The Wicked press tour is over, but Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s “holding space” finger hold will never die — just ask Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning.
The duo, who costarred in A Complete Unknown, recently did an interview with The Advocate’s Tracy E. Gilchrist, otherwise known as the journalist who inspired the meme about “holding space” for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity.”
Gilchrist introduced herself to Chalamet and Fanning by joking, “First, I just want to let you know that I am holding space for you.”
Fanning, 26, replied, “Thank you, I’m starstruck!” Chalamet, 29, agreed with his costar’s assessment, adding, “Yeah, I am starstruck.”
The pair then perfectly executed their version of the now-infamous one-finger hold Grande, 31, gave Erivo, 37, last month.
“It’s an honor talking to you. I feel, like, sort of starstruck,” Chalamet continued. “I was like, ‘Holy s—, OK, this better be good.’”
Fanning admitted that she and Chalamet wouldn’t be able to top Erivo and Grande’s viral moment no matter what they did.
“There’s nothing that we can do that can trump what happened, you know what I mean?” Fanning said. “We can try.”
The “holding space” meme originated in November when Gilchrist interviewed Erivo and Grande during the seemingly endless Wicked press tour. The journalist, who memorably noted that she is “in queer media,” told the pair that she had seen people online “holding space” for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity.”
Erivo replied that she hadn’t personally seen that happening but looked emotional as she said that’s what she wanted fans to get from her performance as Elphaba. Grande, meanwhile, turned to her to offer support, but instead of holding costar’s hand, she grabbed just one finger.
Grande later confessed that she didn’t understand what was going on when the “holding space” discussion was happening.
“So I had no idea what any part of it meant,” the pop star told Variety earlier this month. “I didn’t understand the first sentence. And then I definitely didn’t understand what was happening and how [Cynthia] responded. I was like, ‘Oh, what did she say, what did you hear?’ And I just wanted to be there because I knew something big was happening. And I didn’t know how to be there.”
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Grande went on to say that she grabbed Erivo’s finger because she thought her costar “might need something” but admitted she didn’t know why she started tapping said finger.
Like the rest of the internet, however, Grande loved the memes.
“I feel really relieved that the world had the same experience with this moment that I did, because I felt like, ‘Oh, I’m not broken,’” she quipped. “The best thing is to really hold space with that.”
