Cynthia Erivo’s Riveting ‘Prima Facie’ Performance Earns TIFF Standing Ovation

Cynthia Erivo already earned two best actress Oscar nominations for portraying Harriet Tubman and the green-skinned Elphaba in “Wicked” — not to mention her Tony-winning work in “The Color Purple” — but her latest film, “Prima Facie,” might be her most challenging high-wire act yet.

She pulled it off, according to the audience at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday night. “Prima Facie” held its world premiere at the Roy Thompson Hall, where the crowed rewarded Erivo and her filmmakers with a standing ovation for the harrowing drama.

Erivo plays Tessa, a rising legal star in London who represents defendants of sexual assault. When she’s raped by a colleague, the lawyer finds herself at odds with the patriarchal legal system she so often used to win.

White (“Bleak House,” “Jane Eyre,” “Woman Walks Ahead”) directed the adaptation by playwright Suzie Miller from her globally acclaimed one-woman show. The film is one of the hottest sales titles on the block at TIFF. Jodie Comer won the Tony and Olivier awards for the stage version, and Erivo proved equally captivating on the big screen — albeit under a the very racial and socioeconomic context. Erivo’s Tessa is a woman of color from a working class background, navigating a system bolstered by white men dating back to medieval times in the London court.

“We got the chance to meet a lot of Black women barristers. I understood that they sort of work in a different rhythm to everybody else, and the way they approach court is very much making it their own,” Erivo said at a Q&A following the premiere “I wanted that for Tessa, I wanted her to have this outside life that influenced the way she approached [her work].”

Also featured among the supporting cast are Daniel Ings, Elizabeth Dulau and Simon Russell Beale. More to come …