Cynthia Erivo blindly ranked her favorite “Wicked” songs and explained the origin of the candid moment that has turned her into a viral meme (again) during her Wednesday appearance on “The Tonight Show.”
Regarding the latter, Erivo revealed that the step-back moment that has become a go-to reaction GIF for social media users online was the result of an unexpected interaction with a “Wicked” fan. According to Erivo, it all began when she attended the London premiere of “Wicked: Part One” last year.
She went to the event wearing a designer hat, which she took off when she sat down to actually watch the film. Afterward, Erivo said she and her team never managed to find the hat again.
“Cut to a year later. We’re in Paris and I’m going to this event, and I walk out and I see there’s some really lovely fans and I think I’m going to sign everyone’s books or whatever they need,” Erivo explained. “I get to the end of the line and one girl goes, ‘Um, that hat that you wore in London?’ I said, ‘Yes?’ She goes, ‘Um, well, I have it.’” It was at that moment that Erivo apparently stepped back and put her hand up — inspiring the meme.
“I said to her, ‘Can I have it back?’ She said, ‘I don’t have it with me right now. It’s at my house.’ I said, ‘Well, when can we get it back?’ She said, ‘Can I get tickets to the premiere?,’” Erivo recalled, smiling at the “Tonight Show” audience’s surprised, collective gasp, before she revealed that she did, in fact, get the anonymous fan tickets to the “Wicked: For Good” London premiere. There, Erivo said, “She brought it back, and I was reunited with my hat!”
“I thought that was just really kind because she could have done anything with that hat. It could have been sold,” Erivo added. “And she kept it this whole time. So it was lovely.”
In the second half of her “Tonight Show” interview, Erivo blindly ranked her top six “Wicked” songs — with choices including “No Good Deed,” “The Wizard and I,” “What Is This Feeling?” and, of course, “Defying Gravity.” Erivo warned Fallon, however, at the top of the segment, “I’m not going to lie and say I’m not going to cheat. I mean, I’m honest, if nothing else.”
It was not long before Erivo followed through on that warning by first swapping the places of “What Is This Feeling?” and “As Long As You’re Mine.” She then chased Fallon around his “Tonight Show” desk in order to reorder the final ranking, much to Fallon’s dismay, so that she could place “For Good” above both “No Good Deed” and “The Wizard and I.”
