The creators, cast and crew of Wicked have truly been changed for good since shooting the most highly anticipated movie of the year. And now, the wait is almost over! Premiering in theaters November 22nd, the film adaptation of one of Broadway’s most iconic shows, Wicked, is sure to enchant audiences all over the world.
Wicked delves into the themes of otherness, self-love, finding community, and standing up for what’s right; all of which can be connected and related to by the LGBTQ community. To talk about these themes and the upcoming release, GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos was joined by the incredibly talented Wicked team.
The film stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, who are the best of friends both on and off screen. When discussing the LGBTQ community’s connection to the musical, Grande says, “Oz is a very queer place.” She continues, “It has always been, even from the L. Frank Baum books. It’s always been queer.”
Erivo, an out actress and singer, reminds queer fans around the world that, “You deserve all the good things, that your difference is what makes you special, that your queerness is beautiful, that I love you.” She tells LGBTQ fans of the musical that, “Elphaba is just like you and she understands what it feels like to be alone and to feel different, but that doesn’t make you any less special than you were born to be.”
Grande, who’s long been an outspoken ally for the community shares that, “I think the most important thing in the entire world is how we can support the people that we love and how we can be our most empathetic selves.” She goes on to say, “I think the most important work that we can do is learn how we can listen and be there for each other and the people that we love, especially the most beautiful community in the entire world. I love my queer brothers and sisters so much more than anything.”
Erivo, who plays Marissa Bode’s character Nessarose’s sister in the film, talks about how thrilled she was to work with the rising star. “Marissa Bode does not need me to lift her up. She’s so powerful and phenomenal and fantastic.” She continues, “I’ve really enjoyed watching her perform and come into her own. It was wonderful sharing the scenes with her and being her big sister and I would happily do it again.”
“My queer sister!” she adds.
Bode talks about how impactful it was to be a disabled actress, cast in a disabled role. “It means everything to me and also just to the disabled community as a whole.” She says that, “Even just knowing in general, even if it wasn’t me, that they were actively seeking somebody who was actually disabled for this role, which I think is so important, casting disabled actors in the roles of disabled characters.”
On her queer identity, Bode adds, “I come from a small community in the Midwest and I think just looking out for one another is really important, especially when there are a lot of queer people that don’t have homes really to go to or loving homes to go to. Finding family and finding community and spaces and creating those spaces for yourself and others, I think that’s really important and having people not feel so alone.”
Ethan Slater who plays Nessarose’s love interest Boq, talks about how a lot of LGBTQ people can probably relate to his character’s story. “I think Boq, coming from Munchkin Land is looking for a home and looking for a family, I think at least Boq as I’ve come to know him, really hasn’t felt at home anywhere. And I think in this core group of people that he finds people that really understand him.”
Slater adds, “Hopefully people can take away sort of a sense of seeing the humanness in everybody and that there are people for you. And there are people who will actually see you for who you are and it might not be everybody. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be who you are.”
The cast and creative team can all agree that Jonathan Bailey’s Fiyero is a heartthrob, and not just to the ladies at Shiz University. Bailey concurs that Fiyero loves attention, no matter who it’s from. “I think he also appreciates giving the attention too. I think he’s someone who is so tired really of the world that he lives in and I think labels for him would be infuriating.”
He talks about one of his big numbers in the film, Dancing Through Life and how, “It was important for me and Chris Scott when we started rehearsing that number to make sure that there was no there was no person unturned in the library, you know, Winky by name, Winky by nature.”
He says that, “There’s a big old group of people who set fire to the to the fuse, the fuse of a firework display that is a dance number like Dancing Through Life and the dancers around me were top notch.” Adding, “It’s a dream come true. I grew up watching movie musicals and they inspired me and I know they inspired Jeff as well. To be able to do that in a film is once in a lifetime. And my goodness, me, I’m so lucky and grateful that it was made at the time where I was the right person for the job.”
The iconic Jeff Goldblum who plays the Wizard, talks about how he was actually considering retiring from acting before he accepted this role. Now he says, “Jeez, am I lucky!” calling this role, “Cool beyond belief.”
Finally, Wicked director Jon M. Chu speaks about his decision to make this film as inclusive as possible, “I always feel like fantasy films are sort of the standard of what a story is supposed to be like in a way. They’re timeless and they live forever and Wizard of Oz is an American story. So, the idea of re-representing what a fantasy world should look like was very important to me.” He continues, “We didn’t want to make it a giant story issue. We wanted to normalize what the world looks like. And when you have great actors, when you have a great story, it makes it very easy.”
He talks about how when actors like Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and Jonathan Bailey walk into a room, “Everyone can’t keep their eyes off of them… it’s an attraction to a spirit.” He continues, “I felt that when each of them walked into the room separately and I knew that inherently this movie had to have that attraction. You had to want to find out what was going to happen and you had to be sort of questioned on your own. What you think beauty is like and what you think a witch should look like and what you think evil or good or wicked should be like. And that’s sort of the themes of a lot of stuff we’re dancing with.”
To close, Chu shares that as a longtime fan of the musical, “Now I have a very different relationship with Wicked. It is a part of my heart.” He explains that, “Sometimes we just didn’t know the destination. We’d know the truth of where we’re headed with this scene, we’d just lean into that and the movie will speak back to us, but we have to listen when the movie is speaking back to us.” Adding, “What is the alchemy that happens when you get brilliant people in a room and you’re all targeting the same emotion and what are the things that from costumes to production designs, to camera, to choreography, to acting? How do those all integrate in a way that feels very natural and organic? And so that’s what we tried to do.”
And soon, fans can see the magic too!
Wicked premieres in theaters on Novevemer 22nd, get your tickets now!