"Are those hands real?" — Netizens react as video of Cynthia Erivo's nails during recent stage performance goes viral

A video of Wicked star Cynthia Erivo's supposedly large hands went viral online on May 2. The Oscar-nominated actress had a performance with the Florida Orchestra at St. Petersburg’s Mahaffey Theater on Friday. It is unclear if the viral clip is from her Friday performance.

The clip, seemingly filmed from someone seated on the balcony area of a theatre, captured Cynthia in a sleeveless long black dress, singing in front of the mic. What caught netizens' attention was her hands, which looked relatively larger than her body proportions.

However, it was evident the 38-year-old actress was wearing long nails, which made it look like her hands grew longer than her body. The X user who shared the short video captioned the post:

"Is it me (probably) or do her hands look freakishly large?"

Netizens soon began sharing their reactions.

"are those hands real?", one person wrote.

"She could slap a n***a that's across the room", joked an X user.

Due to the long nails, some people compared Cynthia to Anjelica Huston's character from the 1990 movie The Witches. Few others drew comparison with Count Orlok from the 1922 fantasy film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

"It's giving grand high witch", commented one person.

"Definite Nosferatu vibes going on there", said another.

Despite these comparisons, several others explained Cynthia likes to wear really long nail extensions, which creates an illusion of larger hands. They also chided the OP for focusing on Cynthia Erivo's physical appearance rather than her gifted vocals.

"She does have larger more elongated hands but I think the nails are making them look really oversized", noted an X user.

"Likely the angle of the video and the freakishly long nails. I can’t deny her talent though. That girl can SANG!!", voiced one person.

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Cynthia Erivo answered some questions about her long nail extensions

Since her Wicked fame last year, Cynthia Erivo has been known for wearing long nail extensions. During a November 2024 appearance on Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert, the actor asked Cynthia:

"Can I ask you a really crazy question?"

Shepard proceeded with his curiosity and could only utter the first segment of his question, "When you're wiping your b*tt," when Cynthia interrupted him and expressed she was aware of one such inquiry. She told Shepard how people don't hesitate to ask her this question almost daily. The Emmy-winning actress said:

"My answer is, nobody uses just their fingers to wipe their backside. You use tissue. Correct? And you wipe!"

Dax Shepard further asked:

"Does the tissue go on the tip of the fingernails, or do you try to get the tissue"

Cynthia Erivo replied that she uses the pads of her fingers to carefully hold the tissue. Regardless, Shepard did not stop there and enquired again if Cynthia felt the "tickle of the nails" on her rear part at times. The actress told Shepard she uses toilet paper.

Upon being asked if she was annoyed by these questions, Cynthia Erivo quipped she was indeed "annoyed," adding she was a "functioning adult." She suggested she never went out in public while smelling bad.

Cynthia Erivo has sported embellished nail extensions to match her ensemble throughout the Wicked press tour.