Ariana Grande Effortlessly Crushes Wings While Talking Wicked on Hot Ones (WATCH)
Ariana Grande discusses filming the screen adaptation of Wicked on an episode of Hot Ones.
Ariana Grande recently visited the set of Hot Ones to promote her seventh studio album Eternal Sunshine, her starring role in the upcoming screen adaptation of Wicked, and endure a gauntlet of increasingly spicy hot wings. Her performance was nothing short of a magic trick, crushing one wing after another without losing even an ounce of her composure or charm. Then again, maybe we shouldn’t have expected anything less from Glinda, herself.
Ariana Grande Talks Singing Live on Set While Crushing Hot Wings
Wicked (in theaters November 22, 2024) is based on one of the most successful musicals of all time. It’s a prequel to L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and tells the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda the Good Witch. It opened on June 10, 2003, at the Curran Theater in San Francisco and premiered on Broadway on Halloween of the same year. The original production won three Tony awards and a Grammy for the original cast recording. It’s been in production ever since, only pausing in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
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The dual starring roles of Elphaba and Glinda (made famous on stage by Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth) will be played on screen by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. The production is helmed by director Jon Chu, who’s no stranger to putting music on the silver screen. His credits include Step Up 2: The Streets, Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never and Believe documentaries, Jem and the Holograms, and the screen adaptation of Lin Manuel-Miranda’s In the Heights.
During production, Chu was committed to keeping as many practical elements as possible and that extends to the vocal elements. “When we were shooting it, those girls were like... 'We’re going live,’” Chu told Vanity Fair.
“There was lots of bubble singing, which was very high up and I wasn’t harnessed. I was just kind of there,” Grande told Hot Ones host Sean Evans of her experience singing live while shooting Wicked. “I had a lot of stunty singing things, but nothing compared to Cynthia Erivo. This is my favorite thing in the entire world, watching Cynthia in her harness with a broom, a hat, wig, corset, dress, the whole thing, flipping upside down, flying around the set, singing “Defying Gravity” every take like it’s nothing. Just the most phenomenal thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Oh my god, I love her. We had to do some really insane and beautiful things for this film, and it was just so much fun.”
If even a fraction of that energy and passion comes through on screen, we’re all in for a cinematic treat when Wicked hits theaters everywhere September 22. You can also catch episodes of Hot Ones streaming on Peacock.
