Cynthia Erivo praised for calm handling of agitated fan in London: 'So patient'

Cynthia Erivo is being praised for the way she handled an altercation with an angry fan in London.

Erivo, 39 shot to worldwide fame in 2024 thanks to her role as Elphaba in Wicked and reprised the role in last year's Wicked: For Good.

She was believed to have been exiting her new stage show Dracula, in London's West End, via the stage door when the incident took place, which was captured on video and shared on social media.

Watch the video above.

It is common for fans to wait at the stage door for the cast to leave after a show in the hope of catching a glimpse of them or even get a photo or autograph with their favourite star.

Dozens of fans appeared to be waiting for Erivo when she left the Noël Coward Theatre.

Among them was an extremely agitated young man who was captured on the video complaining loudly to the star that he had been pushed by someone while he was waiting for her.

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The video started with Erivo asking the young man to "please move along", before he became more agitated and started to swear at the star.

A male voice could then be heard saying, "No, Whoah, whoah, whoah, whoah," before Erivo changed track and tried to calm the young man.

"I need you to take a breath, baby, I need you to take a breath, just stop," she said to the man as he continued to protest and claim he had been pushed to the ground by someone with tattoos on his neck.

As the man got closer to the star, her security guard asked her to step back but Erivo stood her ground and continued to try to de-escalate the situation, repeatedly asking the young man's name so she could address him personally.

"You need to calm down," she said, before adding she was "so sorry" he had been pushed to the ground.

"I need you to relax," she said again, while also saying repeatedly she was sorry he had been pushed.

The man eventually calmed down, telling Erivo he loved her, before becoming slightly more agitated about being pushed and realising he was being filmed.

"I don't like cameras," he said. "How do you get on with that? Crazy."

The video ended soon after.

It was later shared on the Buzzing Pop account on X where commenters praised the Oscar nominee for her handling of the situation.

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"She's so patient and empathetic. Hate how the media has painted her as weird and overprotective," one said.

"She's such a wonderul, caring woman," said another.

"She probably just changed that lad's life in that moment. Good for her. Did it with grace. He looks like a sensitive soul, just upset by something not very nice that happened to him – and she saw that," said another. 

"She would be a good therapist... the way she calmed him down so soothing and actually let him speak and she listened and apologised to him..." wrote another commenter.

Many also pointed out Erivo has received a great deal of negative attention since she became an overnight Hollywood star, especially in regards to her relationship with her co-star, Ariana Grande.

It is not the first time the actress has had a worrying encounter with a fan.

She was involved in a scuffle with Australian man and serial pest Johnson Wen after he rushed at Grande on the red carpet in Singapore on November 13, 2025.

A video showed Wen, who calls himself Pyjama Man, pushing past photographers and charging at Grande while cast members of Wicked: For Good made their way down a yellow carpet to the film's premiere at Universal Studios Singapore.

The BBC reported at the time that Wen was charged with public nuisance and appeared in a Singapore court.

He spent nine days in a Singapore jail before being deported home to Australia and was barred from re-entering the country.

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