2025 Golden Globes: Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo Spent 5 Hours on Nails

While walking the red carpet at the 2025 Golden Globes Jan. 5, Wicked actress Cynthia Erivo exclusively spoke with E! News about how long it takes to do her signature nails. 

There’s a strange exhilaration in such total devotion to Wicked.

Just ask Cynthia Erivo, who stepped out to celebrate the musical movie Jan. 5 at the 2025 Golden Globe Awards, where she’s nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy (alongside Amy Adams for Nightbitch, Karla Sofía Gascón for Emilia Pérez, Mikey Madison for Anora, Demi Moore for The Substance and Zendaya for Challengers).

On the red carpet, Erivo shared how her whole life has changed since starring in the Broadway adaptation alongside Ariana Grande—and that includes her red carpet fashion sense. (See all the celebrities at the Golden Globes here.)

“Green is Elphaba’s skin color, but what she wears a lot is black, so I’ve been trying to mess around with the shapes and the structure of different kinds of black dresses,” she exclusively told Zuri Hall on Live From E!: Golden Globes. “We’ve been playing around with it and bringing green in occasionally.”

And while she rocked neutrals to the Globes, Erivo, 37, added a touch of green to her long manicure.

“This took five hours,” she shared of her nails. “My wonderful manicurist did it today.”

Fashion aside, Erivo has been changed for good thanks to her friendship with Grande on and off set. 

“There’s stuff that people don’t see when we’re off camera,” Erivo explained, “our conversations that we have without everyone listening and how we are together after the cameras shut down.”

“We’re just silly sometimes,” she continued. “We have our ways of making sure we can communicate without words. I love that about us. We’ve gotten to really know each other. She can tell immediately when I’m tired and I can tell immediately when she’s tired, I can tell when she’s nervous, she can tell when I’m nervous. We know exactly what each other needs. We’ve just spent that much time together and have been willing to learn each other that way and it’s just been lovely.”

Fashion aside, Erivo has been changed for good thanks to her friendship with Grande on and off set. 

“There’s stuff that people don’t see when we’re off camera,” Erivo explained, “our conversations that we have without everyone listening and how we are together after the cameras shut down.”

“We’re just silly sometimes,” she continued. “We have our ways of making sure we can communicate without words. I love that about us. We’ve gotten to really know each other. She can tell immediately when I’m tired and I can tell immediately when she’s tired, I can tell when she’s nervous, she can tell when I’m nervous. We know exactly what each other needs. We’ve just spent that much time together and have been willing to learn each other that way and it’s just been lovely.”

And Erivo isn’t just proud of her own Globes nomination, but also of Grande for being recognized in the category of Best Supporting Actress—Motion Picture. Plus, Wicked nabbed nods for Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy and Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement—Motion Picture.

“Now that my feet are hovering off the ground,” Erivo said in a statement after Globes nominations were revealed, “I cannot even come close to properly expressing what this moment means to me.”

“Not just because of this individual nomination but because I get to watch as this project and my Wicked family is celebrated too,” she continued. “Being a part of this project has been a dream come true, and playing Elphaba, a woman who speaks to everyone who has ever felt like they don’t belong and lets them know they have the power to defy gravity, has been the honor of a lifetime.”

Read on for more stars defying gravity on the Golden Globes red carpet.

Pamela Anderson

Melissa McCarthy

Dwayne Johnson

Miley Cyrus

Angelina Jolie

Viola Davis

Kaley Cuoco

Colman Domingo

Jennifer Coolidge

Cynthia Erivo

Kate Winslet

Lisa Ann Walter

Kirsten Dunst

Nnamdi Asomugha

Zoe Saldaña

Kathryn Hahn

in Altuzarra.

Sharon Stone

Keri Russell

Kathy Bates

Jeremy Strong

Guy Pearce

Kate Hudson

Elle Fanning

in Balmain.

Quinta Brunson

Adam Brody

Hiroyuki Sanada

Leighton Meester

in Versace.

Zoë Kravitz

in custom Saint Laurent.

Rachel Brosnahan

Andrew Scott

in Vivienne Westwood.