Even though the Wicked press tour is well and truly over, its cultural impact is defying not just gravity, but average attention spans too. As A Complete Unknown stars Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning just recreated the iconic ‘Holding Space‘ meme.
In case you (somehow) missed it, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande cemented themselves into meme history in November, thanks to an awkward moment in an interview with journalist Tracy Gilchrist.
Gilchrist told the two musical leads that many audiences were “holding space” with the lyrics of Wicked: Part One‘s finale number “Defying Gravity“. To which Erivo responded: “Oh, I didn’t know that that was happening.”
Sprinkle in an adorable finger grab between Grande and Erivo, and hey presto, suddenly everyone and their dog is using the phrase “holding space” to punctuate most sentences.
As the internet became obsessed with the moment and made millions of memes about it, the happy result of the meme was that it gave Gilchrist a higher level of fame — to the point that she’s now being recognised by A-listers in press junkets.
Fast forward a month to now, when Chalamet and Fanning are on the press tour for the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown.
As soon as the two actors saw Gilchrist enter the room, they both immediately recognised the journo from the iconic meme, and instantly told Gilchrist they were “starstruck” to get to meet her.
“First I just wanna let you know that I am holding space for you,” Gilchrist opened.
And then the two young actors did what any other young person would do in their shoes, and recreated the finger holding meme.
“It’s an honour talking to you,” Chalamet told Gilchrist.
After some more compliments toward the journo, Fanning also added that she felt like she couldn’t live up to the previous Wicked interview.
“There’s nothing that we can do that can trump what happened,” Fanning said.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a total sucker for these moments where we see celebs nerd out over people they’ve seen online. Shut up, it’s cute to see people be happy.
You can peep the entire moment below!
Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning recreating the ‘holding space’ meme. pic.twitter.com/TAxYBfyCMz
— Timothée Chalamet Updates (@timotheeupdates) December 28, 2024
A Complete Unknown hits Australian cinemas on January 17, 2025.
[Lead Image: The Advocate/Twitter]