For some people, Cynthia Erivo did not exist – only Elphaba, the would-be Wicked Witch of the West. They were the day-players, the extras on the set of Wicked, the ones who would arrive after Erivo’s early appointment in the make-up chair. By the time they got there, Erivo was already green, already laced into the elaborate costume that would constrict her body for hours, already wearing her pointy black hat. When filming wrapped for the day and everyone went home, Erivo would be the last person on set, performing the morning’s routine in reverse: removing the hat, the costume, the make-up. No matter how much she scrubbed, at home in the shower, more green would circle the drain.

People see you differently when you’re green – ask Kermit the Frog. This was the point. There were discussions, early on, that the green could be achieved in post-production with CGI, but Erivo wanted to be transformed. Elphaba was misunderstood, unloved; she was something other. Erivo wanted to feel it. She saw herself differently when she was green. She wanted to see Elphaba’s green hands as her own, the reflection of Elphaba’s green face. She wanted to see people seeing her, their primal shock at being in the presence of something unnatural, uncanny, maybe even monstrous. “The reaction was always so visceral,” she says. “People were reacting to something that was real and tangible.” It was more labour-intensive, more hours in make-up, but Erivo doesn’t trust anything that’s easy (“If it comes without work, does it really mean anything?” she asks, meaning everything: career, love, life). She also endured chafing, burns and bruises while singing in a painful harness that allowed her to defy gravity, but didn’t allow for bathroom breaks. The role of Elphaba earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress. Also, it changed her life.

Read more at British GQ.