‘I Didn’t Know We Could Be Eligible’: Cynthia Erivo Talks Grammys Surprise on ‘Fallon’

Sometimes it rains, sometimes it pours. For Cynthia Erivo, it’s pouring, in spectacular fashion.

The award-winning actress, singer, and producer is, of course, reprising her role as Elphaba in Wicked: For Good, the sequel to 2024 feature film Wicked, which raked in nearly $750 million at the worldwide box office, the best showing ever an adaptation for a Broadway musical.

That’s for starters. The Nigerian-British star penned the newly-published autobiography “Simply More,” she’s the cover star on Britain’s GQ, and her voice is still “missing in action,” the fallout from all the promo, the extensive singing and the airmiles put in for Wicked: For Good, which arrives Friday, Nov. 21 in theaters.

Erivo stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night (Nov. 19) for a quiet chat about her busy schedule.

For her work on stage and screen, Erivo has won a Tony, Emmy and this week she landed two Grammy Award nominations for Wicked: one for “Defying Gravity” (with Ariana Grande) in the best pop duo/group performance category, and another for “Be Okay” in the best arrangement, instrumental or a cappella category.

“I didn’t even know we could be nominated for that,” she told Fallon. “I didn’t know we could be eligible.”

Fallon also coaxed Erivo into ranking her favorite songs from Wicked, a project not far removed from being asked to choose your favorite kids, she remarked. And she discussed the origins of that meme (it’s a story of a lost hat, with a happy ending) and recreated it for the moment.

Universal‘s Wicked: For Good should provide a Thanksgiving feast, somewhere in the order of $120 million-plus domestically and upwards of $200 million worldwide, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

With those numbers, Jon M. Chu’s film would bank the best start for a Broadway musical adaptation ever. By trying to manage expectations, the studio has suggested anything around $115 million in North America would be huge result.

Watch Erivo’s late night interview below.