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‘Wicked’ Stars Roasted for Awkward Sequel to ‘Holding Space’ Moment

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have gifted fans with another very meme-able interview—this one involving their auras.

The press tour for Wicked: For Good is underway, and the film’s stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande gave the internet yet another viral interview to roast ahead of the sequel’s release on Nov. 19.

The Wicked stars appeared in a video for Elle Germany during which they were asked, “If you had to describe each other’s aura, what color would it be?” Grande, 32, tells Erivo, 38, “Yellow. Sunshine. I think there’s also purple.” Erivo, pleased with her co-star’s response, tells Grande, “That was very good.”

Grande then seems to worry that her “purple” response sounded like a callback to Erivo’s Tony-winning performance in Broadway’s The Color Purple. “Not The Color Purple,” she says apologetically. “Did I just say that Cynthia Erivo’s aura was purple?” Grande asks, embarrassed, as Erivo comforts her, “I think it’s quite lovely though, I think that’s right.”

As for Grande, Erivo says, “I see, like, a ceil blue. Like aqua. And like, sunset-orange.”

Grande tells her, with complete sincerity, “I’m so moved by that response.”

They carry on until they ask the interviewer to join in and offer their thoughts on the color of the stars’ auras. Grande then tells the reporter, “Yours is pink,” while Erivo offers that the aura is “lovely,” as they toy with the words “vacillates” and “ombre” to describe what they see with their spiritual eye.

“We’ve never been asked that question. That’s a great question to ask,” Erivo tells the reporter. “That’s incredible,” Grande adds. The interaction set the stage for yet another round of fan ridicule. Wrote one Reddit user, “They’re sweet and all, but this annoys tf out of me.”

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The viral moment harkens back to others from the stars’ interview with Out last November, in which Erivo becomes emotional when she’s told that “People are taking the lyrics of ‘Defying Gravity’ and really holding space with that and feeling power in that.”

A confused Erivo says, “I didn’t know that was happening,” twice as she reflects on how “powerful” the revelation is, during the exchange that became meme-able for its melodrama and Grande’s choice to hold one of Erivo’s fingers as she spoke.

Grande later admitted she “didn’t know what any part of it meant” but nodded along enthusiastically because she “knew something big was happening.”

More moments from the first Wicked press tour brought the stars to tears on a pretty regular basis. Grande addressed online critics about their frequent tears, “If you’re just gonna comment saying how annoying it is, I’ll say it first. I’m annoyed, I’m tired. My tear ducts” are tired, she told E! News last November.

While many commenters expressed their annoyance with the affectionate stars, just as many or more are happy to see them reprise the tearful and cuddly personas that made their initial press tour just as talked about as the film itself.

Wrote another fan on Reddit, “I’m as tired as the next person of Wicked press tours (the last one put me off so much I still haven’t seen it) but I actually found this quite cute. They do genuinely seem to really appreciate the other.”

Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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