- 2 hours ago
Cynthia Erivo didnât plan on a career in entertainment, but after being encouraged to enroll in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, there was no turning back. With a whole host of awards and accolades already filling up her resume, this actor-singer is now transforming from Broadway starlet to the big screenâs leading lady. Sheâs always had a big voice, but now Cynthia Erivo is cultivating the kind of career that only the biggest dreams are made of.
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00:02Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barbrick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief
00:07of Refinery29. Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore
00:13the funny, inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through
00:20the things that we wear. In 2014, a journalist asked Cynthia Rivo what she wanted to do next.
00:34Cynthia was 27 years old, just a few years out of drama school, and already making waves in the
00:40London theater scene. She'd starred in West End musicals, stolen the show in an all-female
00:46production of Henry IV, and been named one of Britain's best classical actors under the age
00:51of 30. So what did she want to do next? Everything, Cynthia answered. I genuinely want to do everything.
00:59It's a pretty ambitious career goal, but guess what? She's pulling it off. Cynthia became a Broadway
01:06phenom in 2015, when she played the iconic lead role of Celie in The Color Purple. Her performance
01:13and her voice astonished audiences and critics alike. It was, quote, like leather lungs soaked in honey,
01:21as one reviewer wrote. Cynthia won a Tony for the role, and a Grammy, and an Emmy. It was an
01:28incredible feat, but then again, Cynthia is nothing short of an incredible artist. She's not just
01:34uniquely gifted. She is a palpable force of vitality and strength. Here's a fun fact. She once ran a half
01:42marathon right before going to the theater to do the matinee show. Maybe that's what you have to do
01:47if you want to do everything. Cynthia left The Color Purple last year and immediately got to work on
01:52her next act, making her film debut this fall with two back-to-back movies, the offbeat thriller Bad
01:58Times at the El Royale and the gritty crime drama Widows. And soon she'll take on the role of a
02:04lifetime,
02:05starring in a biopic on the legendary abolitionist, activist, suffragist, army scout, and spy, Harriet Tubman.
02:14Cynthia wants to do it all, and at just 31, she's already done a lot,
02:19but something tells us it only gets bigger from here.
02:35Cynthia Erivo, it is such an honor to have you as a guest on UnStyled today.
02:40Thanks.
02:40You're a busy lady.
02:41I am, just a tad.
02:44You're really busy. I know it might be a little bit boring for you because you probably talked about
02:48it a million times, but I would love to talk a little bit about The Color Purple.
02:53Sure, sure.
02:53It's such an important book to me and so many people around the world, and obviously it's
02:58still so iconic. And what was it like to find out that you were getting that role to play Celie?
03:04When I was in London, I had heard that The Color Purple was coming to London for a while,
03:08and I was in the middle of doing another musical, and I don't know why, but my gut was like,
03:13I want to do this show. This show is the show I need to do this. I need to play
03:17this part.
03:17You play this role, and I couldn't get rid of that feeling. So when it finally did come in,
03:22I did everything I could to get the role, but they wouldn't see me.
03:28Because you weren't as known at that point? I think so. I don't know. I think it was a
03:32combination of what they had seen already and the fact that I wasn't well known, I don't know.
03:38But they just were resisting. And then a friend of mine, his name's Jason Pennycook,
03:43he knew the artistic director of the theatre and had gone out on a limb and said,
03:48you need to see this girl. She's right for it. And so I had like, I think it was like
03:54two nights
03:54or something, two days to learn four scenes and two songs from the show. And I remember
04:03making a decision that I was going to learn everything, like the back of my hand. And I
04:08refused to, I don't want the paper in my hand. The whole show?
04:11Yeah. I wanted to learn those four scenes like I knew them already. Like it was, I was already part
04:16of the show. And so when I remember I went in and I felt, I just felt grounded, like I
04:21was in the
04:22right place. And did the audition, everything went really, really well. And then a couple of months
04:27later found out that I was doing it because there was something in between where they weren't sure if it
04:31was
04:31going to happen or not, then it all went well. And they called me and said they had given me
04:35the role.
04:36Was that your first big established role that really sort of thrust you into the spotlight in
04:42a very different kind of way?
04:43Yeah. I feel like that was the role that essentially changed my life from that moment on. Yeah. And it
04:49has continued to do so. Yeah. It's been one of those moments that has just kept giving wonderful
04:56things, wonderful gifts. Whenever, just when I think it can't give anymore, it gives something else.
05:01Alice Walker, I believe is the first black woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize. What did it mean to
05:08you to play this role? And what responsibility did you feel like you had? I mean, I know that you've
05:12been in a lot of all female casts. And I think obviously playing particularly black women is
05:18really, really important to you. But like, what do you want to accomplish in playing a role like this?
05:23I wanted women who felt like they weren't being heard to know that they were and to know that there
05:30was someone who was listening and to know that their voices were valid. There's something about
05:35Celie that is constant. She doesn't give up. But you have fight is really quiet. But it is a fight.
05:43And she's
05:43she doesn't ever really give up. I think the first time you see her sort of think about giving up
05:48is
05:48towards the end of the show. And she's just done as much as she possibly can in order to
05:53survive and just can't give anyone when you think she can't give anymore. She does because she fights
06:00for herself and she wants to live and she wants to have a good life. And and I wanted all
06:05those women
06:06who felt like they weren't worthy of that to see it on stage and and to see someone like me
06:13live it
06:14truly. It meant the world to be able to tell this story because I try to pride myself on being
06:21as
06:21truthful about any of the the characters that I put on stage. I don't ever want anyone to think that
06:27I'm just playing the role because that doesn't do anything for anyone doesn't do anything for me or
06:33for the person watching. The one thing that I wanted was for people to come in and see themselves on
06:37that stage and see themselves surviving something. And that's what she does. She survives. And for those
06:43women who have been through her abuse eradication being told that they don't matter being told that
06:51they're ugly being told all of these things which aren't true to see someone overcome all of that
06:57and not really need any validation from anyone except from herself. And also you've been in I
07:02believe they're they're both all-female casts of Jesus Christ Superstar and Henry IV. Henry IV.
07:09Henry IV. Yeah. Do you ever think about like the value of disrupting like casting norms and things
07:15like that? Yeah I mean and I think I find a particular joy being able to mess things up a
07:22bit you know
07:23because what happens is that you hear something from a different point of view. Being able to play
07:28a character that was normally a woman or being part of a cast where you know Jesus Christ was usually
07:36a
07:36man and is now a woman is Shoshana Bean and now I get to sing that I love her. It
07:42just tells a
07:43completely different story. You get to see something that wasn't there because I think as women we have
07:48a different perspective on things anyway and so our storytelling is going to be different just because
07:55it is. By default that's how we are. We find the small things in storytelling that I don't know that
08:03everyone else can find and I think that being able to do that makes other people see that we're
08:08able to do these things. You know if you cast a woman in an action role that was supposed to
08:13be
08:14for a man and that woman is able to do all of the the fighting in it all of the
08:19action all of the
08:20physical things in it well now you know that women can also do those things too and that means that
08:25you have to think differently now when you cast. It means it can't be that you just cast a guy
08:31because
08:31it's easy because now everybody knows that you went for the easy choice and if there's no reason
08:36why this can't be played by a woman then why don't you try and so now I think by doing
08:43all of that by
08:43disrupting the casting norms you force people to actually think and work hard to find the right
08:51people for a role. I also think it's such an interesting time for for women in programming and
08:56film and television in particular and you know all the shows we watch are about women now yeah and I
09:03think all the most interesting complex you know sort of fascinating characters all revolve around all
09:08female casts or or women and even if it's like sharp objects and secure um big little lies um the
09:16handmaid's tale and I think it's it's so important to me I mean obviously at refinery 29 we you know
09:22sort of predominantly cater to to young women but it's important that it's not just programming like
09:28everyone's watching that like so many men are actually watching and sort of observing and taking
09:33in these stories it's just really it's it's inspiring to me I just I get really excited about and I
09:38think
09:38that you know the color purple kind of goes back to that time I mean I think I read that
09:41book when I
09:42was 12 or 13 and it was really my gateway book to to serious writing and and it made me
09:48it made me
09:49love to read because I just remember being so like my whole life kind of opened up after that book
09:55because you know I grew up on Long Island you know I had I knew nothing of that time you
09:59know we weren't
09:59learning about it in school yet so it was just really it was really fascinating yeah there's something
10:04about the color purple that I really it's small things like the side of the building had three faces of
10:11three women of color I don't know when that happened last I don't know if it's happened before
10:19I think it may be a first to have a massive billboard on the side of a building and then
10:26around Times Square with three huge faces of three women of color it just was such a an astounding
10:34thing to see like especially for me coming from London I just have never seen that in London it just
10:39hasn't it doesn't exist London how long have you been living in New York now for September makes
10:43it three years you didn't really feel like you were recognized or kind of known until you came to
10:48the US yeah why do you think that is what do you think it was different about the audiences and
10:53in
10:53the UK when I was there and I and I hope it's different now and I think it is different
10:59when I was
10:59there there was a lot of growth that needed to happen when it came to the way in which women
11:06of color
11:06were viewed on stage on screen on film wherever the color purple happened and we had an amazing
11:14audiences audiences were coming and they were having a spiritual experience just as we were having
11:19in New York but it was almost like I guess I hate to say this but I feel like the
11:25world around it you
11:27were talking about media and newspapers or reviews seem to think that because there was another play with
11:35an all-black cast there could only be one and they couldn't coexist and so I sort of got shoved
11:42under
11:42the rug I guess and it was really like we only have enough space for one right yeah it was
11:48really
11:48because Ben Bradley came and did a review I don't know how or why he came to do a review
11:53of this show
11:54yeah he came to a review of our show in London I had no idea they didn't tell me when
12:00he was coming
12:00in I was like what on earth the times does not yeah and we see this review and it's a
12:05love letter
12:06to us and I read it thinking oh my god and it but it wasn't like sycophantic it was really
12:11like
12:11genuine genuine and I was like oh he got it he understood it he understood what we were doing he
12:18understood the story we were telling he understood that this wasn't a gospel choir on stage just singing
12:24songs we were telling a story and it was because of that that I think that really sort of shifted
12:31the idea that we could just take this from the UK and do it again in the US it broke
12:37my heart because
12:37I really did want to share it more with the UK audience I really did because I felt like it
12:43was
12:43a necessary piece of theatre that everybody needed to see but I'm also ever so grateful that he saw that
12:50and gave us that boost that love letter the words that he wrote were just really really gorgeous and
12:56and it meant that we got to give it more life and had it have not happened had we not
13:02moved it here
13:03I don't know that I would be sitting in front of you right now so I don't know what happened
13:09or why
13:09there was you know we don't have enough space there isn't a theatre we're not sure we don't know if
13:14it
13:14it's so competitive it's so expensive it's just an also time consuming and I feel like it's so it's
13:20sad to me sometimes when I see these really short runs of plays that are really good and you just
13:26know that they're a critical success but they're not getting the kind of audiences it's selective you
13:32know there are many Shakespeare plays that we've seen umpteen times but they keep getting the funding
13:36to be seen again but you you know a show that basically costs almost nothing our show costs very
13:43little because we don't have a set we have like there's wood and chairs on a wall that's literally
13:48it there there is no moving pieces there are no set pieces we don't have a massive band like it
13:54was a
13:55really small intimate play that required nothing but its actors really and truly so you know there is
14:03a selection there it's sort of like well let's leave this one we'll do with we'll do that and that's
14:07fine but what happens is stories get missed because of ideas of what a cast of colour can give or
14:16how
14:16much we're worth or what we can sell it seems like it's such an interesting time for theatre right now
14:21in terms of just the the sort of and maybe I don't know enough about theatre to support this but
14:28it does
14:28seem that there's more openness to less commercial kinds of stories yes here definitely and and and I'm
14:36hoping it's moving in that direction when it comes to the UK I'm I haven't been back so I don't
14:41know
14:41what's showing particularly so I don't know but I know that here it's changing all the time it feels
14:47like there's a want to tell loads of different stories all at once which is amazing so I can go
14:52and see something that feels like it's from MGM and I can go and see a really small play at
14:56MTC so it's
14:57like there's some amazing things happening and I just want that to spread out particularly for the UK
15:03because that's not what it was right in when I was there
15:18the unstyled podcast is made possible by refinery 29 and airy your body positive go-to for intimates
15:25and loungewear you know exactly what you'd want to wear while binge listening to your favorite podcast
15:31never retouched and always real airy gives you the everyday pieces that make you feel confident
15:37strong and always the real you in your own style
15:52I'd just love for you to tell us a little bit about your background like growing up like what was
15:56it like being raised by a Nigerian mom my mom is kind of awesome uh she which means she's very
16:02awesome right you know she's yes super awesome yeah officially very awesome very very awesome okay
16:07she's very special it's just she's a special kind of woman she I think she came to London when she
16:12was
16:1224 she was supposed to start a catering didn't want to so she passed the classes for catering sent the
16:20papers back to her dad and then put herself through nursing school she did everything she needed to
16:25she made sure she studied chemistry biology all of those things that she needed past clothes
16:29put herself into King's College University uh for nursing wow I don't know how she did it she didn't
16:35waste a minute not at all and while she was studying to get her next level she was she had
16:41me and so she
16:42was working studying had me but for some reason nothing ever felt like it was missing so like our
16:49Christmases were amazing she we were always dressed really really well food was always great like we
16:54always had presents under the tree how many siblings do you have uh just me my sister okay but I
16:59don't
16:59know I really don't know how she did it was she a single mom yeah wow yeah I don't know
17:04how she did
17:05it like she was she's pretty awesome definitely that kind of awesome I mean like that I I when I
17:12think
17:12about it because she was young then yeah she was probably in her like early 30s maybe yeah she had
17:16me
17:16at 30 30 I want to say 32 32 34 uh she I can't remember a time where I was
17:23like oh I'm missing
17:24something because she seemed to fill every moment with like laughter and fun and we would go to the
17:29park she taught me how to ride a bike like genuinely remember when she taught me how to ride a
17:34bike and I
17:34fell off many times and then I finally learned and it was great um and then what she she would
17:39make
17:39sure that we would take like a mini holiday vacation every so often so it's because of her that I
17:46love
17:46traveling because she would I think it's something she wanted for her kids to be able to be unafraid
17:51of like going to places new experiences yeah so I remember we took a family vacation to Italy when I
17:58was 13 and I think we went to Milan just because she wants to go to Milan I remember sitting
18:03here we this
18:04is when we had the big giant computers with the modems and whatnot and she was looking at like
18:09travel or something like trying to book the flights and the holiday and the whole package together and
18:14I think we got like a hotel room where we all stayed in the same room together and I just
18:18remember having
18:18such fun doing that and it's an adventure yeah and she would make sure that we were you know at
18:26school
18:26she would make sure that I had a musical instrument that I could play and all of these things she
18:31just
18:31seemed to have the capacity to make sure that we were always adventuring somehow she knew before I
18:40did that that I was going to be a performer for some reason she has this I always tell the
18:45story
18:45because I think it's astounding it's just this baby book for both my sister and I and in the beginning
18:50of the book it asks what you think your daughter will be what you think your child will be and
18:55I think
18:56the first entry about what she thought I would be was when I was about 18 months old two years
19:00old
19:01something like that where she says she thinks I'm going to be a singer and asks why and it's
19:06because I hum when I eat she said she hums when she eats I think that she's going to be
19:11a singer
19:11or an actress do you remember humming when you eat no can't remember it all I can't remember any of
19:17this well I don't know how I wonder what you were humming I don't know I think I was just
19:21making it up
19:22you came into this life with this like sort of this this registry of melodies and and songs I do
19:28think that children are very intuitive that way plays music she played music in the house all the
19:33time all the time all sorts of music every kind of music which is probably why I have the taste
19:38that
19:38I have because she just played everything from I don't know Diana Ross to Nigerian music to I don't
19:44Boney M sometimes and then it would be like Anita Baker and then it would be I don't know the
19:49mechanics
19:50just everything everything in the house everything while we were in the car she would play she would
19:54have magic FM mechanics magic FM used to play everything from like the 80s and I love magic
20:01it's a beat and it's so gorgeous that so relaxing everything is so relaxing so relaxing on the way
20:08to school Stevie Winwood all that stuff I know so good Annie Lennox that's why that's how I learned
20:13about it because magic FM always played Annie Lennox I know rhythmics always always and so I would just
20:19learn about you know what they play now they always play Robbie Williams do I have to say whenever I
20:24come
20:24to London if I'm there for London Fashion Week I love like taking taxis or or or Ubers because
20:30inevitably every driver listens to that station and Robbie Williams yes angels always always angels
20:35I love that song so much always good it's so good do you know that I was on a plane
20:40coming from Hawaii
20:41to here and he was on the plane at the front and I had like a flashback to my like
20:47teenage
20:47doom and I was like every time I'm in London I hear that song and I'm always like can you
20:51turn it up
20:52please I know and like you're literally singing with the driver I know it's it's crazy it's so
20:57good and that's what she did and she used to I think and by the age of three she she
21:02shifted it
21:03slightly and said that she thought I would be singing an actress or a doctor because I'd started
21:07mimicking what she was doing so I would like if she came home with prescriptions I would take
21:12the prescriptions and pretend to write something or like scribble on them but like I'd be in my head
21:16I'm writing something that much I remember so I know that she shifted it because I was those are the
21:21signs I was showing she genuinely was just watching me and enjoying the things that I was like giving
21:26I didn't know that it was going to happen I don't think I realized I could sing until I was
21:30five when I did like a nativity play and they asked me to sing Silent Night and so I did
21:36and
21:36I don't remember feeling nervous I don't remember I just remember knowing that when I had sung it
21:42it made people happy and so that's the connection that I had made with what imprinted on you yeah
21:48so I knew that I wanted to keep doing that wow because when you're five it's black and white
21:53if I do this it's going to make people happy if I don't do this it's going to make people
21:57sad
21:57so I'll keep doing that because it makes people happy and I know I can so I don't know that
22:02I
22:02registered that I was making a good sound I just knew that whatever sound I was making was making
22:07people happy so I continued doing it do you know what a valuable lesson that is to know from a
22:13young age
22:13and just to be able to associate a job or a skill with joy and with happiness I mean I
22:20think it's
22:20something that Oprah always talks about it's just like how important it is for work not to feel like
22:25work it's like you know to really find this pleasure in in how you spend like a large part of
22:32your life
22:33you know you know doing and I can't even imagine what that was like learning that at five I don't
22:37think I've lost it though it doesn't seem to go anywhere there's always a moment when I'm either on stage
22:42as a character or just singing a song where it feels like being filled with sunshine like from
22:48the middle of me and that's what it feels like and I can't help but like smile in the song
22:52or just be
22:53in the moment like it feels good it feels I love what I do genuinely I love what I do
22:59wow
23:17you have two big hefty films coming out the first one is bad times at the El Royale and the
23:25second one
23:26is Widows directed by Steve McQueen is like one of I think one of the most important directors right
23:31now he's such an artist Steve has this wonderful way of whilst he's directing you never forget that
23:38he's an artist first and that's how it feels it feels like he's painting pictures all the way through
23:44trying to tell the right message in the right way and making sure that everyone does their best work
23:50and it always feels like it's being handled by someone who cares deeply about what he puts out
23:56it's a wonderful experience and he you know he's one of those people that truly cares about the people
24:01in his films those people that he picks to be a part of the stories that he's telling he cares
24:06about
24:06them and he there's a reason why he picks the people that he picks there's a reason why they they
24:12get to
24:12be in his space there's a reason why he'll sit and have a meeting with them there's a reason why
24:16we sit
24:17on the first day and speak through not just read through the script but speak through the the wants
24:22and needs of each of these characters what they're trying to achieve where they're going what what is
24:27necessary for them to work if there's anything missing like he's pretty special I really really
24:32enjoyed working with him I really really loved this project you know he trusted me a lot with this
24:39movie because he had not seen anything from me and his casting director wonderful woman called
24:44francine had seen me in the color purple and had told him about me and on her word trusted me
24:52met me
24:53and that was that I don't know what I did or what I said in that meeting but somehow he
25:00saw this
25:00character on me and he's he he believed that I could do it you can tell he has a really
25:04strong
25:05intuition when it comes to choosing characters so let's talk about bad times at the el royale yeah so I
25:10was strangely enough in the middle of filming widows when I got like the sides for this film that
25:17required a girl to sing live on set and I was like well I can sing live that's great and
25:23then I read
25:24some of these sides and I was like this feels really cool I like this story this scene feels great
25:29so put myself on tape and then they asked me to tape again so I taped again and then
25:34what did you sing um I it was um I need love love to ease my mind I need to
25:40find fun can't hurry love
25:41yeah so I did that thank you for that so I put myself on tape again and then after that
25:47they knew
25:47I was coming to LA and they had asked if I could come in for a workshop with Drew so
25:52I come into the
25:53workshop with Drew we do the scene I don't think I by this point I had read the entire script
25:57yet so I
25:58didn't really know the enormity of what I was being asked to do it's probably better that you
26:06didn't very much so very much so a complete blessing so I'm in this workshop I'm really
26:12like having a great time he's lovely Drew is amazing our director he is like a kid in a candy
26:19shop when it comes to film and he wrote this script out of like complete love and him on set
26:25is
26:26divine but we'll get to that so I enjoy this really cool workshop and I get back to New York
26:32and I think well it's gone now it's not I don't hear anything and then all of a sudden I
26:36get this
26:36call they want you to play this role Darlene I was like oh my gosh this is amazing it's amazing
26:41they send the script and I read I read some of it and I'm skimming through and I'm not in
26:45my head
26:46it's not registering how much I'm in the film at all and then it gets to when we're doing the
26:51contracts and my agent says so they're going to give you second billing in this film and my response
26:57is that's really nice of them why why are they doing that silence on the other side of the phone
27:02Brian yes why have they given us a second billing that's really they don't have to do that what do
27:07we do like that's really nice of them to to do I mean all these are the people it's great
27:11I'm
27:12thinking I'm playing a really small character in this this piece I'm thinking I'm playing a character
27:17that sort of disappears halfway through and he has the fact that I'm playing one of the leading
27:23roles like I'm the leading lady in this piece I didn't realize so silence happens and I go
27:31am I the lead am I the leading lady in this he says yes
27:39oh oh okay and so I go back to the script remember I'm in an airport we fly back from
27:44something I start
27:45reading the script again and then and I'm highlighting because it's time to get ready
27:49for it and I'm like I'm highlighting still oh my god I'm really in this movie I am in this
27:56movie this
27:57is this is a this is a big leading roles generally are this is a big yes there's a lot
28:02a lot to
28:03memorize yeah you actually had a really interesting sort of detail that got picked up a lot at the
28:11Met Ball so why don't you tell us about the manicure so the manicure I had spoken to everyone
28:16that was going to be a part of the Met Gala look to get all the details together because the
28:20idea for
28:21me you know it was heavenly bodies this year and I I didn't want to go as an angel I
28:26didn't want to go
28:27as a priest I didn't want to go as a pope or anything nothing like that I wanted I actually
28:33wanted
28:33to go and take my inspiration from an artifact in the Catholic Church because that's my that's what
28:40my um upbringing is I'm Roman Catholic so um well that's where I went to school so I I know
28:47a lot
28:47about what is in the church and what the rich things that you see in church and one of the
28:51things I used
28:52to always see is the sacristy which would hold the body of Christ or the chalice that would hold the
28:57wine and they were always delicately jeweled and everything was like put together it was gold and
29:04it was you know sparkly and you had the reds the deep reds of the wine and all that so
29:08the dress
29:08felt like the wine or the blood of God which is like the it was like a deep deep velvet
29:14deep red
29:16purpley velvet which felt like the wine and then I decided to use myself as like the chalice or the
29:22artifact and so I made sure that my nails also had the deep red on it um and each nail
29:28had a
29:28completely different design on it so one had like a rosary on it another had the I wanted it to
29:36feel
29:36like the um Sistine Chapel so you had uh I think it's is it deep Venus into Milo where they
29:42the hands
29:43the fingers touch in the middle yeah the creation yeah yeah so the the two fingers are touching so
29:49my one nail had the two fingers touching and each of and then two nails either side had
29:54and the two characters but I decided to make those women of color because we never see that because
30:01why not because why not and I am a woman of color and I felt like it felt necessary to
30:05to do that
30:06then you had another nail with Mother Mary and just each nail had its own sort of story because I
30:13feel
30:13like my nails are such very much part of who I am as a person they're the thing that you
30:19see a lot I
30:20always have them done and I felt like if they weren't a part of this look it didn't make sense
30:24I had I
30:25think I had a chain coming from it with a cross on it as well like I decided to make
30:30everything a part
30:31of it and then I made sure that my eyebrows I had my eyebrows bejeweled so like the chalice would
30:36have
30:36jewels in it I had jewels on me as well and I filled in all of my piercings I have
30:41in total I think
30:4211 piercings in my ears and I filled each one of them with gold and with the diamond so that
30:48it felt
30:48like I really was the thing carrying like I felt like the artifact yeah wow that is incredible yeah
30:55I just I love I love being able to like tell different little stories like that and no dress
31:00off the rack for you no no I like I make I love messing around in it and I have
31:07a particular like love
31:08for fashion I have for a really long time and I am daring to say the least with it a
31:14lot of the time
31:14and I don't really mind that people might not like it I just mind that I enjoy doing it Cynthia
31:22Rivo it has been such a pleasure to have you on our style today thank you for making the time
31:26we love
31:26you this is so awesome thank you so much for having me today thank you for being here
31:34I hope you're inspired after hearing Cynthia's story for even more Unstyled extras check out
31:41Refinery29 or my Instagram at Christine Barbaric you can also join the conversation using the hashtag
31:47Unstyled across your social media and of course we'd be infinitely grateful if you'd please subscribe
31:53to the Unstyled podcast on iTunes and rate us while you're there you can head over to
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32:04newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every week our show today was executive produced by
32:10Bridget Todd associate produced by Rebecca Easley and edited by Priscilla Mena copy support was provided
32:16by Kelsey Miller our theme music today is by the artist Koff and we recorded Unstyled with Paul
32:23Ruist at Argo Studios we'll see you back here next Monday for a conversation with T magazine editor-in-chief
32:30Hanya Yanagihara on reimagining media in the modern world see you then
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