Cynthia Erivo was glad Ariana Grande got Wicked role: 'It was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with'

In true Elphaba fashion, Cynthia Erivo couldn't be happier about the Glinda sharing her magical Wicked journey with her.

Erivo said it was "no surprise whatsoever" that Ariana Grande was chosen to star opposite her in the movie adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical. In fact, she was relieved to learn that she'd be "defying gravity" with such a capable performer.

"Thank goodness,” Erivo told The New York Times in a new joint interview with Grande. "Because it was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with."

Grande shared her own reaction to finding out Erivo would be her costar: "I said, 'Thank God,'" the singer told the Times.

While Erivo did not specify with whom she auditioned, Reneé Rapp, Dove Cameron, and Amanda Seyfried are among the actresses who have opened up about trying out for the part of Glinda. Seyfried even shared that her audition process intersected with her role of Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout.

"I literally bent over backwards while playing the hardest role of my life," Seyfried said in 2022. "But I think it also taught me how far I've come as a singer, which I really wanted to prove."

Meanwhile, Cameron said she was "so excited" that Grande, a dear friend, was cast in the film.

In Grande's case, landing the role fulfilled a lifelong dream, and allowed her the chance to return to her musical theater roots. 

"As soon as I got murmurs of the fact that it could possibly be turning into a film, all I wanted was a chance to audition," Grande told the Times. "Some members of my team at the time were like, 'You shouldn't even have to audition,' and I was like, 'You don't understand — of course I have to. This is something that has to be earned.' I have so much to prove, and I threw myself at it in every way that I could."

Grande discussed auditioning on a recent episode of the Sentimental Men podcast, explaining that the lengthy process involved singing songs for both lead characters, performing scenes from the Broadway script, and, eventually, meeting Elphaba hopefuls for chemistry reads. Like Erivo, Grande read with two different actresses — whom she described as "amazing" — but neither were destined to become the Elphaba to her Glinda.

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Erivo and Grande didn't even cross paths until after they landed their parts in the Jon M. Chu–directed film. Upon learning the news, they made a concerted effort to become friends.

"The first time we meet she comes to my house and we just talk. We're on my floor just chatting," Erivo said on the Nov. 10 episode of Today's Sunday Sitdown. "And the second time we get together is at Jon's house. He has a dinner, and then dinner finishes, and we all gather round the piano, and that's the first time we sing. And that for us is a really big moment because we can really do this together, not just as actresses but as singers too."

She added, "I think both of us also knew that we wanted more than just this working relationship. We needed to build a friendship outside of this, and that's what we have now."

In theaters Nov. 22, the first installment of the two-part Wicked movie tells the origin story of Grande's Glinda and Erivo's Elphaba, two witches in Oz who forge an unlikely friendship during their school days at Shiz University. Unbeknownst to them, they are destined to become Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West, figures familiar to fans of Dorothy's adventures in The Wizard of Oz. Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Peter Dinklage, and Bowen Yang are among the stars who fill out the prequel story's cast.