Wicked director Jon M. Chu has said that he was in tears the night the movie's stars, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, first met at a dinner he hosted in his house in LA.
Based on composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz’s hit stage show, the film tells the origin stories of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, from movie classic The Wizard of Oz.
Pop superstar Grande plays Glinda, with fast-rising London-born actress and singer Erivo as the green-skinned Elphaba, who begins her life meaning well but turns to the dark side after she is scorned by her own father and the people of Oz.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment about the stars’ first meeting, the director, who previously directed breakout hit Crazy Rich Asians and big screen musical In The Heights, said, "It was amazing. It was during lockdown time so we all hadn’t met together so everyone came over to my house and we sat outside and we had a piano.
Watch our interview with Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo
"Stephen Schwartz started playing and Cynthia and Ariana, unplanned, got up and started singing and I grabbed my kids and held them real tight and said, `watch this!’
"Everyone was in tears. It was spiritual to hear them sing together and I thought if the world hears this they wouldn’t believe what’s happening."
Chu also said he couldn’t wait to start the process of worldbuilding in the new two-part movie, which also stars Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, the head of Shiz University where Glinda and Elphaba first meet.
"Oz has such a cinematic tradition and very few directors get to go there so I got together with Paul Tazewell, our costume designer, and our production designer, Nathan Crowley, and we thought `how do we create this reality?’
"How do we make this an immersive experience because in the original movie of The Wizard of Oz and the book, it’s a dream but with Wicked we have to know it’s real.
— Jon M. Chu (@jonmchu) November 25, 2024
"We have to know the history of the buildings, we have to know what the girls are fighting for, we have to know that those bluebirds that fly over the rainbow exist.
"So, all that was really fun for us to build that reality as Glinda and Elphaba build their reality in their search for truth."
Watch our interview with Jeff Goldblum and Jonathan Bailey
As the Wizard of Oz himself says himself in Wicked, "The best way to bring folk together is to give them a real good enemy." The movie may start all happiness and light but it gets pretty dark as the story unfolds.
"Yes and part two is even darker," says Chu. "In this movie, the story we are told is of this happy place where happy endings exist, where joy and happiness are the most important thing in the world . . . well, are they?
"What happens when that story is shattered? That’s what happens when you grow up. You realise the world isn’t perfect, it’s not necessarily made for you.
"I love that these characters have to decide who to become when they discover the truth. Each of them have their own road - some people will stay in their bubble, some people will get angry, and some people will keep walking through and find some kind of messy solution."
Wicked is in cinemas now
