Cynthia Erivo is opening up about being portrayed as Ariana Grande's "bodyguard" after she intervened when a man rushed Grande at the Singapore premiere of Wicked: For Good.
In a new interview with Variety, Erivo recalled the frightening moment in November 2025 when a man vaulted over a barrier and grabbed Grande, who was diagnosed with PTSD following the 2017 Manchester concert bombing that killed 22 people.
"Nobody moved. Nobody moved," Erivo told Variety’s K.J. Yossman. “So I moved because my brain went, ‘Get him away! Get him out of here!’ My immediate reaction was ‘Get him away from us.’ And what people couldn’t see is that he wouldn’t let go [of Grande]. He wouldn’t let go. So I just kept pushing at him to get him off."
While many praised Erivo for stepping in, the incident also led to memes and TikTok videos framing her as Grande's "bodyguard." Erivo said the jokes reflected unfair perceptions about Black women and her appearance.
“I think that we haven’t really come to terms with the insidious nature of how we view Black women. And I’m sure people will read this and think, ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, it’s not about that.’ But it is,” she said. “Because that’s what was being made fun of. It was my physique; it was my shape; it was the fact that I was bald; it was about what I looked like.
“And because of that, there was this assumption that I was bigger than my co-star and so I had to be controlling or protecting, and that was my role. I would hazard a guess that it would not have been the same had it been the other way around.”
Erivo also pushed back on criticism that her reaction was excessive.
"A stranger is a stranger. Personal space is still personal space. It doesn't belong to anyone, even if you feel you know the person," she said. "In that moment, we were all terrified."
The actress added that the fallout from the incident may have affected how she approached awards season campaigning for Wicked: For Good.
“I think maybe in a way it did, actually," Erivo said. "I just felt like my humanity had been bastardized. I felt like something I did instinctively had been made to be something that it simply was not because of the way people see women who look like me, and because of the assumptions that are made, and I just didn't want to be a part of that, really and truly. I didn't want to put myself through it. I didn't feel like I deserved it.”
She added that “it felt like there was already a sort of upturned nose at the second installment, even though we all knew there was a second film coming and we were just doing our jobs.”
The man involved, 26-year-old Johnson Wen, also known as “Pyjama Man,” was later sentenced to nine days in prison in Singapore after pleading guilty to public nuisance, according to the BBC.
Wen, who has previously crashed concerts by Katy Perry and The Weeknd and invaded sports fields, told the judge he would "not do it again."
A month later, he was escorted out of a Lady Gaga concert in Brisbane before it began.
