Cynthia Erivo: ‘Hard conversations’ with ‘Wicked’ co-star Ariana Grande were needed to create ‘sister’-like bond

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are more than co-stars.

The Tony winner gushed that she “gained a sister” filming “Wicked” with the pop star in an Elle interview published Thursday as part of the magazine’s Women in Hollywood series.

Their strong bond came out of “vulnerability,” with Erivo, 37, crediting their “hard conversations.”

She explained, “We had really beautiful conversations, some that were not easy, but that’s what makes relationships.

“Those … are the things that make you close,” the “Harriet” star continued, adding that she and Grande, 31, “speak almost every day.”

Erivo recalled the first time they met, saying they were both “blown away by how connected [they] were immediately.”

She remembered, “It was at [director] Jon M. Chu’s house, and Stephen Schwartz [who wrote music and lyrics for the ‘Wicked’ Broadway musical and the film] was over. He played some songs for us, and we sang together for the first time. It worked.”

The Broadway star called this a “very intimate” act.

She explained, “There’s a really beautiful dance — I need to follow you, you have to follow me. It was one of the most gratifying things to know that there was someone who was that open and available, because she was, and that meant I could be as well.”

Erivo and the former Nickelodeon star were cast as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, in 2021 alongside Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang and Grande’s now-boyfriend, Ethan Slater.

The film is set to hit theaters on Nov. 22.

The actresses have gushed about each other throughout their press tour, with Grande saying she has become a “different person” from their friendship.

“I hope we learned a lot from each other, but I learned so much as a person from her,” the “7 Rings” singer gushed to People in June. “She is a Capricorn, and she loves hard and honestly and right.”

Grande has also made headlines for praising Slater, 32, most recently praising her “amazing” partner in an “Entertainment Tonight” interview over the weekend.

The duo began dating last year amid their respective divorces from Dalton Gomez and Lilly Jay.

Grande addressed criticism surrounding their romance in a September interview with Vanity Fair, calling it “disappointing … bulls–t.”

Slater spoke to GQ the following month about the “difficult” backlash.

“It’s really hard to see people who don’t know anything about what’s happening commenting on it and speculating, and then getting things wrong about the people you love,” he told the magazine. “That feels really hard.”