Cynthia Erivo's Update On Working With Ariana Grande On 'Wicked' Is Everything We Needed Today
If you need a sign that 2023 is going to be a great year, then let us be the fortunate ones to inform you that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s forthcoming film Wicked has finally received a release date.
The film’s director Jon M. Chu has announced that part one of the Wicked film is scheduled to be released in cinemas on November 24, 2024 which means we have just eight months to perfect our rendition of hit songs like ‘Popular’, attempt to hit that high note on ‘Gravity’, and paint ourselves green in true Elphaba style. Part 2 is still scheduled to release over a year later, on December 25, 2025.
‘I can tell you that filming with Ariana Grande is wonderful, and she is a lovely lovely person. We have a really great relationship currently and it’s just growing and growing, and we’re having a great time,’ Erivo recently ELLE UK during a game of Ask Me Anything.
As for her dream singers to duet with, she said she’s already singing with one of her favourites – Grande. ‘Ariana, her voice is incredible. The reason why I love duetting with her is ‘cause her sensibility and her taste for the choices she makes musically are really special and she’s very intelligent when it comes to that. It’s really wonderful to watch her work,’ she added.
When it comes to her favourite songs in the stage show and upcoming film adaptation, Erivo noted: ‘My favourite song changes. So one day it could be "For Good", one day it could be "Popular", other days it could be "No Good Deed".'
As many Wicked fans will know, Erivo’s character Elphaba (aka the ‘Wicked’ Witch) is bright green, which is the result of applying numerous layers of green body paint for any actors who play her. However, Erivo assures us that sitting in the make-up chair to transform into her character ‘isn’t necessarily gruelling’.
‘I have a really wonderful team, we work really hard, we’ve got it down to a science now. It takes time and usually it’s very early in the morning so most of the time I’m fast asleep and I’m chatting maybe sometimes. We’re taking our time, making it work, and making it exactly the way we want to get it… it’s a long process, but it’s fun,' she revealed.
Currently, Erivo stars in the film Luther: The Fallen Sun, opposite Idris Elba, which sees a serial killer haunt the streets of London and its disgraced protagonist Luther break out of prison to save the day. ‘Idris and I were already having a great time on this set particularly. We’d joke about the funny quips our mothers would have and things our mums would say. That would make us laugh,’ she told us.
‘I think there’s a clip of us just chatting and we’re just laughing out heads off. Those are the funnier moments, it’s kind of intense. There’s not too much to laugh at in the film,’ she noted, alluding to the film’s intense, nail-biting storyline.
Filming the project involved the pair shooting in Piccadilly Circus (‘which was wild and crazy’) and doing their own stunts. ‘I love doing them,’ she said of the action-packed stunt work. ‘I tend to be a glutton for punishment when it comes to stunts on a film. I try to do my own, all of them. I love it. I kind of look for reasons to do stunts in movies or TV things I do.’
When she’s not dreaming of appearing in Guys And Dolls on stage and wearing Louis Vuitton gowns to the likes of the SAG Awards and the BAFTAs, Erivo said she tries to stay true to Oprah Winfrey’s life advice.
‘The best piece of life advice I’ve received was that you can say “no” sometimes, and you don’t have to say “yes”, and that really empowered me. It came from one Miss Oprah Winfrey. It was when I was spreading myself way too thin and I needed someone to say that I didn’t have to go to everything, or do everything. And anything that needed to be done would still be there for when I was ready.’
Watching Cynthia Erivo’s Ask Me Anything episode at the top of this article.
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