A Wicked tearful talk with co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo

LOS ANGELES – “Excuse me,” Ariana Grande said, flagging down an imaginary waiter. “May we have one million tissues, please?”

It was midway through the fittingly witchy month of October, and the American actress-singer and Cynthia Erivo had convened at Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles to discuss their new film Wicked, adapted from the long-running Broadway musical.

With emotions riding high before its Nov 21 release, both women teared up frequently while talking about what the movie means to them.

On set, things had been no less emotional. “The tears would fall every single time,” British actress-singer Erivo, 37, said as she recounted shooting a fraught dance sequence with her co-star. “I didn’t have to try for them, they were always there.”

“And I’d catch them,” Grande, 31, added.

Wicked functions as a revisionist prequel to The Wizard Of Oz, with Chinese-American director Jon M. Chu’s film following Erivo’s green-skinned Elphaba long before she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.

As a young woman at Shiz University, Elphaba is forced to bunk with Grande’s Glinda, a rival-turned-friend who plots to make over her outcast roommate during the fizzy musical number Popular.

But as Elphaba learns the dark secrets that undergird Oz’s Emerald City, the disillusioned young witch finally steps into her own power and belts Defying Gravity, the showstopper that, onstage, is meant to bring down the curtain on the first act.

On screen, the song serves as the climax of the 2½-hour movie. The rest of the story is saved for Wicked Part Two, which was shot in tandem with the first film and is slated for release in November 2025.

Though there is tremendous pomp to the production, it was important to Erivo – a Tony winner in 2016 for The Color Purple and a best actress Oscar nominee for biographical drama Harriet (2019) – to deliver an intimate, human-size performance as Elphaba.

“I had no intention of playing to the green,” she said. “I wanted people to see her inner life.”

Better known for her pop music career, Grande was just as determined to upend expectations, shedding her trademark high ponytail and changing the pitch of her voice to fully commit to her character’s effervescence.

“It was really important to erase as much of myself as possible so that they could just be looking at Glinda,” she said.

Both women are 155cm vocal powerhouses. Grande joked that when they were first introduced, “we were both quite shocked that we had finally met someone the same size”. And the bond forged between them during the film’s supersize shoot was more than evident during the interview.

Merely meeting the other’s gaze could make them misty, and when they discussed wrapping the film, both once again began to cry.

“I can’t even deal with it,” Erivo said, laughing.

Embarrassed, Grande started to crawl under the table. “I’m going away.”

Cynthia, you have said you did not think you would be considered for this movie. Why not?

Erivo: Historically, black women have never really been seen for the role. If they have, they haven’t got the role, and if they do, they usually are the alternate or first cover. There is only one woman I know on record that has done it on the West End. So I just didn’t think they were looking for me.

Ariana, did you dream that your career might intersect with Wicked somehow?

Grande: Absolutely, I thought that at 10 years old. I started on Broadway, and I am so thankful for the ways in which my career took pivots and pop became my main thing, but I also think my soul deeply misses musical theatre and comedy.

So, as soon as I got murmurs of the fact that it could possibly be turning into a film, all I wanted was a chance to audition.

Some members of my team at the time were like, “You shouldn’t even have to audition,” and I was like, “You don’t understand, of course I have to. This is something that has to be earned.” I have so much to prove, and I threw myself at it in every way that I could.

Your characters room together in the movie. How closely did you stick together while making it?

Grande: Very. Not only because we were in most of the same scenes, but also between them. I was at your house, you were at my house.

Erivo: We got many tattoos together.

Grande: I think that was one of my most cherished parts of this experience. I felt held and like I had a friend every step of the way. I’m really proud of us for how genuinely we took care of each other throughout this whole time.

What have each of you pulled from the other?

Grande: I feel really inspired by her fierce ability to be truthful and protect herself. Just by being around her, I have become more of an ally to myself when I used to do a lot of self-abandoning, and I really do credit that to our friendship.

Through spending this time with her and with a character that believes in herself, I feel like I’ve been able to heal certain parts of myself that were in deep need of having a friend like Cynthia and a friend like Glinda.

Erivo: She’s definitely changed my life. I think it was one of the first times a person looked at me and just was happy with what was there. I would tell her about what I wanted for myself as a musician and she just believed it – I think, more than I did.

I don’t think it was up until I met her that I was like: “Oh, I think I can have what I want in this lifetime, and I can have it in my way.”

She taught me to handle this crazy beast that is emerging success... She has really held my hand all the way through it and wants it for me just as much as I want it for myself.

When you finally wrapped filming as these characters, what was the feeling?

Erivo: I was devastated.

Grande: The whole day was a nightmare. We cried every minute, every hour. We both were in a horrible state for a few days.

Erivo: Yeah, it was really hard to let them go.

Grande: I don’t think we ever truly, fully will. I think we both needed them the way that they needed each other. We brought our corsets home and our shoes and our wands. I still have all of my wigs.

Erivo: Characters like this don’t come along very often. So, it’s a real privilege to be able to play these women because they’re so much more than just iconography. You can help people understand hurt, love and pain. And the grey areas we all have. NYTIMES