What Did Ariana Grande Paint For Cynthia Erivo? | WICKED Interview | IMDb

I called her crying. And I refused. She did call me crying. I did call her crying. And then I saw her and I didn't understand why she was crying. Don't be afraid. I'm not afraid. It's the wizard who should be afraid of me. What are your character's favourite films in real life, or TV shows, if they lived in our world? Oh my gosh, that's a great question. Immediately Never Ending Story. Oh my god, it's beautiful. And she loves Falcor. Yes. That's it. I think just the search for the truth, how much magic is in it, I think that's what she would connect to. And maybe Labyrinth. Oh my god, Labyrinth is one of my favourite movies. I love Labyrinth. I think it's like... That's so cool. That would be her favourite. I love that. Ha! Join the club! I think Linda would like Legally Blonde. Oh yes. You know what I mean? Why didn't I think of that? I think she'd be totally like Clueless or Legally Blonde. What have you. Yeah. You know? But then I felt like Linda would end up with like a deep something, like Coco Chanel or something. Breakfast at Tiffany's maybe. Yeah. Breakfast at Tiffany's or something. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Very that. Yes. Gentlemen prefer blonde. Yes. Okay. Very demure. Yeah, very demure. Very demure. Yes. I just love finding new places to wear diamonds. Well, I tell you that Fiyero would be watching Made in Chelsea. What would you watch? Do you know Made in Chelsea? I don't. It's an iconic British E4 reality TV series that follows the trials and tribulations of being incredibly privileged in the UK. And actually one of the characters from that was on the Fiyero sort of metaphorical mood board for me. I don't know. But we won't go there. Wow. Hey, what is The Wizard watching? Maybe, hmm. RuPaul's Drag Race. Can I get an amen up in here? Amen! The Wizard would watch, there's a documentary I saw recently called Turn Every Page about Robert Carra, biographer of Robert Moses, who is a very complicated and mixed bag of a figure requiring a big exhaustive book of his, and then he did four volumes of Lyndon Johnson. Wow. This documentary, Turn Every Page, is about Robert Carra and his longstanding editor who works with him on these books that he writes and shapes them. Fascinating. Makes me want to go back and see Robert Carra's stuff. But the subject of his couple of books, Robert Moses, who's a world builder and a civic builder that The Wizard is too. And Lyndon Johnson, who was a very interesting president during a period of my youth. Very interesting. That's what I would watch. The Wizard has taste. That's incredible. Yeah, he does. I mean, of course he does. Right. I mean, come on. Look at him. He is tight. Oh my goodness. Love is Blind. Belinda would for sure be watching Love is Blind. That's a good point, yeah. I think Bach would be watching it to sort of know what people are talking about. Yeah. Yeah, no. Because he wants to fit in the circle. Yeah, I want to fit in. I want to have stuff. Yeah. I think Nessa would be watching Love is Blind too as a hopeful or a hopeless romantic. Really? Yeah. They'll be reality TV fans. Yes. Nessa would love reality TV. Absolutely. Maybe The English Teacher would be the other thing. It's funny and relatable. That has been on my list. I've heard amazing things. His TikToks that he's doing right now is just iconic. Have you seen them? I have seen them. It's kind of all I see now. Exactly. They're everywhere. You can just say you're jealous. We are all obsessed with your voices. I mean, we knew you were going to deliver, but it's just like I was blown away. Thank you. I'm curious from your perspective, what's one thing vocally that your co-star can do that absolutely blows you away? Oh, that Whistleton. I can't do it. Every time she opens her mouth. What are you talking about? I'm not that girl. Every time she opens her mouth, I cry. I have to go to literally the back of the theater and be alone during I'm Not That Girl so that I can just watch and cry. I have involuntary shouts. That's what happens. She will attest to that. She has shouted. I can't help it. It's like she'll just do something and I can't help it. It'll just out. Right. And literally, it happened when we were shooting. It'll happen when she's randomly humming. Sing! Come on. Sing, girl. I'm very spoiled to have spent the whole year with just her raw voice in my ears. Absolutely. It's our pleasure. It's insane. It's not even, like, as good as it is, I'm sorry, I'm almost done, but as good as it is in the movie, it's so much better where I was standing. Yes. Like here. I know. With nothing else. The jelly that you were so close to the notes. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. I think the both of us, though, I think we really enjoyed that, like singing together. I relished it. Me too. Yeah, yummy. That's yummy. What is a scene in this film that you felt most connected to your character? I felt like the scene with the lion cub, with Elphaba, I think, in the Enchanted Forest is a scene that was the key to unlocking Fiyero's journey, but also specifically about, you have to crack that with Elphaba to understand their two-film arc, but yeah, I think the moment of being seen, I think, by someone and having the bubble popped, I suppose. Absolutely. I think is something that hopefully we all experience because it's a real, it's a gift, isn't it? When you're seen for who you really are and challenged in that way. What about you? And I've told you, I'm so moved by that scene and the way you do that. What a moment, what a story moment when Elphaba, who becomes a shaman, who uplifts everyone with whom she comes in contact, oh boy, sees him and disarms him. Much like Cynthia Riva in real life. Yes. And John M. Chu. And the way you do that, ah, it's heavenly. What about Jeff Goldblum? Yeah, what about you? Oh, me? A wizard, like an essential wizard-y-ster? The paternal. Wow. Oh, yes, yes. Wow. It makes my heart. Yeah. Yes, yes. Yeah. Every moment for me is sort of holographically, potentially epiphanistic, it's not a word like that, but you know, eye-opening. I think the moment you step behind the mask, from the mask- I was going to say that, it's my first entrance, like the man behind the curtain, in this case these ropey-ropey kind of things, and this big head that they made weighs a ton. When I come back, say, hey, I'm just a regular guy, I don't, don't, don't, don't, yeah, I'm like- And you say, what's your name? And she says, it's Elphaba, and you come around and you meet her, and you lay your eyes on her for the first time. Oh, yes, and I lay my eyes, and something in me turns over that I don't even, I'm not even conscious of. Right there. Yes, when I first lay, it's like when you fall in love at first sight. Something like that happens with me and her, and yeah. What's the scene that you can share where you felt most connected to your character? This wasn't really even my scene, but younger Nessa in the film, it was like I was seeing part of me in her, and just like, my youth, I haven't always been disabled, but just like, seeing a young disabled person, I mean, she literally plays young me, so she looks similar too, it was just, it was really cool, and really special, and yeah, I saw a lot of myself in her. I keep on flashing to the moment, like, when all of the students are there for the first time at Shiz, and we're both trying to like, see Madame Morrible as she's coming in and speaking, and we like, find each other in the crowd. For me, that was a moment of like, yeah, I guess sometimes you're like here, but you don't always feel here, but maybe you can find somebody who's with you. Absolutely. That perfectly adorable munchkin boy just asked me out. You have so many memorable performances. I'm curious, what is one thing you did on this film that maybe you've never imagined yourself doing before, outside of the singing, because I know that was a little new for you. Outside of the singing. No, actually, there were so many moments, because for me, Madame Morrible was not just a very clear character. She had a lot of complexities behind, and it was how we could reveal them as the story went on. You know, every character has their own different dreams and ambitions, and what motivates them to be who they are, like this journey of self-discovery, and for Madame Morrible, you think it's very simple. All she wants is to find a student that she can teach magic to, and who will be able to read the Book of Enchantments and cast these spells that she has been all her life wanting to do. And then at the end of the day, does that ambition change a person? Who are you doing it for? For yourself, or for the good of your pupil? So it was fun discovering this aspect of her, of what is the grey, or is it the dark side now? Don't let her get away, this Wicked Witch. Do you have any secret skills that the fans would be shocked to learn about? Yep. You said it so quick. I want to hear yours. I want to see something of yours. Jazz flute? Jazz flute. Well, jazz anything, actually. What about the jazz blade of grass? What? I tinkle on the iris a little bit. I can wiggle one ear at a time. Watch this. Ready? Here it goes. Left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left, right. Yeah, that's it. That's a secret skill. And now it's secret no more, my friend. What about you? Well, I feel like there's nothing compared to it. I can do the same, but with mine. I've seen it. Folks have come to expect that sort of thing, and you gotta give the people what they want. Secret skill? Yeah. This is terrible, but when I was a little kid, not terrible, when I was a little kid I used to do weird gross tricks with my eyes, not gross, just like I would cross one and then roll them around. Yeah. That is actually the thing that definitely got me my first professional job playing SpongeBob. Was that in the audition, I was asked a similar question, what's something that you do that someone might not know? Right. And I was like, well, I can cross my eyes pretty weird, and I got the call the next day. I mean, if you ever just want to do a quick demo of that, just so I can see it. I want to see it now, too. I feel like doing it on camera is the most difficult. I shouldn't have brought it up, because I don't want to do it, you know? It's what people want to know now. You know what? Check out Paramount Plus SpongeBob. We'll do that one about you. That's my plug. A quick plug on that. Be careful. For a five-year-old project. For a long period. I like to cook. You draw? Okay. You draw? What's your go-to dish? I do draw. You're an amazing artist. I do draw, too. Yes. Yeah, you're an amazing artist. Yeah, I guess that's pretty cool. What's the secret skill? Well, it's not secret anymore. Whistling. Yeah, I can whistle like I sing. It's the most beautiful thing. Now it's exposed. I did it because it was like a mindless thing, but I've been able to whistle since I was like 10 years old, and I can whistle the way I sing. What about you? Aren't any? I don't think I have anything else. That's real. I think I've been wrung out, and it's over. You know what I mean? There's nothing else. You're fainting. I'm dying. You do beautiful paintings. Your watercolor. Oh, yeah. I painted you a painting. That's generous. It was out of love. That's why you liked it. But it's gorgeous. It's not good. You love me. It is good. No. There's nothing there. Have you met me on a Capricorn? I don't lie. There's nothing there. It's amazing. It's good. It is good. It's really beautiful. It's amazing. It's also burnt in the middle because I set it on a candle by accident. It's a beautiful landscape portrait of Munchkinland with a hole in the middle. There is no hole in the middle. This is an exaggeration. From a candle. It's a beautiful water painting. And she is not giving it the credit it is due. I called her crying. And I refuse. She did call me crying. I did call you crying. And then I saw it, and I didn't understand why she was crying. Okay. Because it's still gorgeous. There's a gray orb in the middle. There is not a gray orb. There's a gray orb. It's pictured. I have evidence. This is gorgeous. Candle burnt orb. I don't understand what she sees in this. And now we have to see the photo. We have to. Please post it. I'm going to post it. I'm going to laminate it, and I'm going to frame it. You've worked with Jon M. Chu on a couple of incredible projects now. Of course, Crazy Rich Asians, which I call a rom-com, by the way. It is what it is. Exactly. From your perspective, what is something he should be known for as a director? Wicked. No, he's so talented. And what I think you have to know, that he is such a loving and supportive director. Because he makes room for you to flourish. But at the same time, he knows exactly what he wants. But he makes you think that it's your idea. You know, and it's fantastic. I think he's a very giving person, all in all. He's very hardworking. He's very devoted. Not just, I mean, to his family, but to the whole Wicked experience. And you can see in every frame, in every set, in every design, it was carefully and meticulously planned out. And that is what Jon Chu is all about.