Buzz
It’s safe to say that Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s promotional tour for Wicked has quickly become one of the most unexpectedly strange press events in recent memory.
If you need a reminder, both stars created a stir when they were repeatedly seen in tears during interviews, with their emotional connection seemingly in perfect harmony. In November, the public was especially shocked by a peculiar exchange between Cynthia and a journalist regarding her powerful performance of 'Defying Gravity' in the film.
The interview took an even more unusual turn when Ariana, sitting beside Cynthia, appeared deeply serious and quietly reached out to grasp Cynthia's index finger.
Once fans noticed this, they began looking back to see how often Ariana and Cynthia reached out to hold each other’s hands during their promotion of Wicked.
Cynthia later clarified the situation in an interview, explaining that she discovered her co-star needs physical touch to provide comfort when feeling overwhelmed.
“Ari needs contact when there’s emotion,” Cynthia explained. “She needs to be close, so I just stay there for a moment.”
On Wednesday, an old clip resurfaced on X, showing the moment when Cynthia unknowingly turned down Ariana’s request for comfort — and it quickly went viral.
For context, the footage was taken during a screening and Q&A for Wicked in New York City last November.
In the video, Cynthia is speaking to the audience and, at one point, places her hand on the armrest of Ariana’s chair.
X @arianagrandebr / Via x.com
Almost immediately, Ariana reaches out — but when Cynthia unintentionally pulls her hand away, Ariana swiftly retracts hers to her lap and gazes downward, offering a shy smile to herself.
An Ariana fan account shared a close-up video on X earlier this week, and it quickly sparked a flood of reactions. One viral tweet reposting the video, which has garnered over 7.8 million views and thousands of likes and retweets, says: “OH BAAABY NOOOOO SOMEONE GRAB HER HAND RIGHT NOW.” The same user then posted a screenshot of Ariana’s disappointed expression from the video, accompanied by crying emojis. Another person wrote: “this sequence of facial expressions is killing me,” alongside several screenshots of Ariana’s face from the clip. Another user admitted: “I’d throw up if someone clipped me doing something like this and posted it.” Someone else joked: “cynthia’s index finger hates seeing ariana grande coming.”
