Cynthia Erivo’s Old Tweets About “Ghetto American Accents” Have Resurfaced

The Breakdown: Cynthia Erivo is undoubtedly in her winning season. The British actor has proven she can do everything, from acting to singing and dancing, and serve iconic looks on the red carpet. There isn't much Cynthia can't do when she puts her mind to it. However, Cynthia's old tweets have resurfaced and sparked controversy online.

After her starring role in Wicked, Hollywood has become further convinced Cynthia is a bonafide star. In 2025, she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.

Her potential win would make her the youngest EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) winner to have won all four awards and only the sixth Black creative to do so, an honor previously awarded to Jennifer Hudson, Viola Davis, and John Legend.

Cynthia's close EGOT win has her supporters in her corner. Unfortunately, others who followed her career pre-Elphaba recall some of her controversial tweets.

Cynthia fell into hot water when she posted a series of controversial comments on the app previously known as Twitter in 2013. The tweets were about a conversation she shared with her friend, theater actor Joel Montague. After Cynthia tweeted about wanting to record a song "properly," Joel responded that she should also set a goal to "attempt to sing to me daily." The Luther actor replied to her friend, who is white, clarifying she was using her "ghetto American accent."

"@JoelMontague (ghetto American accent), baby, u, know I catch imma sing it to you, but I still gotta do wadigattado, you feel me?" Cynthia wrote.

The actor never said her "accent" was directed at African Americans. Still, commenters let Cynthia know they read between the lines.

Cynthia's tweets haunted her as she continued booking more acting roles. The actor's tweets were further discussed online when she was selected to play Harriet Tubman in the eponymous film. Initially, she received backlash from African Americans who felt the role should've gone to someone from the U.S. rather than a British and Nigerian actor. After seeing her posts, she received even more backlash from those convinced she wasn't fit for the job.

"Nigerian actress Cynthia Erivo playing Harriet Tubman is a no for me dog," internet personality Tariq Nasheed wrote in 2019. "Cynthia has a history of showing disrespect to foundational Black Americans."

Cynthia eventually took the role of Harriet and was confident in her ability to play the role. She also didn't shy away from the critiques she received after her tweets were put back into the forefront during her Harriet press tour. During an interview with Shadow and Act at the Toronto International Film Festival, Cynthia said the tweets were taken out of context. She said she didn't intend to mock Black American culture with her words.

"I would say it took a lot of hard work to get to this place [of playing Harriet Tubman], and I didn’t take it lightly," she declared. "I love this woman, and I love Black people full stop. It would do me no service. It would be like hating myself. “As for the tweets, taken out of context without giving me the room to tell you what it meant— and it wasn’t mocking anyone really."

“I would never — I’ve never spoken negatively about people because I don’t want that, I don’t want that energy from me to others,” she added. “I don’t believe that serves us at all. I don’t believe it serves a purpose other than bringing negativity into my life and your life, and I just don’t want that."

Cynthia has played other notable Black figures and characters, including her Tony-winning role as Celie in Broadway's revival of The Color Purple and Aretha Franklin.