Cynthia Erivo is opening up about her first taste of Wicked.
The actress, who plays Elphaba in the upcoming film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, appeared on the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, Nov. 13, and shared her experience auditioning for the role.
Erivo, 37, revealed her audition was three hours, prompting Fallon, 50, to ask, “Three hours? Were you exhausted?”
“Oh, I was very ill by the end of it,” she replied. “I was in bed for the next week, for like four days, with 104 fever.”
It was an exceptionally big weekend for Erivo. The night before her audition, she had performed at Disney Hall.
Ariana Grande, Erivo’s costar who plays Glinda in the film, said she prepared for six months to audition for Wicked. In an interview on Amazon Music’s Zach Sang Showthe “Positions” singer said she was simply excited at the opportunity.
“Since I was 20, I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know when this is happening, but when it’s happening, may I please at least just audition?’ That’s all I wanted, was an audition,” Grande, 31, said. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
Her preparation included daily acting and voice lessons, she said.
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Erivo and Grande didn’t know each other until they were cast together, Erivo told Fallon. But there was “instant chemistry” between them. Erivo even invited Grande over to her house, and they just sat on the floor, talked and quickly became friends.
“It was very easy. It was very easy,” Erivo said of the first stages of her friendship with Grande.
They first sang together at a dinner with Jon M. Chu, the film’s director, and Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist. Schwartz sat at the piano while Erivo and Grande sang a duet of “For Good.”
“And our voices worked,” Erivo said. “And that was like magic.”
