Cynthia Erivo has some tips for Marc on how to get more out of his time on set. For example, she always makes sure to get her steps in. So when you see her playing Elphaba in Wicked, she’s wearing her fitness watch under her witch costume. Cynthia and Marc share their thoughts about the vulnerability of singing, with Cynthia having studied the psychology of music before becoming an award-winning stage performer. They also compare notes on Aretha Franklin from their respective projects about the Queen of Soul.Click here to submit a question for an upcoming Ask Marc Anything episode. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What is Cynthia Erivo's background in theater and film?
all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening i'm mark maron and this is my podcast wtf ongoing ongoing going on. Today I'm going to talk to Cynthia Erivo. She's a Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winner. She was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for the movie Harriet. Amazing woman. born and raised in London.
Her big breakout in the U.S. was on Broadway in The Color Purple. She's been in Bad Times at the El Royale, which I liked. And she played Aretha Franklin in the Nat Geo series Genius. And that was with David Cross playing... Jerry Wexler, who I played in the Respect movie. I always wanted to... I think I told Cynthia that. I've always wanted to do like a dueling Wexler thing with... With Dave.
But I had a great conversation with Cynthia. I'll be back on tour starting in January, Sacramento, California. I'll be at the Crest Theater on Friday, January 10th. Napa, California at the Uptown Theater on Saturday, January 11th. I'm in Fort Collins, Colorado, Lincoln Center Performance Hall on Friday, January 17th. Boulder, Colorado at the Boulder Theater on Saturday, January 18th.
Santa Barbara, California at the Lobero Theater. on Thursday, January 30th. San Luis Obispo, California at the Fremont Center on Friday, January 31st. And Monterey, California at the Golden State Theater on Saturday, February 1st. Go to wtfpod.com slash tour for all my dates and links to tickets. Also this week is your last chance to submit Ask Mark Anything questions.
We'll be posting the latest Ask Mark Anything bonus episode next week. Just go to the link in the episode description to submit a question. What have I been doing? I went to an art opening. I did. I went to an art opening. Nick Kroll's wife, Lily Kwong, she does a lot of work with plants. I know that sounds odd, but I think it's a photographic process.
I don't know if they're called... Are they called photograms? There's a lot of pieces where the actual plants are laid onto photographic paper, and then there's some... You know, the process of exposure and the process of developing the paper. And it's very it was very interesting. It was a beautiful show. It's always nice to go to the art opening. Saw some old friends there.
But what was funny was I saw Jonathan Ames there who had been on this show maybe a couple of times years ago. He was consumed in panic. And I ran into who else was Ed Helms. Oh, this is what happened. The art was great. It's down at the... The space is amazing. I think it's called the Night Gallery. But it was nice to go to that. So anyway, I run into...
Ed Helms, who I haven't seen in probably decades, probably since he's done this show, and he's a nice guy, banjo player. He famously did this show, and he was having a cat allergy, and he was just wheezing out there in the old garage, and I didn't help him. I needed to get that allergy. He's going to play some banjo. He got through it, but I felt bad that I...
Kind of kept him wheezing to get through the show. But anyway, so I'm talking to Ed and he goes, I got a split. And I'm like, where are you going? He's like, this is going to sound weird. but I'm going to a listening party for Ringo Starr's new record. And I remembered that I had been invited to that by T-Bone Burnett. This is not dropping names. I get invited to nothing.
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Chapter 2: How does Cynthia stay active while performing?
Maybe just like your breathing, the oxygen is coming in.
I don't know. But it woke up this morning and like it said, you know, you didn't recover enough. And usually that's where I just push through because they give you an optimal exercise. But I'm like, it's not quite enough. So I'm over there. I got up early and I went and did that.
Yeah.
And I don't know. It kind of beat me up a little bit.
I don't know if I want to be made to feel guilty by my watch. That's a little intense.
But that's what you experienced, right? You just got obsessed with it. Is there a difference?
Yeah. Well, the thing is, so, like, I'll set the problem with the Apple or the Fitbit. But both work really well because they sort of, like, keep you on track. But if you set, like, a... You set an amount of steps to do, right? And then one day you just don't do that amount of steps. And then you sort of like, then your watch will be like, well, you're behind on your steps by this amount.
And like, it'll keep coming up until you beat your steps. So then you keep going until you beat the steps. Sometimes there are days where you just can't.
Don't want to do it.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Cynthia face while filming 'Harriet'?
And you're also thinking.
Yes. Because when you have music on, you're listening to lyrics and you know how long the song is. And then you know how long the next song is. You do songs about three minutes. So if there's only one song playing, it's only three minutes gone. So it feels like the time is taking a really long time. If you're not listening to anything, you don't know what.
Yes, it's the best thing.
You're just going with what your body wants to go with. And essentially, trying not to sound hokey here, but you are listening to what your body needs to listen to. Yeah. So if you need to put more energy into your thigh or your leg, then that's where it goes. If you need to put more energy into your breathing, that's where it goes.
Or if you need to be in your head for a second, then you can be in your head for a second. So that's why it doesn't take as long, I think, when you're not listening to music.
What I notice, too, is sometimes when... I'm running and I am hung up on the time.
Yeah.
Like I always think like before I check, like I'll take the towel off of the treadmill and check how long I've run. Every time I think like I've passed, I will check the mileage at exactly the same time.
Yes.
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Chapter 4: What insights did Cynthia share about her experience playing Aretha Franklin?
I've been vegan for a long time. You're vegan? Yeah. But I'm like, I love fruit and veg. I'm like a proper like fruit and veg eater.
Yeah, yeah.
And occasionally I'll go and have like a meat replacement. Not much? Not much.
Not much meat replacements?
Because there's no need. Mushrooms do all of the work for you.
Yeah? Is that true?
Yeah. You can make them taste like anything.
Oh, yeah. Well, taste. But you don't get hung up on protein?
Well, I try to get protein because I try to do a protein shake in the morning. And I'm trying to be better about it. I think I can probably find it in beans and things like that. That's what I do, yeah. That's basically it. Tempeh? I don't like the texture of tempeh.
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Chapter 5: What are Cynthia's thoughts on fitness watches?
Yeah. Anytime I see someone walking on that, I'm like, that's not a good story.
No, and the thing is I'm used to it now. And the last, but for some reason the last time it took me a sensible route so I could go. Oh, good. But the sensible route is all uphill, so.
But that's good.
Well.
Yeah, it's good for you, the uphill, no?
Not when it's never ending and you're on a razor scooter.
Oh, okay.
So I took the razor scooter the last time thinking I could help myself. I didn't. It was bad.
How long have you lived here? I thought you lived in London.
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Chapter 6: How does Cynthia approach her exercise routine?
Yeah.
Between what humanity is and isn't.
Yeah.
It's like it's brain bending.
Yeah.
And sadly, you see it now in the political world.
But that's the thing. You say it's brain bending in the other direction. It is brain bending full stop. You have to bend your brain to make yourself believe that there is a cutoff on humanity. You actually have to do that first. You have to believe these people are more human. And these are less human. Which is crazy. Insane. It's insane. And horrible and has happened over and over again. Yeah.
In the history of humans. Yeah. And we're sort of watching it happen. Totally. Again. And it's horrifying.
Just the brain fuckery that has to happen. Well, now people are so disconnected, you can just deliver the brain fuckery right to their phone. So they can just sit there and, you know, their phones are rewiring brains. I mean, racism is one thing, but expanding it into a belief system that shouldn't exist anymore is fucking crazy. But did you grow up with much of that?
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Chapter 7: What are the details about Cynthia's upcoming projects?
No, but I was good at the sciences. And so I felt like there was like a fluke that happened and I happened to like love performing as well.
Did you study anything with medicine or were you going to go a different direction?
I was going to go into psychology because I was very good at working with people and working through people's feelings. But music was always my love and I started studying music psychology. What is that? So essentially it's the study of how music affects the psyche based on where you live or your social standing or what it can do.
And that's a major?
That was a major, yeah. I started studying at university, and then I think I didn't feel as stimulated as I wanted to be, and I knew something was amiss. I didn't necessarily need to go to the lectures to pass an essay.
So the levels are like community, psychology, spirituality within countries, villages, towns, cities, that kind of thing.
Yeah, that kind of thing, yeah.
How it keeps me together, how it breaks people apart.
Yeah, exactly.
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Chapter 8: What unique experiences does Cynthia have related to her performances?
Where we did like a version of Romeo and Juliet and I played Juliet. And I didn't see her until that day. Yeah. When I was about to go and do the young actors company at the theater. And I met her at the – it was at a theater. And I met her at the foyer at the ticket office and she was like, oh – I was like, yeah, yeah, I'm going to do this. And she was like, well, I'm running it.
I can't believe it. This is amazing. She goes, yeah, you can't come unless you're going to go to drama school. I think you should train. I said, what do you mean train? What do you mean train? She said, well, you should go to drama school. What do you mean drama? What?
It had no sense.
What are you talking about?
It really had no sense.
No idea. Yeah, I think you should go to drama school. I think you should go to this place called the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She called it RADA first. I was like, what the heck is RADA? She was like, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. No, I'm not going. She said, why? Because I'm not going to get in. Why would I go to the, it's literally called the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
I'm not going to a place that is called that. I'm not going to get in. There's no way. She said, you should apply and I think you have a chance of getting in. I was like, I'm not going. That's that. She said, okay, fine. Then you can't come and do this. You can't do this actor's company. She called you on it.
She called me on it.
She wouldn't let me go to this thing unless I applied for the school. And what was the audition? When I went, it was four rounds of audition. The first round you went, you prepared two speeches from two different shows, one Shakespeare, one modern. Yeah, right. And I did a piece from A Winter's Tale. The character's called Hermione. And then a piece from a play called The Colored Museum.
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