Her new stage
Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo moves from Broadway to cinema with “Bad Times at the El Royale” and “Widows.”
When Cynthia Erivo was about 15, she thought she had to choose between singing and acting. “London is so odd that it’s hard to know really how vast the opportunity can be,” she said. “I knew I wanted to sing, and I knew I had the capacity to tell stories. I just didn’t know I would have the opportunity to do both.”
At 31, she’s doing just that, happily. Audiences will get a chance to see Erivo in action this fall when the performer, known for her Tony Award-winning turn in “The Color Purple,” moves from stage to screen in her first two films.
Up first will be Drew Goddard’s “Bad Times at the El Royale” on Oct. 5. In the mystery thriller, Erivo plays former singer Darlene Sweet, one of seven strangers (including Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson and Jon Hamm), each with a secret, who meet at a rundown hotel in ’60s-era Lake Tahoe.
A month later, on Nov. 16, Erivo shows up in Steve McQueen’s very contemporary “Widows,” about a group of women (including Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki) who take on the criminal activities of their dead husbands.
The Times spoke with her about her “crazy ride” of a life, making the transition from Broadway to movies and her highly anticipated Harriet Tubman project. “Widows” is your first film. How did you get the role?
[McQueen’s] casting director Francine [Maisler] had come to see me in “The Color Purple,” and I think she told him I would be great for this role and should have a meeting. So we have this breakfast meeting on a Saturday and then three weeks later I get a call. Didn’t read for it or meet with him again, and the next thing I get is a call from my agent with everyone on the line, “We’d like to let you know that you’ve just got your first movie. Steve McQueen would like … .” I was, like, “What? What do you mean? How? Are you sure?”
It was all of these things happening, not by chance, but right when it needs to. “The Color Purple” happened exactly when it needed to happen and changed my entire life and continues to do so . ... I don’t know how, but it’s opened the doors to almost everything I could possibly dream of. Was transitioning to Hollywood something in your mind at the time?
I think maybe in the very far parts, all the way at the back, just because you don’t know that that’s possible. I always strove for excellence and wanted to do really well. I just didn’t know that that would be open to me, because it just wasn’t in the U.K.
I’d watch film and go, “I know I can do that.” And then it happens and you’re, like, “How did that happen?” Talk to me about “Bad Times.” You were singing live on set, right?
Yes, it was one of the things [Goddard] asked for when we were reading. He wanted someone who could sing live without really needing anything done to the voice. So everything you hear throughout the movie is me live on set in that moment. There’s one early scene in the movie that he says we did 27 takes of. I think the take in the movie is take 27. It was a case of trying to make sure everything was in sync, making sure all the moving pieces come together at the same time because it was a one-shot. And he was asking for mistakes because he said it didn’t sound like I was actually singing. So he wanted to hear your voice crack?
Or repeat a line because I sounded like a recording. … So I would pick a line to repeat and put a chuckle or laugh in or change a riff. It was like getting in the mind-set of when I’m rehearsing, which is interesting to do when it’s not for real. … But I have truly enjoyed singing live. There’s something special about it, and I know it's not something done super often. What have you learned about yourself since tackling film scripts?
I’ve learned that I am really stubborn. I like to do as much of whatever I’m doing myself. So, like, hand inserts; I’d rather do that myself instead of having a double. I think that comes from being on stage because you do everything yourself. So the inserts are mine, and if I’m running in the rain with bare feet, I’m actually the one running in the rain barefoot. If there are stunts that need to happen, I want to do them myself. I realize that I’m probably a glutton for punishment, but I didn't realize that wasn't a thing people do. Tell me about this Harriet Tubman film you’ve been announced to star in.
It is about to go into pre-production and I am training for it. It is something I’m very very excited about and slightly petrified about. Why?
Because I really want to get it right and there are a lot of things I’m being relied on to do. And it’s a huge challenge. I didn’t know I would get this kind of massive role so soon after starting movies, but here we go, I guess.