!

Meanwhile, we are treated to some truly iconic press tour moments.

But nothing and no one could have prepared us for this:

December 2024

During an interview with Variety, Ari and Cynthia finally discuss the notorious “holding space” interview…and admit they had no idea what journalist Tracy Gilchrist was actually talking about. The result? More hilarity.

January 2025

A month later at the Golden Globes (where they’re both nominated!), the besties recreate the viral meme of Ari holding Cynthia’s finger after host Nikki Glaser makes a joke about the moment.

They also take tons of cute pics together on the red carpet and at the show, ofc…