Cynthia Erivo Talks Playing Jesus, Marissa Bode Ships Glinda And Elphaba, And Ethel Cain Releases New Single
Your weekly entertainment round-up.
Marissa Bode on Wicked’s Queerness
Marissa Bode, the queer actress who plays Nessa Rose in the film adaptations of Wicked recently posted her take on who among the main characters are queer. Her answer—all of them, of course.
In a TikTok, Bode shared her theory that “Glinda is a lesbian. Elphaba is bisexual. Nessa Rose is bisexual. Fiyero is bisexual. Boq is questioning but queer in some way. Doctor Dillamond: gay. Madame Morrible is a lesbian who was deeply in love once, but something happened to her lov,e which is now why she is the way that she is. The wizard is questioning but queer in some way.”
Bode also responded to a comment confirming that she, like many online sapphics, is a #gelphie (Glinda and Elphaba) shipper. “I’m joking but also, no I’m not” she ended her TikTok. Bode posted the TikTok only a day before the Wicked: For Good trailer is supposed to drop and I, for one, can’t help but hope for some of her queer theories to make their way into the second film.
Ethel Cain Releases First Single of New Album
Don’t let the lush strings, the wailing fiddle, or classic country banjo fool you, Ethel Cain is still hitting us where it hurts with her newest single, “Nettles.” The first single off of her upcoming record, Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You, the song gives listeners their first peek into the untold story of Cain and Willoughby, the main character in the track “A House in Nebraska” from Cain’s Preacher’s Daughter record.
Set to the sound of an airy, vast country ballad, Cain lets us into the sweeter side of her story with Willoughby. “Tell me all the time not to worry / and think of all the time I’ll have with you,” Cain sings while painting a picture of days spent lying in the greenery of their hometown.
But fear not, Cain still breaks our hearts with her signature melancholy in lines like “to love me is to suffer me” and “maybe you’re right and we should stop watching the news / cause, baby, I’ve never seen brown eyes look so blue.” Fans are understandably already obsessed with the over 8-minute song and can’t wait for the rest of the record to be released on August 8.
New BBC Show Angers UK Transphobes
Inspired by trans journalist Paris Lees’ memoir, What It Feels Like For A Girl, BBC’s newest show, premiered on June 3 and has already made waves in the UK. A show focuses on 15-year-old Byron’s transition journey, first love, venture into sex work and crime, first queer friend group and coming of age in a town where acceptance is a rarity.
The show refuses to fall into tropes that make a story feel one-dimensional, as The Independent writes, “It presents morality as something murky and fluid, just like sexuality and gender, and equally in thrall to the fickle whims of the heart.” Despite the show’s nuance, the reaction in the UK has been incredibly predictable.
After the April Supreme Court ruling defined the legal definition of a woman as being based on assigned sex at birth, transphobia has become loud in the UK—this show being just one of the transphobe’s targets. The Telegraph wrote a piece about the outrage over the show’s name, claiming that it “ignores biology” as the main character’s gender is fluid. One famous TERF took to X writing, “What It Feels Like For A Girl” is a story about what it feels like for a boy & the only people who have a problem with [the] definition of woman are the males who claim to be one.”
Nevertheless, the show has received acclaim from publications globally, even with the transphobic backlash becoming more widespread.
Cynthia Erivo Opens Up About Queerness and Playing Jesus
As Billboard’s Pride cover star, Cynthia Erivo talked all things Wicked, queer, and Jesus Christ Superstar. When the Hollywood Bowl announced that Erivo would be playing Jesus Christ in a three-night run of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, conservatives accused the production of being “blasphemous.”
Erivo brushed off the backlash, telling Billboard, “You can’t please everyone. It is legitimately a three-day performance at the Hollywood Bowl where I get to sing my face off. So hopefully they will come and realize, ‘Oh, it’s a musical, the gayest place on Earth.’ ”
Ahead of her headlining spot at WorldPride, Erivo wants to encourage the queer community not to hide during this time in American politics. “I want to encourage people to not decide to just tuck away and start hiding and not being themselves anymore, because that is exactly what they want,” she says. “The more yourself you are, the more you are in front of people who don’t necessarily understand, the better understanding starts to happen.”
