Cynthia Erivo is the face of a brand new viral GIF on social media, and she finally explained her side of the story.
On Wednesday night, the actress was on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote her newest film, Wicked: For Good. Erivo has been playing Elphaba in Jon M. Chu’s Wicked movies for the past year, and the second and final installment will be out in movie theaters on Friday.
After talking about her experience filming the Wicked films and her new book Simply More, which was published on Tuesday, Fallon asked the 38-year-old actress about the story behind her latest viral meme.
For the past couple of weeks, a GIF of Erivo stepping away, looking shocked, has been circulating the Internet. Most people are using it as reaction videos or just simply reposting it because of how silly it is.
According to Erivo, the GIF came from an interaction she had with a fan during the Paris premiere of Wicked: For Good, which took place on Nov. 7. She explained on The Tonight Show that a year ago, she attended the Wicked premiere in London, where she misplaced the hat she wore in the movie theater.
“Cut to a year later, we’re in Paris. We are at this event, and I walk out and there are so many lovely fans, and I think, ‘Oh, I’m going to sign everyone’s books or whatever they need.’ I get to the end of the line, and this one girl goes, ‘That hat that you wore, in London…well, I have it.'” Erivo then recreates the same shocked face she makes in the meme, which causes the audience to laugh. The actress then asked the fan if she could have the hat back, but the fan admitted that she didn’t have it with her and it was at her house. “When can I get it back?” asked Erivo, then the fan asked for tickets to the premiere.
The fan brought the hat back to Erivo at the premiere, and the actress was finally reunited with her hat. Then, Fallon showed a picture to the audience of Erivo smiling and wearing her hat.
The late-night talk show host then talked about how lovely it is to have nice fans, to which Erivo agreed.
“I thought it was just really kind; she could have done anything with that hat. It could have been sold,” Erivo said. “And she kept it this whole time.”https://www.youtube.com/embed/xH5BBbi-sSE
This week, The Tonight Show will be focusing on the Wicked: For Good premiere, using the hashtag #WickedWeekOnFallon on social media to celebrate the film. This past week’s guests from the movie included Michelle Yeoh on Monday and Ariana Grande on Tuesday. The New York City premiere of the film also took place at Lincoln Center on Monday evening.
Wicked: For Good will be out in movie theaters across the United States this Friday. Meanwhile, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will air every weeknight on NBC at 11:35 p.m. ET.
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