Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande had a difficult time flying away from their characters Elphaba and Glinda.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, the two leading women discussed how their on-screen friendship has bled into real life, becoming a cornerstone for them both. That meant wrapping the two-parter shoot was difficult to reckon with.
“I was devastated,” Erivo said when asked what it felt like to finish the Jon M. Chu-helmed production, which filmed its first and second installments back-to-back, interrupted by both stars’ separate COVID diagnoses and the actors’ strike.
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Grande echoed, “The whole day was a nightmare. We cried every minute, every hour. We both were in a horrible state for a few days.”
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Both actresses added that it was “really hard” to let the characters go: “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.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the co-stars discussed being relieved and thrilled the other had been chosen as their respective characters. “Thank goodness,” Erivo said of Grande’s casting, “because it was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with.” (Amanda Seyfried, Dove Cameron and Reneé Rapp are among the actresses who auditioned for the role of Glinda.)
Speaking to Deadline ahead of the film’s Los Angeles premiere last night, Erivo and Grande touched on their close bond: “For some reason, we just connected immediately. Our voices really worked together. And I think from that moment on, we’ve been building, and it’s been the most fruitful relationship of my life,” Erivo said.
Releasing Nov. 22 in theaters, Wicked — an adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical, itself based on Gregory Maguire’s novel of the same name — follows the prequel story to The Wizard of Oz, as told through the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West (Erivo’s Elphaba) and her friendship with Glinda the Good Witch. Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Marissa Bode, Bowen Yang, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle and Peter Dinklage round out the cast.