Will Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo ever live down their Wicked press tour? Probably not until the second movie comes out on the 2025 movie schedule. The two leads of Wicked cast became well known for getting very emotional while promoting the movie, but the most viral moment came when Ariana held Cynthia’s finger after she was asked about fans “holding space” for “Defying Gravity.” After the internet memed the heck out of it, Grande was hilariously asked to explain what happened.
While the leads were paired together to talk about Wicked with journalists, they sat down with OUT’s Tracy E. Gilchrist. As Grande recalled, when she brought up how people are “holding space” for Elphaba’s big song. When the pop singer and now first-time Oscar nominee noticed Erivo was getting choked up by the comment, Grande recalled what was going on in her head by saying this:
I didn’t know what it meant, and I’m just trying to comfort Cynthia, because she’s very emotional and we’re very like physical touch that way. So I grab her finger because I see that she’s getting choked up by what Tracy has shared, and I’m like ‘Oh, shit’, I grab her finger because I don’t know what else to do with myself… It was just energy I didn’t know what to do with, and it came out that way. And it was well intentioned, and I wanted to be loving and there for her, but why this? I don’t fucking know.
Since the moment it happened, it has been all over the internet, with T-shirts of Ariana Grande holding Erivo’s finger even going on sale. Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet even hilariously recreated it when they met Tracy E. Gilchrist, and Mark Ruffalo totally trolled about the meme on his social media. Check it out:
Grande discussed the moment from her perspective on The Graham Norton Show while seated beside Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon and Don Gilet. As she also said:
It was just a really strange thing. I was grateful to see the reaction of the world when this clip came out, because I was like ‘Oh great! I’m not broken. They felt weird too. They felt so confused too, and that’s great.’
As Grande also shared, Gilchrist’s comment was of course “a beautiful way of saying people identify with the lyrics and it brings them strength,” but at the time, she was in the moment and just didn’t know what to do with the energy in the room. She resorted to grabbing Erivo’s finger to offer some physical touch and support, but it turned into a hilarious meme of the pair’s fingers.
Isn’t it funny how awkward or odd situations these days can suddenly become massive internet memes? The Wicked press junket was on an entirely different level due to this random scenario, but the movie was also a phenomenon as well. When the 2025 Oscar nominations came out this week, both leads earned acting nods, and the movie itself earned a total of 10 nominations, including Best Picture. We’ll see how Wicked does when the Oscars air on Sunday, March 2.
