Ariana Grande has revealed all about her “rough” audition process to get the role of Glinda in Wicked during a candid chat with Paul Mescal.
The popstar and Irish star opened up about all things Wicked and Gladiator during their Variety Actors on Actors interview.
When asked by the Maynooth native about how she began the process of landing the role in the movie musical, the actress revealed: “I was hunting Marc Platt down for an audition.”
Ariana confessed how hard she tried to even get an audition for the role, admitting: “As soon as I found out that it might be happening, I told my team, ‘Be on high alert, please.'”
“‘And I know this has to be earned. So when they start seeing people, can I please go in? I’ll do anything.'”
“And I worked really hard with a vocal coach and an acting coach to get ready, because Glinda’s vocal track is very different than what I usually sing.”
When asked about that difference by Paul, she continued: “it’s very operatic and very classical sort of coloratura, which is different from doing a falsetto and whistle tones.”
“It’s a totally different placement in the voice. I wanted to sound authentic in singing opera, and I started two months before my first audition.”
The Wicked star later in the interview, revealed how she found time to audition with her busy schedule.
She confessed: “I was filming ‘The Voice,’ so I was going from my vocal coach to my acting coach to doing the live shows.”
“I was so nervous about my voice being in good shape because my audition was the next day.”
“And I was on set doing The Voice, and I asked them to cut the air conditioning.”
“They keep it really cold to keep the live audience awake. I had to sing opera the next day.”
“I had to sing “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and people started to notice. I was like, ‘It’s my fault.'”
“I was like, “I’m so sorry!” That was my first audition, and then I had a callback where I had to do some scenes and more songs.”
Paul asked if these auditions were where she met her co-star Cynthia Erivo, to which Ariana replied: “Not yet. We never chemistry read together.”
“It was three rounds for me, and I read with two different actresses. I stayed for three and a half hours the final day, and I had cried so much.”
“We did ‘Popular,’ ‘Defying Gravity,’ ‘For Good.’ And I left my lashes on the mirror, because I left everything else in the room.”
“How long did it take for you to find out?,” Paul asked.
Ariana replied: “Oh gosh. It was another three, four weeks of waiting after that, and it felt like seven years.”
The Gladiator star added: “Whoa. That’s rough.”
The singer replied: “It felt really long. I just kind of trusted that I had done the work. And I love Wicked, and I just wanted it to be beautiful, even if it wasn’t mine.”
