Jon M Chu has detailed the rigorous audition process he put Ariana Grande through before offering her a role in Wicked.
The 31-year-old pop star plays Glinda the Good alongside Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba Thropp in the film adaptation of the Broadway stage show – itself based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel.
Grande, who has been praised by critics for her performance in the long-anticipated blockbuster, had to prove herself to Chu multiple times before being cast in the box office hit.
Speaking on The Love of Cinema podcast, the Wicked director admitted he underestimated the “7 Rings” singer. “I was like, ‘There’s no way she’s prepared for this. This is a huge movie,” he said.
Chu explained it takes “a lot of experience” to lead a film and he was concerned that, although Grande could sing, whether she would be “vulnerable” and “funny” enough to be Glinda.
“The moment she auditioned, she was the most interesting person in that room,” he said. “But I didn’t believe it, so I brought her in again. And she was the most interesting person— I did not believe it.”
Grande had to audition three times before Chu was satisfied she could handle the responsibility of a leading Wicked role.
“She proved herself over and over and over again, to a place where she was living [as] Glinda. When she showed up on set, she was Glinda,” he recalled.
“I didn’t have to direct her; I was just like, ‘Here’s a chair, jump over it,’ and she would jump over like Glinda.
“It felt like I was meeting this character in real life for the first time, and that the show was based on this real-life character.”
It comes shortly after it was revealed Grande had refused to sing a hip hop version of “Popular” in the film and instead demanded the score remain faithful to the source text.
Stephen Schwartz, composer and lyricist for the original Broadway show, told the Los Angeles Times: “In the spirit of being open to new things for the movie, my music team and I thought, let’s refresh the rhythm. Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit.”
However, Grande said she would “absolutely not” do a hip hop version of the song. “‘I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda,’” she told the lyricist.
“That was something she was very insistent on,” Schwartz recalled. “She does little inventive things within it, but I think they are strongly character-based.”
