Cynthia Erivo on 'Widows' and how fitness training helps balance her life
Try and wrap your head around this one.
Cynthia Erivo was nominated for a Tony award for her 2016 Broadway performance in “The Color Purple.” She performed on television to celebrate that nomination. Her television performance garnered her an Emmy. She went on to win that Tony. And a Grammy.
Now, in her first major appearance in a film, Erivo could be well on her way to an Oscar win, which would earn her EGOT status for having won all four awards.
It would be an astounding accomplishment considering she’s new to the game. Erivo told ABC News she still can't believe how her life has changed.
“You’re like outside of yourself thinking, ‘How did you get here? This is crazy,’” Erivo said in an appearance on “Popcorn with Peter Travers.” "And I feel like I’ve been having consecutive moments like that in these last, well, the last two years have been exactly like that. 'The Color Purple' was the beginning.”
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Erivo is now starring in the big screen crime heist thriller, “Widows,” opposite Oscar winner Viola Davis. The film is about three women who lose lose their husbands in a heist that goes terribly wrong and they’re forced to step in and finish the job.
“I cannot tell you how nervous I was. I really was very nervous because I had never done it before,” Erivo, 31, told Travers. “I had no idea what it’d look like. I had no idea what the set-up was like. I didn’t know anything, (I was) going into it blind and faking it until I’m making it until someone says, ‘Actually no, you’re doing it completely wrong,’ and no one did.”
She added, “I feel like I took to it like a duck to water. It seemed to just feel natural. And everyone was so supportive. I didn’t feel like I was going to let anyone down.”
Erivo, who can also been seen in “Bad Times at the El Royale,” said she’s turned to fitness and marathons to help balance her new, hectic schedule.
“When I started doing shows it felt like both a way to keep well and fit for the performance but also to find a space for myself to meditate. So for me, especially when I started doing 'The Color Purple,' fitness and running felt like a space that I could go to just for me. And it was where I could escape for a little bit and think about things and process things and meditate and take a break. And that’s just continued. Now it gives me adrenaline, an adrenaline rush and then I see the benefits of it for all of the things that I’ve been doing. So I think there’s a slight addiction to being fit now. (It helps) mind, body and soul.”
"Widows" and “Bad Times at the El Royale” are in theaters everywhere.
Watch the full interview with Peter Travers and Cynthia Erivo in the video above.
