Cynthia Erivo: BAFTA Playback sponsored by Samsung (Transcript)

Press imagery for BAFTA Playback is available to download here

[OPENING TITLE] 

CYNTHIA ERIVO: My goodness, I didn’t see the wreath here, Jesus Christ Superstar. 

We have our glasses [points at Elphaba glasses] 

Now, the glasses, actually, were a fun one, because we were going to make a pair of glasses and design a pair, and we did them and they were amazing. But when we put them on, it felt like they were too busy. It was like taking over. Already I’m green, I’ve got freckles, we didn’t want to distract from my actual face. And so Paul Tazewell, who’s a genius, just went on a search and he found these on a website, and they were perfect. But I didn’t know where he found them. I just picked them up and put them on and said, “I really like these, these are great”. They stuck. Only to find out where they came from afterwards. And now everyone has them.  

… 

Hi, I’m Cynthia Erivo, and I’m playing back some films that I love and that mean a lot to me. First up, we’re gonna watch Wicked: For Good. We got all sorts of games for all sorts of treacles. That’s silent assassins games. We’ve got all sorts paddy Manor games.   

[TITLE: WICKED: FOR GOOD]  

[CLIP STARTS] 

“ELPHABA” (CYNTHIA ERIVO): The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. No one believed in you more than I did, but there’s no going back, and we can’t move forward, not until everyone knows what I know, and once they know the truth. 

“THE WIZARD” (JEDD GOLDBLUM): They’re not going to believe it.  

“ELPHABA” (CYNTHIA ERIVO): How can you say that? 

“THE WIZARD” (JEDD GOLDBLUM): I’m just being straight with you. I could tell them that I’ve been lying to them till I’m, forgive me, blue in the face, but it wouldn’t make any difference. They’re never going to stop believing in me. You know why? Because they don’t want to.   

[CLIP ENDS] 

Erivo: We had a really good day that day, actually, we had a really fun time shooting this. He’s [Goldblum] so expressive, and no take was ever the same. I’m excited for people to see how they’ve grown. They’re just not the same. They’ve had life to live. They’ve had to live with the decisions they’ve made and it’s forced them apart, in a way. And so this film is sort of a journey towards how they can find their way together again, if they can, and what that looks like, and how they become who they’re, who they’re meant to be.  

I’m so excited for people to see the more advanced and newer versions of these women and these characters, and you get to meet other characters who you haven’t met yet, or what these characters transform into.  

I love working with Jon M. Chu, full name. He’s become a bit like a brother, to be honest, and he really understood what the process is for me to work. He sort of quickly discovered that I love to keep trying different things. And we really worked very, very hard, but we were very connected the entire time.  

I’ve watched it about three times. Now, we went back the third time, which is when we had my team with me. I had friends with me. Ari was there. Her family was there. So we had, it was like a nice little group of us coming to watch it. I wept afterwards. I think it was the first time. It all sort of hit me, I was so proud of it, because it was a real journey to get to this, this particular point in the movie, this particular point in the story, and I, I realised just how, how much work we had put in to make sure that they, they felt like two different spaces, because we made them at the same time, not one after the other, at the same time, simultaneously. So one day we could be filming, film one, and the second day we’re filming For Good, which is sort of completely mind boggling, because you have to really know where you are in the story when you get there, even if you haven’t necessarily done the things that come right before. I’m so pleased with it. Yeah, and that was a wonderful experience to be able to sit there and watch it with everybody and feel what other people were feeling.  

PRODUCER: And you’ve got a new song that you helped develop?  

ERIVO: Yeah, I mean, it’s really special. It’s called “No Place Like Home”. It was a very daunting thing to have those words given to me to sing. It’s an iconic phrase, there’s no place like home, and usually they’re coming out of the mouth Dorothy, and this time, they’ve been given to the Wicked Witch of the West, which is like a complete switch, and it’s a complete turn in its head. And I love it because it feels a bit like an anthem, and it’s a sort of call to action. She’s sort of trying to understand why, why she can’t let go of a place that doesn’t necessarily have any space for her there. I guess everyone feels that sort of way sometimes, when there’s a place that doesn’t necessarily want me, but I want it, it’s very special. Yeah, we took a lot of time on it to make it right.  

… 

Now we’re going to watch a piece with a person who’s a huge inspiration for me, with Angela Bassett. This is What’s Love Got To Do With It.  

[TITLE: WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT] 

[CLIP STARTS] 

“TINA TURNER” (ANGELA BASSETT): Oh, Jackie, I just, you know, I know what it’s like. To have your own blood walk out on you and I just can’t walk out. I just, I just can’t walk out. I just…[sobbing]  

[CLIP ENDS] 

Erivo: She’s so, she’s amazing. There’s something about Angela Bassett that I think we sometimes fail to see, because she’s so beautiful. She just has this ferocity in her that sort of vacillates depending on who it is she’s playing. Sometimes it’s really soft, and sometimes it’s right at the forefront. She just, I think she’s a titan when it comes to performance. I think she’s a titan of an actress. And I, I love watching her. It just is like a double bonus, because she’s also an amazing human being, and I get like, rounded messages of just like absolute joy and love from her. I don’t think she realises how much she’s inspired me over the years, just by watching and seeing what she can do and how far she can go into these characters, that’s the standard for me. You know, she’s, I think she’s magnificent.  

… 

This, I think, is one of my career-defining moments. It’s the first time I performed at the Proms. I did my own concert. This is at the Royal Albert Hall. So here we go. 

[TITLE – CYNTHIA ERIVO: LEGENDARY VOICES AT THE BBC PROMS] 

[CLIP STARTS] 

ERIVO [SINGING]: 

At Last,  

My Love has come along,  

My lonely days are over,  

And life is like a song, 

Oh yeah… 

[CLIP ENDS]  

ERIVO: Hmm. I… think there’s at the very beginning of that you see me sort of like, looking around [pointing]. 

There’s a thing I try to do when I’m in places that I have wanted to be in for a long time, and it feels a bit like a dream come true, is like take, take a moment before I open my mouth and start singing to take in the room. That space is legendary, and it is one of those places that if you are any sort of singer you want to be in at some point in your life, and to be able to be there with a full orchestra singing songs that I loved, and love was just a huge, huge moment for me. And it’s also sort of interestingly, when the types of concerts started shifting, the spaces got bigger. So I’d started off performing really small theatres and small concert halls. And then this year, I’ve just, I think I’ve done about 12 or 14 performances, and all of them have been big, massive outdoor spaces. And this was one of those moments that sort of shifted things for me.  

I didn’t realise that so many people would watch after the concert itself. I was just happy to to be there performing live, and that it sort of has, kind of taken a life of its own, is really special.  

To perform in front of people as me and songs that I love. Essentially, you’re doing a series of little, tiny vignettes and telling little, tiny stories within each of the songs. I’ve sung that song since then so many times, and I know that each time it shifts a little bit, changes a little bit, because time changes up each person, right? So the way I hear it feels very, very different. Before I was very put together, you know, I was in the clothes and then stand in one spot, and now it’s the total opposite. I don’t even wear shoes anymore.  

… 

ERIVO: This is my visual masterpiece, and it is a clip from Memoirs of a Geisha. I will watch this movie over and over again just for this scene.  

[TITLE – MEMOIRS OF GEISHA] 

[CLIP STARTS] 

[MUSIC PLAYS] 

[CLIP ENDS]

ERIVO: It’s so good

So good. Just the colours, like even the way the light hits her face. So in the film, her eyes are meant to be grey, and in that they look stark white and the pupils dilated. It’s just like so special the slices of red that sort of come in. That very small glance of red on the bottom of her shoe and that sort of lacquered black that moves along the floor with the snow falling indoors. It’s just it’s so beautiful. All the details in that moment are just perfect. The geek in me is like, freaks out every time I see it. It’s great. I love it. It’s really stunning. 

… 

ERIVO: One film or piece of TV that I think everyone should watch once in their lifetime. This is if you can find it. It’s a very sweet movie. It’s called Polly, and it stars Phylicia Richard, and it’s the most joyful thing, and the music in it is incredible. It’s like one of the only times you get to hear Phylicia Richard sing, and she can really sing. I found it randomly when I was younger, and I have the VCR of it. I have the tape. I don’t think you can actually purchase the movie anymore, but it’s just a beautiful, joyful movie about a child that changes a town that she lives in. It’s lovely.  

… 

[climbs over sofa] 

ERIVO: You stay there.  

PRODUCER: This is Excellent. She does it all!