The cast broke down the Wicked filming and prep process with Teen Vogue.
To say the Wicked experience was a transformative one is an understatement. In the latest episode of Teen Vogue video series Character Study, the Wicked cast sits down to talk about their journey from the stages of Broadway and the sunny skies of Hollywood to Shiz University and the Emerald City, and the specific acting techniques and processes that brought their characters to life.
Stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are joined by Jonathan Bailey (AKA Fiyero), Marissa Bode (Nessarose), Jeff Goldblum (the Wizard), and Ethan Slater (Boq). Each actor discusses their audition process, with Slater again sharing that he performed several parts in his tryout video, including Glinda, and Bailey and Goldblum sharing which songs they performed during the process.
Both Grande and Erivo had to undergo some serious training for their roles; Grande began voice training “long before my first audition” to make sure her voice was “as operatic as possible” to slip into Glinda’s pink heels. Given that she’s often suspended in mid-air literally defying gravity, Erivo began a workout routine to ensure she was strong enough to be strapped into a corset and harness for all those flying scenes.
Grande and Erivo also used a variety of techniques to really channel their characters, including using specific scents to further convey growth throughout their journey and changing them up as the two witches matured. Erivo let her hands do the talking, saying she thought Elphaba was a “tentative expressive” and used her hand movements to help convey Elphaba’s subtlety.
“The hands were a real thing,” she says. “I liked using my hands as a way to express … she uses her hands a lot, even when she grabs the broom. Her small expressions built over time.” Erivo also cites another scene where Glinda grabs her peignoir and Elphaba her cardigan during ”What Is This Feeling?” as an excellent example of her hand acting.
Slater was particularly impressed at how well Erivo and Grande studied Elphaba and Glinda. “They knew their characters front and back,” Slater says of his costars. “They didn’t have to think about it. When you yelled action, they were locked in.”
The transformation was even shocking to the two stars, who lost themselves in their roles and didn’t always recognize their own faces onscreen. “I feel like we’re watching people we know and love but they’re not us,” Grande said. But just because they disappeared into Elphaba and Glinda doesn’t mean the roles are a carbon copy of the original Broadway performances — quite the opposite. “One of the things we’re proudest of are the ways in which we brought ourselves and our own truths to these roles, while wanting to honor the original material that we have loved so much.”
