Cynthia Erivo clarify saving Ariana Grande on red carpet incident
‘I just wanted to make sure my friend was safe,’ Cynthia Erivo said
Cynthia Erivo dishes on saving Ariana Grande during the Wicked: For Good Singapore premiere red carpet incident.
The Wicked: For Good premiere brought a lot of surprising moments for the cast members, including Grande testing positive for COVID recently.
However, the most headline-grabbing incident was the moment when a man jumped over a barricade and hurled himself at Grande, trying to grab her.
Erivo immediately jumped in to protect Grande as the man tried to put his arm around her.
Now, speaking with Today in an interview, Erivo said she wasn’t thinking and just wanted to make sure her co-star was fine during the incident.
“I just wanted to make sure my friend was safe,” the Oscar-nominated actress said. “I’m sure he didn’t mean us harm, but you never know with those things. I just wanted to make sure she was okay. That was my first instinct.”
Johnson Wen, a 26-year-old Australian, has been convicted of causing a public nuisance in Singapore just days after the incident unfolded.
He’s now been handed a nine-day jail sentence. Local outlets report that Wen admitted to the offence, with the court learning that he tried to breach the red carpet twice, first by rushing toward Grande, and again moments later after security had already removed him from the area.
Standing before the judge, Wen promised he “would not do it again.”
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