Cynthia Erivo received a standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival following the world premiere of “Prima Facie,” her first film since the two-part “Wicked” saga and a role she has described as among the most demanding of her career.
The film, directed by Susanna White and adapted by playwright Suzie Miller from her own acclaimed one-woman stage show, follows Tessa, a London barrister who has built her career successfully defending clients accused of sexual assault. Erivo plays Tessa as a woman whose confidence in the legal system she has mastered collapses after an encounter with a colleague that begins consensually and turns into an assault, forcing her to confront the same system from the other side as both victim and witness to her own case.
Erivo credited intimacy coordinator Lizzy Talbot with helping her navigate the production’s most difficult scenes, saying Talbot helped her find a way back to herself after emotionally taxing days on set. The film’s climactic courtroom sequence, shot in extended takes over multiple days, drew directly on the theatrical rhythms of Miller’s original play, and Erivo said she leaned into that stage-like intensity rather than smoothing it into a more conventional screen performance.
Speaking after the premiere, Erivo discussed the research that shaped her performance, including conversations with Black women barristers whose working rhythms and approach to the courtroom differed from their colleagues, details she said she wanted reflected in Tessa’s character. The role marks a return to prestige drama for Erivo, who previously earned Oscar nominations for “Harriet” and “Wicked” and won a Tony for “The Color Purple,” following a period that also included playing 23 characters in a West End production of “Dracula.”
“Prima Facie” arrived at TIFF without a U.S. distributor, though Sony Pictures already holds international distribution rights, including for the United Kingdom. The stage version of Miller’s play previously earned Jodie Comer both an Olivier and a Tony Award for originating the role of Tessa in London and New York.
