Cynthia Erivo says RADA refused to let her do Westlife job: “It was a weird looking down on a backing-vocals gig”
Cynthia Erivo has revealed that RADA once blocked her from taking a job with Westlife because they “looked down” on the backing vocals gig.
The Wicked star attended the prestigious drama school – the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in Central London – in the late 2000s, and in 2024, she was appointed vice president of the institution.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Erivo spoke about the school and the regressive attitudes she felt it had when she studied there. Recalling that she had secured a gig as a backing singer for the Irish boy band, she said that RADA prevented her from taking up the job.
Explaining that it would have required her to miss the first two weeks of her course, she said: “The people running the place don’t necessarily understand people who aren’t given everything. They don’t understand what that experience looks like.”
“There was another student in a play, missing two weeks, and that was fine,” she continued. “It was just a weird looking down on a backing-vocals gig”.
She went on to explain that she had to work at a shirtmaker during her time on the course, unlike most of her fellow students, resulting in her being more tired than most. “I got penalised for it. I’d come in exhausted, and they’d say: ‘Well, she’s not dedicated. She’s not concentrating’. It took me a long time to make people understand that I wasn’t lazy – I was just tired.”
Erivo was nominated last week for an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance as Elphaba, the soon-to-be Wicked Witch of the West in Wicked. She will compete with Karla Sofia Gascon (Emilia Perez), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance) and Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here).
The actor admitted recently that she “uncontrollably wept” when she first saw herself on screen in the film, adding that she’s now seen it a total of nine times, both at premieres and before the movie came out.
“The very first time I saw it, there was so much coming at me that I was completely overwhelmed and I think my brain completely blanked out,” Erivo said. “I erased myself from the movie. I was like, ‘I don’t think I was in that. I don’t think I was there’.
“And the second time I saw it, I wept — like, uncontrollably wept. I couldn’t even articulate how grateful I felt to even be a part of it. I couldn’t properly articulate how glad I was to see all the things I wanted of this character to be on screen. I was so, so happy.”
The post Cynthia Erivo says RADA refused to let her do Westlife job: “It was a weird looking down on a backing-vocals gig” appeared first on NME.
Max Pilley
NME
