Cynthia Erivo Made a Promise to See Her Characters Through

Whether it’s Elphaba in “Wicked” or Celie in “The Color Purple,” the star doesn’t choose parts “frivolously”; she wants roles that stay with viewers.

Elphaba might have been reluctant to go to Shiv University, but Cynthia Erivo still wants to get a Ph.D.

Specifically, the star who plays Elphaba in “Wicked” onscreen is interested in how everyday experiences affect people’s voices, not just when they are speaking but when they are singing, too. Erivo was keen to study this after being accepted as a fellow into Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in 2021, but she had to decline the fellowship because of a busy schedule that never slowed down.

Though filming for “Wicked” is over, she just finished a huge press tour for Part 1, she’s in the thick of an awards season campaign (which this week included a SAG Award nomination), and she faces the prospect of another big media blitz when Part 2 opens later this year. She’s also starring in, producing and adapting a film version of the Tony-winning Broadway drama “Prima Facie.”

But it was her work as a teacher at her alma mater, the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, that was still on her mind. “Every time I can tell,” she said in a recent interview, “when someone has been told that they are too much, they should be quieter, or they shouldn’t talk so loud, it transfers over to how they use their voices when they sing.”

She explained that when students get to a belting note, they seem to back off. “The notes are there. The sound is there,” she finds, but then “they put it in a song. It disappears.”