Cynthia Erivo’s First Film Since ‘Wicked’ Required Her to Go Dark, Deep and Fearless: “I’d Feel Sick and Angry”

There is no easy way to prepare for a project like Prima Facie . Cynthia Erivo , a two-time Oscar nominee and Tony winner, was coming off of the years-long experience of shooting and promoting back-to-back Wicked movies. She’d agreed to step into a role that would take a great deal more out of her, mentally and physically, with material that could be difficult to shake. Going into production, she relied on the tools honed over her decorated career so that she could show up ready to “go as far as I could and I needed to, to tell the story as fully as I possibly could.” Related Stories Movies 'Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story' Doc Takes Viewers Back to 1980s Globe-Circling Wheelchair Trek: "It's Just Insane" Movies Toronto: Global Media Producers Urge Stronger Local Content Laws to Fend Off Streaming Domination

She adds, “I flanked myself with a really good intimacy coordinator and a really good therapist — and made sure that I tapped them whenever I needed to.”

Prima Facie , premiering Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival, is adapted by Suzie Miller from her lauded play of the same name. The story centers on Tessa (Erivo), a barrister in London who’s made a name for herself as a steely, crafty defender of men accused of sexual assault. Her notions of justice and the law — indeed, of her very sense of self — are then upended when she herself is assaulted by Julian ( Daniel Ings ), her colleague and boyfriend who comes from a relatively privileged background.

The original stage production starred Jodie Comer, and only Jodie Comer, in a Tony- and Olivier-winning solo show on Broadway and the West End. The film, directed by Susanna White ( Woman Walks Ahead ) in her first feature in a decade, opens up Tessa’s world, bringing audiences into her working class hometown, and specifically her complex relationships with her mother (Noma Dumezweni) and younger brother ( Toheeb Jimoh ), as well as her stuffy professional milieu. White’s approach also brings us deeper into Tessa’s interior life as only filmmaking can.