In a resurfaced clip from the Andrea Ruffin Show RADA Vice President, Cynthia Erivo has angered X (Twitter) users as she discusses her time touring Sister Act in the UK, with a specific mention of Sunderland.

The original clip of her interview on the Angrea Ruffin Show was posted to TikTok on September 13, 2022, but has resurfaced on X (Twitter) today sparking outrage from users as it sees Cynthia talking rather negatively about visiting Sunderland.

The Northern Echo: Cynthia Erivo

In the clip Cynthia Erivo comments that some cities are ‘wonderful’ and other are ‘not so wonderful’.

The RADA Vice President goes on to praise cities such as Manchester commenting "Manchester's incredible, it feels like London!" before adding "And then I go to Sunderland and I'm like 'where the f**k am I?'.

A clip from the original TikTok post was uploaded to X (Twitter) today (Thursday, February, 15) as a user expressed their distain for the comments.

The post that sparked the outrage today is below:

The post has parked comments from Sunderland Councillors and residents alike. 

Northern Agenda Editor for Reach, Rob Parsons commented on X: “Horrendous (and insulting) London-centric thinking... Why does everywhere need to be like the capital?”

With Northumbria PCC, Kim McGuinness adding to the thread with: “Cynthia, Sunderland is the real North where sadly we’re used to London centric attitudes holding us back.”

Sunderland Councillor for St Chad's Ward, Dominic McDonough also commented that he would love to invite Cynthia Erivo to Sunderland to show her around.

It comes after North East regional newspapers and websites have united to urge Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to invest in The Crown Works Studios project in Sunderland, a film and tv studios project that will provide more than 8,000 jobs to the North East as well as giving the city some well-deserved creative opportunities.

The Northern Echo: The vision for Crown Works Stuidos Image: Picture: CROWN WORKS STUDIOS

The project has already raised £450m of private funding but now needs a boost from the Chancellor to get it over the line.

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If plans for the film and tv studio's do go ahead, Cynthia Erivo might just find herself in Sunderland once again, perhaps with a change of opinion. 

In contrast to negative comments, Sunderland was praised in an interview with Strictly Star Joanne Clifton last week, where the Strictly Come Dancing winner commented that she ‘always loves visiting Sunderland’ and that she thought Sunderland Empire was ‘beautiful’.

Despite the resurfaced negative comments from the RADA Vice President Sunderland’s cultural hub is truly developing and the region is seeing many additions to their cultural centre, Keel Square.