For over 20 years, “Wicked” has been asking one central question: Are you born wicked, or is wickedness thrust upon you?
Jon M. Chu’s blockbuster musical movie adaptation starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba (before she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande as Galinda finds new and exciting ways beyond the Broadway musical and Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel to interrogate what that central question actually means.
“I love that in our movie, what we all talked about is we’re both good and wicked, and every day our decisions are either good or wicked. And other people’s are, too, and sometimes we have to give grace to people on those wicked days, but let’s hope that we make more good ones than bad ones,” Chu said in conversation with Erivo for the latest installment of TheWrap’s longform video series Visionaries. The sit-down between the two creatives behind Hollywood’s highest grossing Broadway musical adaptation ever marked the first time they came together in a paired, deep-dive conversation of the film.
“Both of those questions, thrust upon you or born with it, is not actually in your power. That’s a passive question, or passive answer,” Chu continued. “There’s actually, I think, a third one, where it’s that you have to choose it and that it happens every day and that you have to make that choice.”
Erivo, bringing to the screen the role originated on stage by Tony winner Idina Menzel, shared that her Elphaba is one that’s constantly changing and evolving, and that even her lifelong dream of being “de-greenified” blossoms into something bigger, more selfless.
“Those are the moments that I think people think it’s just a movie, but when you see it, you feel that. And when we were on set, I was like, ‘This is a real-life experience,’” Chu enthused of Elphaba’s evolution.
“I always felt like all the decisions she made … Every time she makes a decision, it’s one step further away from the thing that she thought she wanted. That’s what I noticed about her,” Erivo said. “So even in the Ozdust ballroom, the dream of fitting in, when she does that dance in front of everybody, it’s another step away from a dream that she thought she wanted. She doesn’t fit in. And in that moment when she dances in front of everybody on her own, she says, ‘OK, I will never fit in. Fine.’ That goes away.
“She goes to the Emerald City and she goes with the dream of being de-greenified, and she meets the wizard, and literally the dream is in her hand, and she realizes, ‘Wait, I remember the thing that happened at Dr. Dillamond’s lair — they need someone. And I could do this and be selfish, but there’s more.’”
Erivo said she thinks that one of the reasons “Wicked” continues to resonate with audiences so powerfully is that everyone faces those sorts of decisions every day.
“I’ve always felt like decisions like that aren’t easy, and they’re bittersweet, so whenever we did it, I always felt like I have to let one thing go to have something else,” she explained. “Which is what we have to do anyway in our lives. Everyday. And it’s not always a pleasant feeling, but we know the thing that we’re getting is far greater than the thing that we’re letting go of … There’s this constant letting go.”
Watch the full video above.
