How the Cast of 'Wicked' Became Their Characters 💖💚

I'm gonna give Teen Vogue a hand.

[hands clapping] Thank you very much,

Teen Vogue.

Oh, gosh.

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I'm Ariana Grande, and this is how I became Glinda.

Elphaba. Nessarose.

Boq. Fiyero.

I am, or portray, was for a little bit,

got a chance to put on the skin, live inside the skin

of the Wizard of Oz.

In Wicked.

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My first audition, strangely,

even though I came in all pink and I had my pink mug

and I had everything, they had me sing for both roles,

which was very strange, because I was very,

coming, you know, we know what's happening here.

[Cynthia laughing]

I sang No One Mourns The Wicked, Popular,

and then also Defying Gravity and The Wizard and I.

So I had, in my first audition, a ponytail

and a cat eye, and it's a very branded, familiar thing.

So I needed to disappear into this role,

and I think when someone is, you know, branded one way

as a certain caricaturized version of themself already,

it's hard to trust that they'll be able to disappear

into a story.

I did not have a 16 bar audition solo,

I had a three hour sing all the songs audition.

I think I did The Wizard and I, For Good,

and Defying Gravity.

I was asked to like, just let go of the things

that are me, very me, so like all the piercings

and all that.

I think I may have taken out my nose ring as well.

Mm. Just so that you could

just see-

The canvas. The canvas.

It's a wonderful thing to ask an actor to be able to do,

because what he's looking for is someone who can just,

ooh, disappear.

Yeah. And be.

He actually gave us the chance to do this job.

It's our job. Yeah.

To disappear into- Yeah.

These people. Yeah.

I sent a video and then, yeah,

and then it looked like maybe I wasn't gonna be able

to be free for the film, and then when the dates moved,

within sort of 24 hours they were like,

Do you want to go and visit Jon Chu and just have a chat?

And so we chatted for about two and a half hours

and he started showing me the girls' audition tapes,

and he started talking through the storyboard and I thought,

Hang on a minute.

And then got weirdly very emotional.

We talked about Fieyro and I walked off

and as the door shut, I remember the door was closing

and I just went,

to Jon, and he went.

I got invited to a Zoom call, and on that call,

they said there was a couple more producers

that just want to pop in and just say hello.

The first person to arrive was Glinda the Good Witch,

and the second person who entered the room

was Cynthia Erivo, and it was, when I saw Cynthia Erivo,

I sort of clocked what was happening

and I got invited to Shiz.

And I was very British and I said, Thank you very much,

when do we start?

Excuse me, there is no pretense here,

I happen to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow.

Did you get feedback?

Surely you got just invited in, didn't you,

with warm open arms.

It was Midnight at the Oasis.

♪ Midnight at the Oasis ♪

Hi, coffee?

No.

♪ Midnight at the Oasis ♪

That's the one that I think got me the

He sang to me, he said.

♪ Embrace me ♪

♪ My sweet embraceable you ♪

I said, Jon Chu?

He said.

♪ Embrace me ♪

♪ You heard me, Goldblum, that's true ♪

He was making it up as we went along,

so I just got a kind of kiss on the cheek.

[Jonathan] Yeah, he got welcomed.

My audition was from the Osdus Ballroom,

I sang two songs from Wicked,

but I was reading with myself, and one of the songs

is where Boq and Nessa sing together.

So, I didn't have a reader,

so I recorded myself singing Nessa's parts

and for the scene I recorded myself playing Glinda.

I read with a video of myself,

which was horrifying to send in,

I couldn't believe that anybody but me was gonna watch it.

I recently brought it up and he was like,

Oh, I actually didn't know that was you.

I was like, That's incredible.

And then he watched it back and he's like, So that's crazy,

why did you do that?

But it's good, it worked.

Boq Woodsman,

of Munchkin Land.

I was very last minute, I was one of the last,

I wanna say people cast, question mark?

I could be wrong.

I had I think three, actually,

one is the one between Elphaba and Nessa in the library

where she's asking Elphaba.

♪ Let me go to the dance, trust me on this ♪

The second one is the one with Boq and Nessa,

and the third one, you'll see later.

That perfectly adorable munchkin boy just asked me out.

The first time we sang together,

it was at Jon Chu's house- Jon Chu's house.

For dinner.

Go on. Where Steven Schwartz

played the piano for us,

and we sang For Good. Yeah.

Together. Yeah.

And we'd never sang before.

No, I was a huge fan of her voice.

And I was a huge fan of hers, but we're very different.

Yes, and it was just such a strange thing-

Yeah. To sing together

and sound so one. Yeah.

Because we have very different voices separately-

Mhm. But, together,

we kind of- Matched.

Complete disappeared.

Yeah. Yeah.

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And we changed our lives from completely-

Yeah.

We just made sure that our lives matched

the roles that we were playing.

Yeah.

I was running like a crazy person every single morning,

two hours, to make sure- Pilates.

Pilates, that's right. Mhm.

And doing lots of like working out

and making sure my body was ready to be in a harness,

and flying, and corseted, and singing at the same time.

I had to sort of transform my-

Voice. Voice as well

for a multitude of reasons but, you know,

it was a long training journey for the vocal side of things-

Yeah. My vocal coach, Eric Vetro,

was incredible, we started long before my first audition

just because- Mhm.

I wanted to make sure, even on the first audition,

that when I did sing for Glinda,

it was as authentically sounding, operatic,

and you know, as possible, so.

Mhm. We did a lot of training.

Yeah.

♪ Just you and I ♪

♪ Defying gravity ♪

Do you know the song Finishing The Hat?

Finishing The Hat is a book about Stephen Sondheim.

That's right, titled after one of his famous songs

about an artist's process,

and really in Sunday in the Park with Georgia,

it seems like he talks about looking through a window

at the world going by when you're committed

to a creative endeavor,

and that is what this film felt like to me.

And this is a testament to Cynthia and Ari,

but you do, you just, you lean in

and every sort of minute of everyday,

you're thinking about your voice,

you're thinking about dancing,

about keeping your body fit and strong.

And then on top of that, you try and keep

the sort of anticipation of playing a beloved character

in a beloved thing at bay.

But also, having been in a scene with Jeff,

it's just an embarrassment of riches.

It's an embarrassment, period.

Myron Kerstein was the editor, and boy,

I owe him a debt of gratitude,

and the scorer, they add some music to it-

Oh, and it takes on.

And it makes it go, go.

And then I had some music to do and same dancing to do

with the great Chris Scott,

and I practiced, practiced, practiced, well I did that,

yes I practiced what that could be-

Yeah. There was a suggestion

in the thing, and then he dances-

Yep. I sort of came up with,

and then Alex Frank and I worked every phrase of the songs,

and got the key, anyway, you know, prepared.

I am Oz, the great and terrible.

I had seen Wicked I think half a dozen times.

I saw it when I was in, I'm pretty sure sixth grade,

'cause it was 2004.

So I saw the original cast,

and then I saw it a bunch more times,

including with my niece,

I brought her for her ninth birthday.

So it was like kind of in me in that way, as a fan.

On top of that, I did read the book again,

which has a nice big chapter, a whole section on Boq,

and I kind of helped that sort of infuse

into my version of Boq.

And I read the original L. Frank Baum books,

just to sort of like remind myself of like

where we're drawing inspiration from.

But one of the things that I love about doing research

for acting, that at some point you kind of let go of it

and you just kind of have to be there.

So I wasn't like going home and rereading these sections,

I didn't want the refresher, I wanted to be Boq,

and I think that one of the things

that I was so impressed with,

and I looked up to in so many of our cast members,

is how like just fully locked in they were,

and they knew their characters front and back,

they didn't have to think about it.

Three, two, one, action.

When you yelled, Action, they were locked in.

I'm not really sure that I was conscious of-

Mm-mm. The changes I was making,

but I just remember spending more and more time

with the material and sort of getting in her body

and her shoes and her corset and things,

and I just kind of like, I moved differently,

I didn't realize, 'cause I wasn't a person who wanted

to watch the dailies or anything, so I-

Mm. When I saw it

for the first time, I was like, Oh my goodness,

that is not my face or body or way I walk,

I don't walk like that, I don't do it.

My face is like-

It's different. It was really weird.

It's very crazy. I feel like we're watching

people we know and love,

but not us. But they're not us.

The smile sort of came by itself,

I don't even think I was thinking about it.

[Ariana] Yeah.

I think I realized maybe she's sort of like a tentative,

expressive person, so the smiles don't come big immediately.

The subtleties. The subtleties in it,

the way she moves her hands,

and the hands were a real thing.

Yeah. Jon loved that,

and I liked using my hands as a way to express,

so you'll see that she uses her hands a lot

and they'll move a lot, and even when she grabs the broom,

it's sort of something- Mhm.

But her small expressions sort of built over time.

For me, it wasn't lifestyle changes,

what really helped was journaling-

Hm. As my character.

Giving like a little bit of backstory to her early life,

and then just the start before going to Shiz and thereafter

and filling in a lot of blanks just on my own

and figuring it out, but also like talking with Jon

in between as well, of course.

With Nessa specifically was a lot of reflection

and bringing the parts of my 18-year-old off to college self

for the first time into her.

I love Boq because I could always sense

that he was somebody who was looking

for his place in the world,

he was looking for his community, he's looking for love.

In looking for those spaces, he sometimes stumbled,

or tripped, or said the wrong thing, or did the wrong thing.

I also always knew that I wanted to lead with that

a little more than I think you're able to do on the stage.

On stage you have to come in,

be a big burst of energy as Boq,

play to the back of the house,

get a laugh and leave.

And I was really excited to bring what I feel

is like a kind of humanness and nuance to Boq

that you can kind of only get when you're allowed the time

to focus on his emotional inner life.

I am a big proponent of using a scent

for a character. Me too.

So we both had very specific scents for our characters,

and mine would change depending on

where she was within the story.

So that- Older Glinda had on

a different scent- Older Glinda.

Than younger Glinda. That's right.

And Elphaba had a whole rainbow-

A whole range of different things, yeah.

So right in the beginning she smells like one thing,

Defying Gravity is another thing,

then film two are different things altogether as well.

Like bigger, more robust flowers,

so like tuberose, lilies, rose, or a jasmine,

were mixed in with mine.

It's really interesting,

because it really is so triggering,

like scents can really take you-

Yeah. To a certain time and place.

Yeah. And I think that's why

it's so much fun to use it to help

with characters too. Yeah.

It's just another tool. She would always

smell me coming, and I would smell her coming as well.

We would smell each other

in the hall. I'd be like,

Where is she?

Oh, she's arrived.

[Cynthia laughing]

[bottle hissing]

Did you know there's one crazy shot,

and it's not even on like my face or anything,

you know when we pick up our,

you pick up your peignoir,

I pick up my cardigan- Mhm.

For Loathing. Mhm.

That hand, I'm like, Is that my hand?

And I know that's my hand. The campy hand,

I was there for that, I was right out of frame,

and I watched it- I don't remember doing that.

I remember you doing it. But I know that

that's my hand. Oh yeah, I think I gave

that hand a round of, a hand.

[Cynthia laughing]

If you catch my drift. [hands clapping]

I gave that hand a hand.

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To see a set like that, fully realized,

with a working- Moat.

Moat, and arches- Boats.

And boats, and it was insane.

I didn't even realize that we were gonna

be in a world like that,

I didn't know that it was gonna be like that.

Well, I didn't know Jeff's head was gonna be

like Mount Rushmore- In the corner,

yeah. In the thing,

I had no idea.

I actually was on a, I was taking a walk-

They carved it out.

With Bowen, and we were just taking a walk,

and we turned the corner, and Jeff Goldblum's head

is in the rockies. Yeah.

And we were like, Holy [beep].

It's insane, the whole thing is insane.

Boq for some reason had the longest hair and makeup

of anybody on set, I was in the chair

for like two and a half hours.

But during that time, I could just sort of like,

breathe in the space, like let my hair become Boq,

let all of those little things happen

so that by the time you get to set,

you're just kind of living in it,

and the sets were so immersive.

Oh yeah.

You know what I have to bring up I'm Not That Girl.

Oh, yeah. Because I think

that her I'm Not That Girl is just,

I have to like excuse myself

and go to the back of the theater to watch it alone.

I'm serious.

When I had a screening with my family, I went, I said,

Bye, guys, I'll see you later, because I need to go

to the back and just sob and enjoy my friend's performance.

That might be up there for me. Thank you.

I loved her I'm Not That Girl.

♪ He could be the boy ♪

♪ I'm not that girl ♪

Live singing on a film. [Jeff gurgling]

He's getting ready to go.

I would say is very, very intense.

You can really go for it on film,

you only have to do it once,

but you have to do it probably 50 times in a day.

It's like a workshop, you're kind of finding it

as you do it, even though you've prepared a lot,

and there's so many other elements,

you're in a harness now, oy, and you're up and go, Wee!

And you're doing that, and you're finding it,

and finally all you gotta get is one,

like you say. Yeah.

And he says, Okay, I think we got it.

[Jeff heavily breathing]

And you go home in the car,

What else could I have done?

What else can I have possibly done?

And then you watch it and you go,

Was that the best I could have done?

I think so.

Vocally- Mhm.

We were given so much room to play,

we would sing it by the Bible, as was,

and then they would go, Well, and then what else?

Try something else if you want to.

One of the things that we're proudest of

are the ways in which we brought ourselves-

Yeah. And our own truths

to these roles, while wanting to honor the original material

that we have loved so much. Yeah.

And Jon is like such a collaborative

and open and playful director,

so he will come in with the most organized plan-

Right. And then-

But also- Throw it away-

Is willing to. And ask us to play.

Now, go. [Ariana laughing]

It was really nice singing live

because it felt like we could take more time

with the emotion and building that front and center,

whereas we can't do it again when you're on a stage.

I do wanna say, your voice is so good,

and I'm really glad that like working on it

made you feel more confident- Mhm.

So that you would feel better about it,

but like from jump, you sounded amazing.

Aw. And so like-

Thank you. Yeah, it's true.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah.

So do you, Sponge Bob.

[Ethan laughing]

You sounded great. Aw, thanks.

Of course. No, but I also think

that one of the things that was really intimidating for me,

and I don't know if you felt this,

but when you're on stage, even if you're on a big,

intimidating stage, like Broadway, where there's-

Mhm. However many people

in the audience, it's just that many people,

and then if you mess up, you can do it again the next night,

you always have that moment, and we could do more takes.

That's true. Which is nice,

but then it's on camera forever.

But I do remember there was a take where I was like,

Absolutely please tell me you're deleting that.

[Ethan and Marissa laughing]

Please, please tell me you've deleted that.

We saw one showing in Australia

where 15,000 people saw it,

I think we're going to please the deep, you know,

fanatic fans.

The themes of friendship, and being othered, and unity

is just so sort of engaging and inspiring,

and I suppose when it comes to the film,

we just hope that we've done all the fans.

And that is how we became our characters in Wicked.

♪ I remember you ♪

♪ You're the one who made my dreams come true ♪

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♪ Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream ♪

I'm like a little duckling following Jeff,

he's my mom. [Jeff imitating duck quacking]

♪ Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily ♪

♪ Life is but a ♪

♪ Jonathan Bailey is but a ♪