On a brisk December morning in West Hollywood, six of the year’s most celebrated actresses gathered at The Sun Rose for an annual tradition: The Hollywood Reporter’s Actress Roundtable. Amanda Seyfried, Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessie Buckley, Laura Dern, and Renate Reinsve—each luminous in her own right—sat down to reflect on the craft, the challenges, and the moments that have defined their careers. While each brought her own perspective, it was Cynthia Erivo, fresh off a whirlwind year, who drew particular attention both for her recent achievements and the controversies she’s weathered.
Erivo’s 2025 has been nothing short of momentous. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she joined the roundtable just days after the publication of her memoir, Simply More. The book, which hit shelves in late 2025, traces Erivo’s journey from her birth in 1987 to her preparations for a landmark role as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl. It’s a lean, candid memoir, laced with practical wisdom and bracing self-reflection—a testament to a life lived in full color.
In Simply More, Erivo looks back on her upbringing in South London, where her Nigerian immigrant mother raised her and her sister in a cramped maisonette. Rather than focusing on hardship, Erivo expresses gratitude for the “kind of made-up family” that her multicultural neighbors formed. “I learned so much about the world in that little space,” she writes, describing “an astonishing, captivating blend of cultures that influences me to this very day.” This early exposure to diversity shaped her worldview and, as she notes, continues to inform her work and her sense of self.
Erivo’s list of achievements is already formidable. As The Los Angeles Times notes, by 2025 she has won an Emmy, a Grammy, and a Tony, and has been nominated for an Oscar. She made her Broadway debut as Celie in The Color Purple from 2015 to 2017, a role that brought her widespread acclaim. She went on to portray Harriet Tubman in the 2019 film Harriet, Aretha Franklin in the 2021 TV anthology Genius: Aretha, and the iconic Elphaba in the 2024 film adaptation of Wicked. Her range is as impressive as her resilience.
Yet, even with such accolades, Erivo found herself at the center of controversy in 2025. Her casting as Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl sparked backlash from some Christian conservatives. One Fox News commentator, Pastor John K. Amanchukwu Sr., took to social media to declare Erivo “too BALD, too BROWN, and too BI to play Jesus.” Erivo, however, remained unfazed. In her memoir, she writes, “This dispute just points out to me, yet again, that sometimes I’m simply more than many people expect or want.”
Erivo’s response is both defiant and inviting. She asks her readers, “Maybe you’re the same? We who are just a bit more than others are … willing to be deeply, wholeheartedly, and authentically ourselves.” She encourages readers to surround themselves with equally expansive souls and to reframe being “too much” as being “simply more.” Her philosophy is clear: “We cannot let other people’s judgments keep us from giving what we’re on this earth to give. Those who are afraid to approach the fullness of their own humanity are often threatened by those of us who are not. We can’t let that stop us.”
Her friendship with Wicked co-star Ariana Grande has also come under the spotlight, sometimes the subject of wild speculation. In Simply More, Erivo sets the record straight: “Before Wicked really started rolling, Ariana and I … committed to protecting and caring for each other through this process. We were determined … to build on each other’s strengths, to encourage the other, to see if, like our voices, we could become more than the sum of our parts.” This pact, she suggests, is a model for anyone seeking mutual support and growth. “Life is hard enough as it is. Commit to helping another person, and let that person commit to helping you.”
Erivo’s memoir isn’t the only major literary event of late 2025. As The Los Angeles Times also highlights, Maggie Nelson—MacArthur Foundation Fellow and acclaimed author—released The Slicks: On Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift. Nelson, like Erivo, is a queer artist who has built a career by refusing to be boxed in. Her latest book draws provocative parallels between Plath and Swift, two women often accused of being “too much” in their ambition, productivity, and willingness to mine their personal lives for art. Nelson writes, “Women scarcely need reminding that for every record broken, every freedom taken, every bit of power wielded, there is someone out there who would like very much to put them back in their place.”
Nelson’s critique extends to the media, noting how The New York Times once asked, “Will Swift ever voluntarily step away from the spotlight?”—as if a woman’s success inevitably provokes the desire for her removal. She observes, “The derision of the personal—especially in regard to women—as a politically, aesthetically, and ethically rotten source of art is hard to keep track of, as it arrives dressed up in new clothes every decade or two.” For Nelson, the abundance and self-exposure that critics deride are precisely what fans celebrate. “For them, there’s no such thing as ‘too much.’”
Both Erivo and Nelson, in their respective works, challenge the notion that women’s ambition or self-expression should be tempered for the comfort of others. Erivo’s memoir approaches the issue from the inside out, urging readers to embrace authenticity and mutual support. Nelson, meanwhile, attacks the problem from a sociopolitical angle, exposing the persistent misogyny that undergirds criticism of prolific female artists. “Over the course of her short life,” Nelson writes of Plath, “Plath’s [work] included a copious amount of poetry, one novel published and another allegedly destroyed, short stories, letters, journals, children’s books, and more… Meanwhile, Swift’s flow goes on—record-breaking, omnipresent, its own version of unstoppable.”
The synergy between Erivo and Nelson’s books is striking. While their styles and subjects differ, both ultimately pose the same question: How can women, across backgrounds and disciplines, hasten the slow march toward true creative and personal freedom? Their answer is a resounding affirmation of the old feminist rallying cry: “The personal is political.” Erivo focuses on the inner work—being “deeply, wholeheartedly, and authentically ourselves”—while Nelson emphasizes the need for collective resistance against those “who would like very much to put them back in their place.”
Back at The Sun Rose, as the roundtable drew to a close, the conversation inevitably touched on the challenges and joys of being “simply more.” In a year marked by both acclaim and adversity, Cynthia Erivo and Maggie Nelson stand as exemplars of what’s possible when women refuse to shrink themselves. Their stories, and their willingness to share them, offer both a mirror and a map for anyone grappling with the question of how to live—and create—without apology.
