Ariana Grande has cautioned that criticizing the appearance of others is “dangerous.”
During an interview with a French reporter on ‘Oui Oui Baguette’, the 31-year-old singer, who has been the subject of cyberbullying for months due to her thin physique, shed tears while discussing the matter with her 37-year-old co-star in ‘Wicked’, Cynthia Erivo.
When asked how she handles society’s “beauty standards” and the “overwhelming” pressure women feel “to always look perfect”, Ariana started to well up – as Cynthia gripped her arm and told her it was “alright”.
Ariana said: “My goodness. I’m not gonna… good question.
“I’ve been kind of doing this (be in showbusiness) in front of the public and kind of been a specimen in a petri dish really since I was 16 or 17, so I have heard it all.
“I’ve heard every version of it – of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons.
“But that’s everything from – even just the simplest thing – your appearance, you know?”
Ariana added it is “hard to protect yourself from that noise” when “you’re young and you’re hearing all kinds of things.”
She went on: “I think that it’s something that is uncomfortable no matter what scale you’re experiencing it on, even if you go to Thanksgiving dinner, and someone’s granny says, ‘Oh my God, you look skinnier! What happened?’ or ‘You look heavier! What happened?’”
She said being on the other end of such comments is “horrible”, before adding: “I think in today’s society, there is a comfortability that we shouldn’t have at all – commenting on others’ looks, appearance, what they think is going on behind the scenes or health or how they present themselves.
“From what you’re wearing to your body to your face to your everything… there’s a comfortability that people have commenting on that that I think is really dangerous, and I think it’s dangerous for all parties involved.”
Ariana opened up about her dramatic weight loss in April 2023 when she was filming ‘Wicked’ in London, by posting a long TikTok video in which she encouraged people to be “gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies”.
Ariana Grande Wants to Reconnect With Musical Theater After ‘Wicked’: “It Heals Me”
The Grammy-winning singer, who plays Glinda in Jon M. Chu‘s adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Wicked, recently said on the Las Culturistas podcast that the movie was a “healing” experience that has led her to consider “reconnecting” with the theater world.
“I’m gonna say something so scary. It’s gonna scare the absolute shit out of my fans and everyone, but I love them and they’ll deal, and we’ll always be here,” she told co-hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers. “I’m always gonna make music. I’m always gonna go onstage, I’m always gonna do pop stuff, I pinky promise. But I don’t think doing it at the rate I’ve been doing it for the past 10 years is where I see the next 10 years.”
The “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)” artist made her Broadway debut in 2008 at age 15 in the musical 13. She later starred in Nickelodeon’s Victorious and its spinoff Sam & Cat before releasing her debut album, Yours Truly, in 2013.
“I think I love acting. I love musical theater,” Grande admitted. “I think reconnecting with this part of myself who started in musical theater and who loves comedy, and it heals me to do that, finding roles to use these parts of myself, and put them in little homes and characters.”
