How evil craze builds, a new fandom rises, and that’s not always a source of positivity. With the evil faithful stanning Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and defending Glinda (Ariana Grande)it’s mostly fun and harmless to poke fun at movie conflicts as long as it stays in character and not the real-life actor.
Erivo and Grande’s co-star Marissa Bode has so far taken it easy on the villainy of her character, future Wicked Witch of the East and descendant of Governor Thropp, Nessarose. Her role as Elphaba’s sister is central to the fate of the witches; it’s her shiny shoes that become the center of drama as we enter evil part twowhich will feature a little girl named Dorothy Gale if the film follows L. Frank Baum’s lines wizard of oz source material We’ve talked about how Nessa is a villain to watch thanks to Bode’s incredible performance, but some people are taking their hatred for the character a little too far.
In a TikTok reported by Deadlinethe actress shared her recent brushes with harassment centered around her disability; like his character, Bode is a wheelchair user. “It’s absolutely fine not to like a fictional character,” Bode said. “I’ll admit my bias in the way that I have a lot of different feelings about Nessa than a lot of you, and that’s totally fine. I think Nessa is complex, but that’s the beauty of the art. evil and these characters and the movie wouldn’t be what it was if there weren’t different opinions about the characters and who is truly evil or not. And that he doesn’t like Nessa herself is fine. Since it’s fictional, it’s totally fine.”
He went on to say that “disability is not fictional” and described the attacks on the character as “offensive” and “deeply uncomfortable” when they are rooted in Nessa’s disability.
“At the end of the day, I, Marissa, am the person who is still disabled and in a wheelchair. And so it’s just low-hanging fruit that a lot of you feel comfortable taking,” Bode said. “This is way beyond me, Marissa, I just need to ignore the comments on the internet. These comments do not exist in a vacuum. The aggressive comments of wanting to hurt and push Nessa out of her wheelchair, or that she deserves her disability, are two very dirty and hurtful comments that people with actual disabilities, including myself, have heard before.” .
evil it’s in theaters now; Evil part two arrives in November 2025.
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