Cynthia Erivo knows she and Ariana Grande are friends for good.
The Wickedstar—who is nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role at the 2025 SAG Awards—gave a peek into the future of her friendship with the “One Last Time” singer as the end of awards season nears.
“This film brought us together, but it’s not the thing that keeps us together,” Cynthia exclusively told E! News correspondent Will Marfuggi on the red carpet of the SAG Awards Feb. 23. “We were lucky because we got to meet each other on this project, but when the project goes away, we’re still good friends. That’s still my sister. It’s not this that’s keeping us together.”
And the Tony Award winner—who is nominated at the SAG Awards alongside Demi Moore, Pamela Anderson, Karla Sofía Gascón and Mikey Madison—explained their bond extends beyond their day jobs.
“We see each other outside of work,” she continued. “We speak to each other outside of work. We’re on the phone all the time, texting, FaceTiming, whatever.”
Cynthia, who is known for her intricate fingernail art, even added, “I literally FaceTime her when I do my nails. That’s like a standing appointment.” (Click here to see all of the 2025 SAG Awards red carpet fashion.)
As for how Ariana—who is also nominated at the SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role alongside Monica Barbaro, Jamie Lee Curtis, Danielle Deadwyler, and Zoe Saldaña—feels about her friend and costar? The feeling is mutual.
“To work with someone who is just absolutely in their own league as a talent in the world—there’s no one like her,” she said on Penn Badgley‘s podcast Podcrushed in June. “To just feel like we somehow speak the same language and somehow we’re destined to do this together and to feel safe every single day together and hold space.”
She continued of her sister, “We both have similar but different processes, similar but different needs, we’re both opposite and the same. To have that—the love that we have and trust that we have and deep love that we have for each other is—I think it all kind of happened the way it did because of that and because we were supposed to be in each other’s lives, I really do.”
Keep reading to see all the stars that walked the 2025 SAG Awards red carpet.
Ariana Grande
Timothee Chalamet
Selena Gomez
Cynthia Erivo
Leighton Meester
Adam Brody
Zoe Saldaña
Keke Palmer
Kieran Culkin
Millie Bobby Brown
Demi Moore
Colman Domingo
Kristen Bell
Jeremy Allen White
Mikey Madison
Kerry Washington
Jeremy Strong
Jamie Lee Curtis
Michelle Yeoh
Daniel Craig
Pamela Anderson
Jane Fonda
Ralph Fiennes
Quinta Brunson
Anna Sawai
Elle Fanning
Colin Farrell
Nicola Coughlan
Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Lily Gladstone
