Wicked: Special bond anchored by a love of play

Like Elphaba Thropp, Cynthia Erivo wears her heart on her sleeve. It’s why the Tony and Grammy award-winning singer and actress took a good hard look at how she wanted to embody the character on screen, before auditioning for the film adaptation of Wicked – one of the most beloved and enduring musicals on the stage.

After winning the role of Elphaba, the green-skinned protagonist of Wicked, the 37-year-old, known for her roles in Harriet and Pinocchio, continued to dig deep, leaving no aspect of Elphaba’s struggle unexplored. She knew that if she was going to walk down the yellow brick road, one must be open to being changed for good.

“Elphaba and I have a really clear understanding of what it is to be different and alone...but still be fierce in the fight to be yourself,” says Erivo. 

“I’ve learned that she’s really vulnerable and wears her heart on her sleeve. Both of us have experienced extreme pain and know what it feels like to be let down by someone. It’s been nice to be able to draw on those experiences to pour into her.”

Erivo worked tirelessly for months in preparation for the role, including cardiovascular conditioning to ensure she could belt out lyrics as Elphaba jumped on a broom and soared through the sky. It was hard work that she found invigorating and joyful.

“I hope that this joy keeps growing,” says Erivo. 

“I hope we find something to spark joy in every day. This was a long process, and I knew that it would get hard sometimes. But I knew, even on those days, that we would find something that makes us love and reconnect to what brought us here.”

Wicked, directed by American filmmaker Jon M. Chu, 45 – who also created Crazy Rich Asians and In The Heights – is the first chapter in a two-part immersive cultural celebration about the untold story of the witches of Oz - Elphaba, played by Erivo, a young woman who is misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, and is yet to discover her true power, and Glinda, a popular young woman, gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true heart, played by Grammy award-winning artist, Ariana Grande, 31.

They meet as students at Shiz University in the fantastical land of Oz, where they forge an unlikely but profound friendship. The school is run by headmistress and dean of sorcery studies, Madame Morrible, played by Academy Award-winning Malaysian actress, Michelle Yeoh, 62.

Following an encounter with The Wizard of Oz, played by American actor and musician, Jeff Goldblum, 72, their friendship reaches a crossroads and their lives take very different paths. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies – as Glinda the Good, and the Wicked Witch of the West.

Wicked also stars English actor Jonathan Bailey as roguish and carefree prince Fiyero, American actor and singer Ethan Slater as altruistic munchkin student Boq, and American actress Marissa Bode, who makes her feature-film debut as Nessarose, Elphaba’s favoured sister, also making history for being the first wheelchair user to play the character.

Pfannee and ShenShen, two conniving compatriots of Glinda, played by American actor Bowen Yang and British actress Bronwyn James, are also included in the cast.

From the first day that Erivo and Grande were in a room together, the love between them was palpable. They first met at Chu’s house for dinner, where American film producer Marc Platt, 67, playwright and screenwriter Winnie Holzman, 70, and composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, 76, were also in attendance.

The co-stars joined Schwartz at the piano and sang ‘For Good’ – a number he scored and wrote for the original musical – together for the very first time.

“Cynthia and Ari didn’t rehearse it. They’d never done it together. They sang it, and my four-year-old daughter’s jaw dropped to the floor. 

"No one has ever seen two powerhouses like this before. It’s been beautiful to see how well-connected they are,” says Chu, who is also a longtime super-fan of the stage production.

“We knew we needed people who could sing and act and who were a little Ozian. There’s a little oddity, a bit of left-of-centre to these storytellers. That’s why I liked getting all these misfits together to make a movie about misfits.”

Now friends, the actors, in fact, sacrificed their own skin to honour each other too. “We got tattoos together,” says Grande.

“I got an ‘E’ for Elphaba in a heart on the back of my leg and she had a little ‘G’ for Glinda on the back of hers,” says Erivo, who says that their bond is anchored by a sense of joyful exploration.

“I hope that we don’t lose our love of play,” adds Erivo. “That’s something that I really enjoyed – this need to keep wanting to learn and discover. Ariana and I used that to make these beings as humane and full as possible. When we worked together, something special happened.”

But these two roles will surely stay with them as long as the tattoos. Grande’s commitment to the role extended to the smallest details, long before she stepped onto the set or had an audition.

“I was so excited,” says Grande. “I had a little portion of my closet that was all little pink items just in case I would need them for a callback. Down to my underwear, I was like, ‘What underwear would Glinda wear today?’ I went in three different times and I just remember immediately falling in love with [our director] Jon [M. Chu] and his thoughtfulness.”

“The beautiful thing about Glinda and Elphaba is that everyone can see parts of themselves in them,” says Grande.

“They represent so much complexity, humanness, gorgeous nuance, love, boundaries – all the complexities of loving, disagreeing, finding oneself, doing what’s right, all rooted in love. The story of Wicked is a testament to the depth of the human experience, of the complexities of being misunderstood, of having both good and wicked within us and of embracing our differences.”

Wicked is in cinemas now.