Cynthia Erivo has soared to unprecedented heights. Wicked was one of the biggest and most talked about films of recent years, with Erivo’s central role as Elphaba – the conflicted green-skinned witch of the west – winning wild acclaim and an Oscar nomination (the third of her career to date). The second part, due this November, promises to confirm Erivo as one of our brightest stars for good.
Elphaba is the ultimate outsider – defiant, determined, passionate. Erivo shares these qualities. At 16, her life was upended when her father disowned her and her sister, telling them he wanted nothing to do with them as they stood at an underground station.
That moment came with consequences that Cynthia Erivo didn’t recognise at the time. As she explains in a Letter to My Younger Self, she felt lost and angry, but all the more determined to succeed.
Read more in the week’s Big Issue.
What else is in this week’s Big Issue?
The government’s apprenticeship plans could be a gamechanger for young people
In late May, the government pledged its largest-ever apprenticeship budget – around £3 billion, raised from a levy on large employers – to train the “next generation of builders”. Controversially, money will be redirected away from older learners to those aged 16-21. We dig into the detail.
New film Lollipop highlights the cruel reality of homeless women’s experiences of child removal
There is a charged energy in the cinema as dozens of women, some of whom have had their children removed from their care and others who work to support them, come together for a preview screening of new film Lollipop.
