Cynthia Erivo on later identifying as queer – The Hollywood Reporter

This morning, Cynthia Erivo candid about her sexuality during a performance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, further elaborate on an interview for British Vogue’August 2022 Pride Issue where the magazine identified her as bisexual.

The 35-year-old award-winning actress told Clarkson about her journey navigating questions about her identity from adolescence to her acceptance of it in adulthood.

“I don’t think I had the language to know what was going on. It’s come much later for me now and it’s great to just be me, really,” she said. “I think it was kind of a creative space made to just kind of let go of what I was hiding.”

Erivo, who will play Elphaba in the near future Bad movies directed by Jon M. Chu, talked about the energy she’s put into hiding her queerness over the years — without even realizing she wasn’t living her fully authentic life.

“Once you take the energy away from hiding something that’s such a part of you that you can’t hide it anymore, you can put it somewhere else and make more wonderful things,” she shared.

Clarkson said she had “never heard anyone describe it that way,” when Erivo described how she didn’t have the terminology to describe how she felt growing up, even though she knew “there was something different.”

“We don’t necessarily know the language until someone says these are words you might want to use, these are expressions you might want to use, here’s some space for you so you can talk about yourself without anyone else telling you, said Erivo.

Later in the Kellyoke segment of the show, Clarkson and Erivo performed a jazzy rendition of “When You Wish Upon A Star”.

for her Fashion cover, which describes Erivo’s sexuality more specifically as bisexual, the award-winning singer and actress told the Evening Standard she was odd when discussing whether her music video for “The Good” was autobiographical.