Ariana Grande has revealed why she used her full name in a credit for Wicked.
The “we can’t be friends” singer, 31, stars as Glinda the Good Witch alongside Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West. The film, which has been split into two parts, acts as an origin story for the popular Wizard of Oz characters, who forge an unlikely but profound friendship at school.
Grande uses her full name, Ariana Grande-Butera, in the film’s credits and has said the decision came after the project allowed her to reconnect with her younger self in multiple ways.
Speaking to The Streaming Service, Grande explained: “I just feel like this experience was such a homecoming for me. I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways, through what I learned from Glinda, from Elphaba.
She continued: “That was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10-years-old, and it felt like a really lovely way of honoring that. It felt really full circle, and it just felt like something I wanted to do.”
It comes shortly after Grande addressed the negative reaction from fans after she was cast in the forthcoming musical film adaptation.
“This is something I loved so much about auditioning for Wicked,” she said on the Sentimental Men podcast. “It has to be earned.”
The “Into You” singer explained: “Anything on this scale, being a part of anything, it’s not just given because they know for one thing. So, it’s fun to kind of have the challenge of reframing people’s perception and doing the work to earn your way back into the other spaces.”
She added: “I felt a little bit of the initial nervousness or the sort of preconceived notions about what I might be able to deliver or not deliver, or why I would be wrong or whatever.”
Wicked has impressed critics, who declared the movie musical a “masterpiece” at early screenings.
“I was ‘pessimistical’ going in, but...WICKED is a masterpiece,” tweeted Variety film reporter Katcy Stephen. “Ariana Grande makes Glinda sparkle: she milks every moment with gusto, humor and hair flips. Jon M Chu added so much new life to the story that I can see why it needed to be 2 parts! Well worth the 20-year wait.”
Even Kristen Chenoweth, who originated the role of Glinda on Broadway, gave her stamp of approval. “Oh my gosh, I just saw the movie, and I’m dying. I’m deceased; I’m actually dead. I’m not here,” the Tony-winning actor said in a video posted to Instagram.
Meanwhile, IndieWire’s Erin Strecker added: “Happy to confirm WICKED is the best musical-to-movie adaptation since CHICAGO and MAMMA MIA. Ariana Grande....is perfection!?”
Wicked is set to be released in UK and US cinemas on November 22.
A second instalment is expected to follow next year, although there has been speculation online that the movie may have been recut into a single film.
