Timothee Chalamet and Elle Fanning followers go wild because the costars re-create Wicked ‘holding house’ meme

Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning had fans buzzing as they playfully re-created Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s viral ‘holding space’ meme.

Wicked costars Grande and Erivo went viral in November for their cringey finger-holding response to journalist Tracy Gilchrist revealing that fans were ‘holding space’ for lyrics from the hit musical film.

During a Monday interview about Chalamet and Fanning’s roles in the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Gilchrist couldn’t resist referencing the meme.

‘First off, I just want to let you know that I am holding space for you,’ she said to Chalamet and Fanning, who portray Dylan and Sylvie Russo, respectively.

Without missing a beat, the Hollywood stars humorously re-created the iconic finger-holding moment, with Chalamet extending his index finger and Fanning playfully pinching it with her thumb and pointer finger.

Social media exploded with laughter, with one fan posting, ‘I love it when others can get in on the joke too!’ 

Another joked, ‘I’m holding space for holding space at the start of every interview.’

Yet another chimed in, ‘Oh my god not the finger hold,’ followed by a laughing emoji.

The recreation comes after Grande and Erivo shared their reactions to the bizarre ‘holding space’ meme that they became a part of during Wicked’s press junket.

They admitted they had ‘no idea’ what Gilchrist was talking about when they mustered a response. 

‘I was surprised, because I had no idea, because I hadn’t been looking,’ Cynthia admitted of the alleged social media posts that inspired Gilchrist.

‘She was like, “Well, I guess,”‘ Ariana added of the journalists response when asked about the alleged posts.

‘I had no idea that this thing was going on,’ Cynthia reiterated in her Variety interview. 

‘So I didn’t know what any part of it meant,’ Ariana said more bluntly, which got a laugh out of Jon.’I didn’t understand the first sentence. And then I definitely didn’t understand what was happening, how you responded.’

She continued: ‘I was like, “Oh, what did she say, and what did you hear?” And I just wanted to be there [for Cynthia], because I knew something big was happening, and I didn’t know how to be there.’

Then the new interview edited in a clip of Ariana bizarrely grasping Cynthia’s index finger in an apparent show of support from the original meme. 

‘But then, after a while, I didn’t know how to be there,’ Cynthia responded as their director couldn’t contain his chuckles. 

‘She said something that meant something to her, then it meant something totally different to you, then she tried to get somewhere else,’ Ariana tried to explain. ‘And the craziest thing was, I remember in the moment asking myself, ‘Am I OK? Did I not hear something? 

‘Because [Cynthia] looks like she’s about to cry again and I’m about to grab [her finger] because I think [she] might need something, and I don’t know what the tapping [her finger] is about —’

‘Tension,’ Cynthia suggested.

Then Cynthia said she was thrown off by Gilchrist’s announcement that she worked in ‘queer media.’

‘I honestly didn’t know what that meant. And, am I also in queer media? Maybe?’ she added in puzzlement.

But Ariana sound more positive and said she was so ‘relieved’ that other people had the same ‘experience’ with the interview that she did.

‘Because I felt like, “Oh, I’m not broken,”‘ she added. 

Then Cynthia changed things up and mentioned how much she enjoyed the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus’ version of the interview, which the singers had set to music.

Ariana replied that she hadn’t seen it, but then poked fun at Gilchrist by correcting herself.

‘Yeah, well, I’ve seen it,’ she said, echoing Gilchrist’s claim that she had ‘seen’ the mysterious, hard-to-articulate social media posts that allegedly inspired her original line of questioning. 

Wicked’s director didn’t have much to add, as he admitted that he was in ‘the other room’ when Ariana and Cynthia were doing their original interview, though he joked that he felt the presence of a meme taking life.