Ariana Grande details grueling Wicked audition process after Cynthia Erivo threw shade at other actresses who tried out for Glinda

With just over a week until Wicked hits theaters, Ariana Grande is opening up about the grueling audition process.

The 31-year-old actress returns to the big screen for the first time since 2021’s Don’t Look Up to play the iconic Glinda in this musical adaptation, arriving on November 22.

The film is expected to breathe new life into the box office with an expected opening weekend of between $80 million and $85 million next weekend.

She appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, where she revealed that her first audition for the film took place over three years ago.

This outing also comes just a week after co-star Cynthia Erivo threw shade at other actresses who tried out for Glinda the Good Witch.

The stage adaptation of Wicked debuted on Broadway in 2003 – based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel – set before Dorothy Gale’s arrival in Oz as told in The Wizard of Oz – and the classic cinema of 1939.

The musical production is still going strong 21 years later, and is currently the fourth longest-running Broadway production in history.

There had been rumors of a film adaptation since 2012, but it finally came to fruition almost a decade later.

Grande revealed that she was such a fan of the musical that she began preparing immediately after hearing about a film adaptation.

“I started mentally preparing myself and my team. I just told them, you know, if this really happens, and if they’re going to start seeing people for this, I just want to be very prepared,” she told Fallon.

“I want to take all the acting classes, all the voice classes, I want to train my voice to be a coloratura soprano, like – like real opera. I have to honor that the way it requires,” she said to the applause of the studio audience.

Grande added that she was glad she wasn’t offered the role immediately due to her musical pedigree, adding: “Thank God. “I mean, it’s mean, you have to earn it.

“I tried to mentally prepare myself, knowing that — look, it’s going to end where it’s supposed to end,” she said of her preparations.

“And as a fan, I have to trust it and know that it’s going to go where it’s supposed to go.” But in the meantime, I’ll do everything I can’to prepare myself for this and have this chance. And I auditioned on August 13, 2021, it was my first audition,” she said.

‘And then I was called back, and then again. And then I did tests with two different actresses, and it was like a 3 and a half hour session that day,” she said.

Grande added that she found out Cynthia Erivo would be playing Elphaba right after learning she had landed the role herself.

“So when they called me to tell me I had the part, I had a heart attack. It was the first. And then they told me I was going to play opposite Cynthia Erivo, and that was the second heart attack. And then I died, and I died, and I died here. And I’m still dead,” Grande joked.

She added of her co-star Erivo: “I mean, I’ve been such a fan of hers for so long. She is so extraordinary. And being able to play opposite her and also become real sisters with her was such a beautiful experience, and I’m so grateful that it was us.

She also revealed that this is the first project where she is credited under her full name – Ariana Grande-Butera, after showing a photo of young Ariana playing Dorothy in a children’s production of The Wizard of Oz.

“Well, I feel like this whole experience was a little bit of a homecoming for that girl, in the little plaid dress over there,” she said of the throwback photo.

“And, you know, that was my name the first time I saw the show. That’s my name, that’s my real name, then. In a way, it’s like little Ari coming home,” she said.

“And that’s a lot – what this movie is about. It’s kind of taking your little self with you and holding their hand and saying, ‘We may have drifted apart along the way, but I have you now and we’re going together,'” she said. added.

Others who auditioned for Glinda included Renee Rapp, Dove Cameron and Amanda Seyfried, with Grande’s co-star Erivo appearing to throw shade at those who tried out for Glinda.

When The New York Times asked Grande and Erivo about their reaction to their casting, Erivo seemed to shade at least two of the other contestants.

“Thank God, because those weren’t the two ladies I was auditioning with,” Erivo said, without identifying the other actresses.