Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo Celebrate the Power of Friendship in ‘Wicked’ Behind-the-Scenes Look
Wicked is set to hit theaters in just a few months, and a new behind-the-scenes teaser of the film dropped on Wednesday (Aug. 21) diving into the power of friendship throughout the story.
Ariana Grande is set to star as Glinda the Good Witch and Cynthia Erivo as the iconic role of Elphaba, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West. In the film, the two become roommates at Shiz University and, while their relationship was rocky at first, the two eventually develop a loving and supportive friendship.
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“Wicked, to me, at its every core, is about friendship, director Jon M. Chu explains in the nearly three-minute clip, as scenes of Glinda and Elphaba growing in their relationship weave throughout the video. “It starts with a really fun look at how these two young women are so different from each other, are forced to be roommates and don’t get along at all.”
Erivo adds, “We have to learn about each other and get to know each other,” before Grande notes, “These two very different women just fall completely in love with each other, and that is mirrored experience of what happened with Cynthia and I.”
Erivo then noted that she and Grande “got each other immediately,” with Chu adding, “Their friendship is going to bring a humanity to this film that they both deeply understand.”
The fourth-longest-running Broadway show of all time, Wicked pulls inspiration from both the stage musical and the best-selling Gregory Maguire-penned novel of the same name.
The rest of the principal Wicked cast will feature Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Olivier winner Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Tony nominee Ethan Slater as Boq, Emmy nominee Bowen Yang as Pfannee and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
The first part of Wicked arrives in theaters on November 22.
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