'Color Purple' Star Cynthia Erivo On Being "Forced" To Go To RADA

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By Brian Ives

Many aspiring actors and actresses dream of going to RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. That wasn't quite the case with Cynthia Erivo.

She tells Laura Heywood (aka BroadwayGirlNYC) that she needed to be forced to apply to the school, sort of.

When she was 20 years old waiting on line for tickets for a show, and she bumped into a woman she'd met years earlier while taking a theater course. "[She] asked me if I was going to train to get to drama school."

"I said 'No.' She forced me to fill in those forms, I got into RADA, and the rest is history."

Today, Ms. Erivo has a TONY nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her role in The Color Purple.

To see if she wins, watch the TONY Awards on CBS on June 12 at 8 pm ET.