WICKED: FOR GOOD Star Cynthia Erivo Covers HARPER’S BAZAAR’s November 2025 Issue

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Cynthia Erivo covers Harper’s BAZAAR’s November 2025 issue, on newsstands November 4. In an exclusive interview with Jazmine Hughes, Erivo opens up about navigating stardom later in life, and her unapologetic self-expression: “This is what I want to look like,” she says. “I love a heel, I love a nail, I love a jaw, I love a bald head, I love a good outfit. It is legitimately a way of just expressing parts of myself.”

She also discusses her upcoming projects – WICKED: FOR GOOD’s climactic release, her forthcoming book SIMPLY MORE, and a slate of concert dates – and parting ways with her WICKED character Elphaba: “Elphaba will be part of my life forever, but we need separation,” she says. “We’re not one and the same anymore, but we can be friends.”

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On how her character Elphaba has changed since the first Wicked: By the second film, Elphaba has gained hold of the full expression of her rage. “What I love is having had the chance to play her when she has to figure out what she is and play her again when she knows.”

On parting ways with her character Elphaba: “Elphaba will be part of my life forever, but we need separation,” she says. “We’re not one and the same anymore, but we can be friends.”

On Jon M. Chu’s, the director of both Wicked films, impression of Erivo during her weekends off from filming: “‘Yeah, I was living behind a waterfall with no food or drink.’ ‘Yeah, I’m going away this weekend because I’m gonna run a marathon really quick.’”

On how she expresses herself: She’d just shaved her head—she does it herself—and while she’s talking, her cheekbones get caught in the light. For a moment, she resembles the Braithwaite portrait on the wall. “This is what I want to look like,” she says. “I love a heel, I love a nail, I love a jaw, I love a bald head, I love a good outfit. It is legitimately a way of just expressing parts of myself.”

On the greater impact of her unapologetic self-expression: She’s seen a wave of self-acceptance that she’s inspired with her distinctive look, with more people allowing themselves piercings and tattoos. “If it’s the only thing I put into this world, that everyone’s individual beauty is worth seeing and experiencing, and you don’t have to change it for anyone else other than yourself, then I’m happy. If you want to change and you want to get a new nose, you want to get new lips, fine. If that’s good for you, then that’s good for you—as long as it’s for you.”

On why she’s grateful the fame came later in life: “I’m really glad that fame has come to me later, because I feel so fully myself right now that it’s not knocking me off my axis,” she says. She realized she was famous after starring in Netflix’s 2023 thriller Luther: The Fallen Sun, when she got recognized in a store in the United Arab Emirates. The release of the first half of Wicked last fall took that fame to the stratosphere, as did her turn hosting the Tony Awards earlier this year. She liked that people were seeing her be her, “being in my skin tone, as a Black woman, on mainstream TV, hosting, not even playing a character.”

Jada Pinkett Smith on how she helps Erivo navigate the pressures of stardom: “I’ve been checking in on her a lot,” says Jada Pinkett Smith, who considers Erivo a “dear sister.” “A lot of times, it’s difficult if you haven’t been through something like that, being popped into stardom in a certain manner.” Being a woman in Hollywood is hard enough, but being a queer Black woman? Heavy-duty. Smith helps remind Erivo of what’s important: “Really nourishing the truth within you, and recognizing the beauty and the power that you possess, and, you know, not looking to others to buoy you up in a certain manner, because that’s a big trap.”

On her upcoming book, Simply More, and the meaning behind its title: This fall, Erivo will publish Simply More, whose title comes from a speech she gave upon receiving a GLAAD Media Award earlier this year. Though Erivo came out publicly in British Vogue in 2022, she dedicated her speech to those who may still be keeping their identity to themselves. “In their quiet solitude, that’s still a measure of rebellion and still deserves a little light,” she tells me. “What I wrote about was [that] those of us who are in the light, who are walking around with our lanterns shining bright, should just change the direction of the lanterns and shine it back on people who don’t know where their path is yet.”

She feels especially compelled to talk about people who use they/them pronouns and the ceaseless fight for simple dignity. “Teaching people on a daily basis how to address you, and dealing with the frustration of reteaching people a word that has been in the human vocabulary since the dawn of time: they/them,” she said in the speech. “Words used to describe pedantically two or more people; poetically, a person who is simply more.” The book, she emphasizes, is not a memoir but rather teachable moments from Erivo’s life.

On how her early studies inform her performances: Before transferring to RADA, Erivo first embarked on a degree in music psychology, learning what music can do. “It helped me understand innately what effect you can have on people, depending on what you choose to sing and how you choose to sing it,” she says.

On facing adversity while at RADA: There were some stories Erivo was hesitant to share, like the one about an administrator at RADA who barred her from taking time off to do a lucrative gig. Other students were able to pursue external opportunities, but something about Erivo was different. “I’m lucky that now the debt is paid off, but if I was another person who hasn’t had the success and the luck and the good things that have come this way, they might still harbor resentment.”

On being estranged from her father: When Erivo was 16, her father disowned the girls. Though it’s a painful story, Erivo calls it a crucial one, a through line of her inner life, the event that puts everything into perspective. “I don’t know what my life would be like if he was still around, and I can’t say whether it would be better or worse,” she says. “Better not to find out. I’ve never daydreamed about that, because it’s not going to happen. And the life that I have, I am so happy in it.”

[Photot Credit: Cass Bird for Harper’s BAZAAR Magazine]

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