How Cynthia Erivo’s fiery defiance as the Wicked Witch in the new Oz sequel was shaped by the moment her father abandoned her at a London Tube station

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Wicked star Cynthia Erivo remembers very clearly the last time she spoke to her father.

At sixteen, she was waiting on a London Underground platform when he abruptly ended their relationship, telling her he didn’t want to see her anymore.

She reacted deeply, immediately bursting into tears. Distressed and unable to see clearly, she began walking towards a train going the opposite way of where she needed to go.

I was completely captivated by this part of her story in her new memoir, Simply More. She describes a moment where she saw him – her biological father – walking toward her, and for a split second, her hopes soared. But then, as she writes, he just walked right past her. It was heartbreaking, she says, to be standing right in front of him and to be completely ignored.

He was walking right towards me, and I stopped breathing, hoping he’d apologize. I thought, maybe this fight would just fade away…

Just as I started to feel hopeful about how things might turn out, he walked past without even looking at me or saying a word.

‘I was nothing. A void, an empty space. From that moment forward, to him, I had ceased to exist.’

At 38 years old, Cynthia Erivo recalls a very difficult time in her life, a stark contrast to the exciting, fast-paced world tour she’s currently on to promote her successful film, Wicked: For Good.

Okay, seriously, have you seen Cynthia Erivo? She’s only five-foot-one, but that voice? It’s HUGE! And the details – that septum piercing is everything, and those nails? Perfection. Right now, she and Ariana are totally owning the stage, and honestly, watching her as Elphaba… it just blew me away. It’s so good, and finding out she wasn’t ‘wicked’ at all? I was completely floored. She’s incredible, truly!

The movie had a fantastic opening weekend, earning £170 million globally – double the £85 million the first film made during its opening weekend last year.

As a lifestyle expert, I’ve been thinking about the finale everyone’s been talking about, and it struck me that many viewers probably don’t realize just how much the actress’s incredible performance was shaped by her own life experiences. It’s amazing how personal background can truly inform artistry!

Just like the story of Elphaba is deeply influenced by her father – a man who dislikes her due to her skin color, and the surprising revelation that her biological father is actually the Wizard of Oz – Cynthia Erivo’s life has also been shaped by her relationship with her father.

The actress, originally from Stockwell in south London, dedicates a chapter to what little she knows about her Nigerian father, titled ‘What I Know And Don’t Know.’ She shares ‘fun facts,’ admitting she doesn’t know basic details like his age, profession, or his parents’ names, or even his favorite color. However, she does remember he could whistle, always wore a leather jacket, and, surprisingly, could sing. She also points out that she inherited the gap between her front teeth from him.

She never mentions his name, and it isn’t listed on her birth certificate or in any official records connected to her mother, Edith, or the apartment where Erivo and her sister, Stephanie, grew up.

She admits she didn’t know him well, recalling the moment he told her he wanted no further contact. She says she was stunned, completely blank, and simply walked away, feeling only confusion and silence.

It started with a sharp, overwhelming pain, then quickly escalated to intense agony. I was completely overcome with emotion, and I sobbed uncontrollably, struggling to breathe and see.

It was clearly a seismic moment for any 16-year-old and just how much it weighed on her is clear.

In a recent radio interview, the actress discussed how her on-screen character, particularly her green alter ego, mirrored aspects of her own life. She highlighted similarities in the character’s relationship with her father and the experience of feeling excluded, explaining that the emotions portrayed in the film were genuine and relatable to her own experiences.

Elphaba, wrongly known as the Wicked Witch, finally stops trying to justify herself to those who misunderstand her and instead accepts her own strength.

Cynthia Erivo credits her mother’s resilience – forged through the challenges of the Biafran War in Nigeria during the late 1960s – as a major source of her own strength. Her mother emigrated to the UK at age 24.

Edith originally planned to become a caterer, but she decided to study nursing instead. She attended classes in the evenings while raising her child on her own.

Erivo explains that her father wasn’t fully prepared to be a parent, so her mother took on the primary responsibility of raising her and her sister.

Despite my father’s shortcomings – he was often absent and unsupportive – my mother managed to find room in her heart to include him in our lives, and she allowed him the chance to connect with us. Sadly, this opportunity wasn’t fully realized. My mother, Edith, was the one who carefully recorded my childhood milestones, and in a baby book, she noted when I was eighteen months old that my habit of humming while eating suggested I would grow up to be both a singer and a doctor.

Neighbour Edward Harris still lives in the two-storey block of flats where the star grew up.

He shared with the Daily Mail that his mother, Edith, always spoke fondly of Cynthia. She often told him how talented Cynthia was and predicted she would become a star.

I initially assumed she was just a typical proud mother, and didn’t expect her daughter’s dreams to actually happen. But everyone is incredibly proud of Cynthia, especially considering the challenging start she had in life.

But for the singer and actress, past experiences still weigh on her mind. She once expressed a desire for her growing success to show her father what he missed out on.

Erivo started performing young, appearing in her school’s nativity play at age five. As a teenager, she joined a local youth theatre and sang in the choir at her Catholic school. She began studying musical psychology at the University of East London before ultimately being accepted into the prestigious RADA acting school.

She currently holds the position of vice president at the institution. However, her early years there were challenging; she recounts in her memoir a particularly difficult experience where she was asked to sing for another performer, hidden from the audience, while being passed over for leading roles. It’s a moving story about facing those obstacles.

She saw her father twice – once at a wedding before she became an actress, and again at another wedding around three years ago. She says they didn’t speak either time.

Cynthia Erivo received widespread praise for her performance as Celie in both the London and Broadway productions of The Color Purple, a musical about a poor African American woman in the Southern United States. This role earned her a Tony Award, a Grammy, and an Emmy. She followed this success by portraying Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave and abolitionist, in the film Harriet, which resulted in two Academy Award nominations.

However, the possibility of a response from her father faded. She wrote a song called “You’re Not Here” on her 2021 debut album to help her cope with being abandoned. She explained, “A part of me still wishes my dad was in my life, but I’ve also found peace through writing this song, accepting that he won’t be.”

During a recent radio interview, Cynthia Erivo was asked how much her personal life influenced her performance in ‘Wicked.’ She replied, ‘Pretty much throughout the entire filming process.’

Recounting the moment her character unexpectedly started dancing, and was then joined by Ariana Grande’s Glinda, she described the genuine emotion she experienced. ‘The tears that fell weren’t part of the choreography or the plan – they just happened naturally,’ she said.

Despite it all, Erivo says she has reached a place of acceptance.

I’m comfortable with how things are right now. I’m not looking to start or fix a romantic relationship, and it’s not something I think about often.

Instead, Erivo chose to celebrate her mother. She brought her mom as her date to the 2020 Academy Awards and shared a photo of them together online. Erivo wrote a heartfelt message, acknowledging her mother’s sacrifices and strength. She explained that her mother raised her with very little, yet always ensured she had everything she needed, and built a life for herself in the process. Erivo said the photo represented how far they’d both come, and that without her mother’s efforts, this moment wouldn’t have been possible.

How proud Edith must be as her daughter soars, both on and off screen, again.

And how her father must surely lament his decision to walk away.

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2025-11-27 03:59