At a screening in Los Angeles for his upcoming adaptation of the Broadway hit “Wicked,” director Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) alluded to the recent election when describing how the film embodies what he called “the American story.”
“Is happiness the goal, but actually expressing yourself, maybe showing a little anger is okay,” Chu said during a discussion of the film. “Maybe fighting each other, maybe okay, and you have to hear each other, and in the end, we have to maybe forgive each other, give a little grace. Because the only way out is through.”
“So I love that,” the director continued. “That is the American story as we’ve done it time and time again. And we have more opportunities to do that now, and it’s embedded in this story, and it’s always been that, for me at least.”
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Later in the discussion Chu discussed co-star Ariana Grande, who plays Glinda (the future Good Witch of the North). Her performance, Chu said, wasn’t “an imitation” of Billie Burke, who portrayed Glinda in “The Wizard of Oz” (1939).
“It was inspired by it, of course, it’s in her, but to have the freedom to then just be in situations at play, it was the it was the improvisation of being in Glinda. I could put a chair down and say, okay, Glinda, go jump over that. And she would pass away. Glinda would jump over, I don’t even know Glinda, but this is how she would do it. It was amazing to watch. And I remember thinking, I’m discovering this person, even though she’s the most famous person in the world.”
Later in the Q&A, Cynthia Erivo, who portrays Elphaba (the future Wicked Witch of the West) explained how she approached the character.
“There’s this strange abandonment that she feels because of her father, and then then there’s this complicated relationship that she has with her sister, and then you know she’s having to figure out how she wants to be loved, because she doesn’t really know it the way that everyone else does. I understood deeply what it meant to feel like an author, like like an odd one out, different,” she said, adding, “usually when I walk in the room, I definitely look very different to most fabulous.”
“It wasn’t as fabulous. Had to grow into that. So I knew what it felt like to feel alone in that. And I definitely know what it feels like to have a very rocky relationship, and what it feels like to be an older sister trying to give your younger sister a little bit of room to be. I also know what it feels like to try to connect with people have to figure out how to come back around and deal with that and I also know how it feels to have to figure out how to forgive and connect,” Erivo continued.
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