Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Is your neck okay? How is your neck right now?
00:03Is everything okay?
00:05Thank you so much for asking. It's bad.
00:08It's bad. Yeah, I'm stiff for life.
00:16Ariana, you have said that working with Cintia has been the most beautiful partnership of your life.
00:21So, how do you define the chemistry between the two of you?
00:24Oh, my gosh. I mean, I would define it as just the greatest gift to this film and also to our lives.
00:31I mean, we have learned so much from each other and the ways in which we've been able to be as honest as humanly possible with each other as friends and also on screen.
00:40In these characters, I have a deep unexplainable gratitude for it. And it's been my favorite part.
00:47Oh, my God. You are so cute.
00:49Thank you. You too.
00:50Hey, you're from Brazil.
00:51Yes, I am from Brazil.
00:52Do you sing any, may I ask, a Brazilian music? Any Jobim or any Brazilian music?
00:58Me?
00:59Bossa Nova, yes.
01:00I'm not a singer.
01:01Yeah, but everybody, you don't have to be a singer to enjoy singing.
01:04That is true.
01:05Do you know some Brazilian music?
01:07Don't get him started.
01:10How many minutes do you have?
01:12A lot. An hour.
01:14Hey, what's this song?
01:16It's the end of the road.
01:18She can sing.
01:19It's okay. I'm not a singer.
01:20I love to hear it in Portuguese. I love that. We could sing all of those songs all day. Let's go.
01:25What do you want people to feel when they watch Wicked?
01:27I want them to come in and first just be blown away by the world that they're entering.
01:31I have the magic and wonder that they felt when they first saw Wizard of Oz or Wicked and that they lean in.
01:36And when they lean in, they meet these two beautiful women that you think you know who they are.
01:41You think it's the Wicked. You think it's the good person.
01:43And that we flip that scenario on you.
01:45And that makes you think about who is telling the story in your own life.
01:48Who is saying who is the villain and who is the good person.
01:51And that it makes you question the things in your life.
01:53It hopefully brings you out of that light.
01:55And you come out singing, dancing again and returns you to your home.
01:58That's a classic and fundamental and primal, maybe mysteriously inexplicably, primal fable about finding yourself and going home.
02:08Whatever that means to everybody.
02:10Then Wicked turns it on its head and goes, we're going to see something that you didn't know about.
02:17About this wicked witch who really may not be wicked.
02:22I think the world just needs Wicked in terms of the themes of one, standing up for what you believe in.
02:30Also realizing that putting blame on a certain group of people or in this case animals in the story.
02:37Rather than looking at the root of it or necessarily trying to understand one another.
02:42I.e. Galinda and Elphaba and their friendship.
02:45I think that's something a lot of people can learn from this story.
02:48Cynthia, Elphaba is the green girl who is not accepted by society.
02:52So what do you as Elphaba want people to take away from her story?
02:56It takes her time to accept the differences that she has.
02:59But those differences, anyone who has difference or feels different or feels like they're on the outside or feels like they're not accepted should know that those differences make you special.
03:09I was wondering while I was watching the movie, you are a pro dancer.
03:13So dancing was not a problem for you.
03:15So what was the biggest challenge for you in Wicked?
03:19Just trying to cool it because I'm a massive Wicked fan.
03:22The biggest challenge, well I suppose it was just matching the love and the detail of the work of everyone around me and obviously led by John.
03:31And listening to yourself sing on repeat.
03:34That is something I didn't know when you're dancing.
03:36Dancing took how many days? Six days? Seven days?
03:39And you're listening to your own voice sing, which is I think a form of torture in some countries.
03:45So yeah, that bit I found challenging.
03:48As the first disabled actress to play Nessa, how do you feel bringing this representation to screen?
03:54What does this role mean to you?
03:56I am so incredibly grateful to be representation for so many people because it's not necessarily something I had growing up.
04:04And for families in general to watch this together.
04:08Parents of disabled children, disabled children themselves, disabled people themselves to see someone that looks like them on screen.
04:17And hopefully set a precedent in general for casting in the future.
04:21To cast more disabled people on screen.
04:23I really hope this shows them that it's possible.
04:27Accommodations are possible.
04:29And to ask. Ask our needs. Ask how much we can do.
04:33And listen more too.
04:35And I'm so happy to be here and hopefully be a part of that change as well.
04:40Ethan, your character has a complex romantic journey there.
04:44So how did you make to approach yourself to this story?
04:47How can you define love in that case?
04:50Well, I think Bach does have a complex romantic journey.
04:57That's a really good way of putting it.
04:59He's like, you know, head over heels in love with Galinda.
05:02But I think a big part of the reason that he is, is that he's looking for communities, looking for where he belongs.
05:07And he kind of finds that actually.
05:09I mean, through following Galinda and his love for her, he actually finds this group of friends.
05:14And finds a really beautiful friend in Nessa.
05:16Michelle, what was the biggest challenge for you in Wicked?
05:19Because I saw something of you saying that you were nervous about singing.
05:24But you got it.
05:25Oh, thank you. I haven't seen it yet.
05:27So I'm going like, oh my God, I hope I don't sound terrible.
05:30It's very challenging because it's something that is not in my comfort zone.
05:34And when John offered me the role of Madame Morrible, I went, it's singing.
05:40She sings and I don't sing.
05:43But fortunately, I stood up to the challenge.
05:46And I'm eternally grateful for him, you know, presenting me with such a beautiful, amazing character to play.
05:54John, I was so impressed by the set design for Wicked.
05:57Yes.
05:58From the tulips, to the train, to live singing.
06:00So how does this realistic set translate on screen?
06:03I think in order to believe that the emotions are real, you have to believe the world is real.
06:07And I think that Wicked always challenged me to believe that this relationship was so true and so dear
06:13that it reminded you of your own relationships that maybe have passed and that were in high school or grade school.
06:18But they also left a handprint on your heart.
06:20And there was a real safe sense and a bubble, as it were, because of the fact that we were cocooned by these incredible sets.
06:26Was Dancing Through Life more challenging than the ballroom scenes?
06:29Good question.
06:31Those magical Fiero boots meant that, and it was a Paul Taswell magical boot, they sort of, they had a mind of their own.
06:37So actually, all I needed to do was to strap them up, which took about seven hours.
06:40But yeah, I would say that they both have their challenges.
06:43But yeah, Dancing Through Life for me will be the thing that I think I'll be very proud of for a long time.
06:48How was it like to see yourself all green for the first time?
06:51Oh, really emotional. Really emotional, because we had worked on all the details that we wanted to put on her
06:58and to make Elphaba and put her together.
07:01And when it all came together and it was exactly as we wanted, exactly as I wanted,
07:05it's just really wonderful to see her in the room, you know?
07:08All of a sudden she was there.
07:10Well, I had the privilege of peeking my head in when there were green tests.
07:15That's right, yeah.
07:16So there were many different versions of the green and of the freckles and of the contact lenses.
07:21And this is something that Cynthia was just like such an involved part of.
07:27And it was very important to her.
07:28As a purist.
07:29To find every right shade, every right shape.
07:33How was to apply and to remove all that green makeup?
07:37To remove it was about 45 minutes, but to put it on in the morning was about two and a quarter hours, roughly.
07:42But that was after one gets it down in time.
07:44But in the prep day she said, I really need to have green hands and be green to find my Elphaba every day.
07:51Ariana, you have seen Wicked as a child and this role has been your dreams ever since.
07:56So if you could speak to that little Ariana right now, what would you say to her?
08:00I would say many things. I would say we did it. We're still doing it.
08:04And oh my God. Holy shit. You've got it.
08:08You've got it?
08:09Yeah. What is happening? No, I would just say good work, kid.
08:12Talking about Glinda's outfit, because we first saw some images of her using blue, but now it's pink for real.
08:19So how was to decide the final version?
08:22Because I don't know if you know, but in Brazil, the Brazilian version of Wicked, Glinda wore pink too. All pink.
08:30I didn't know that.
08:31Yeah.
08:32It was inspired by the 1930s film of The Wizard of Oz.
08:37And I was going after the Glinda pink that Billy Burt wore.
08:43That gown was designed by Adrian.
08:46And I thought that it resonates for me as an icon for the world of Wicked or The Wizard of Oz.
08:55The world of Wicked, because they're familiar with the blue dress,
08:59it was a choice made because it was very important for Don to create a world that was original and new.
09:05How many costumes are in the movie? Do you have an idea?
09:08Costumes overall, thousands. Thousands and thousands.
09:11Counting all the cast?
09:13Yeah. We had days of 400 and 500 people on set. The Emerald City was a huge set.
09:21It's really impressive to see how many people were there, how many work you had.
09:26They were there for real, weren't they?
09:28They were there for real, which was really rare anymore.
09:31I mean, because Don didn't want to rely on CGI for those big crowd scenes.
09:35For Glinda and Elphaba, they had about 25 looks each over two films.
09:43We ended up making about 60, because we had multiples of the same costume.
09:50So a total would be about 60 costumes for Glinda and maybe 75 for Elphaba, because of all the flying.
09:57We needed more multiples for her.
09:59We were talking about Brazil, and now I have a picture to show you of Brazilian witches that we have.
10:04Brazilian witches?
10:05Our pop culture, yours of course.
10:07And I would like you to choose one of them to be part of the Wicked universe.
10:12Oh, this is great.
10:13Here is Morgana. She brews potions and she lives in a castle.
10:21Morgana.
10:23And here is Kuka. She kidnaps children and she has this alligator appearance.
10:33So which one do you choose? She's a professor maybe, I don't know.
10:38I like Kuka.
10:39I like Morgana.
10:40Okay, that's good. Then we have both.
10:42So we have both.
10:43I love them. My kids will love them.
10:46I know that green and pink are the colors of Elphaba and Glinda, but in Brazil they are the colors of a famous samba school called Mangueira.
10:54Oh, wow.
10:55I have a picture here.
10:56Oh my goodness.
10:57Yes.
10:58Cute.
10:59So what do you think about going to Brazil and being part of her carnival as Elphaba and Glinda?
11:03I would love.
11:04Already? Yes.
11:05I would love.
11:06Of course.
11:07As me.
11:08Who would be better?
11:09There's no better. There's just, you know, fabulousness all around.
11:12We just enjoy.
11:13She can dance and I would break my neck.
11:15You're so ridiculous perfect.
11:16This is like, you know, different kinds of celebration.
11:19Yes.
11:20I would thoroughly enjoy that.
11:21It's really beautiful.
11:22She could bring some Elfie out there. She could bring some, you know, Broken Neck out there.
11:26It'd be perfect.
11:27It's a perfect combination.
11:28I would absolutely love to go.
11:29Let's go right now.
11:30Actually.
11:31When is the carnival?
11:32Can we get a flight ticket actually?
11:33February.
11:34Okay, good to know.
11:35Yes.
11:36February.
11:37It's summer there.
11:38I've never been to Brazil.
11:39So you have to go and go to Mangueira.
11:40Amazing.
11:41That's the colors of Wicked.
11:42We were talking about this earlier.
11:43It's a perfect excuse to wear pink and green.
11:45Yes.
11:46Perfect.
11:47And not even excuse.
11:48I would go today if I could.
11:49So let's.
11:50Let's go.
11:51All right.
11:53Thank you guys so much.
11:54All right.