Ariana Grande has earned her first Bafta and Oscar nominations in a role she was born to play. The Wicked star tells Screen that her approach to Galinda/Glinda was finding the dark amid the light.
Ariana Grande loves to do impressions. The global superstar may be best known for her Grammy award-winning music but impersonations of fellow divas Celine Dion and Britney Spears, as well as “comedic idol” Jennifer Coolidge, have earned her a fair share of praise too.
“I remember, even at a very young age, loving the feeling of making people laugh,” Grande tells Screen International. “I started doing a lot of stand-up for my grandparents when I was younger and I remember the impact that laughter had on me. It was a different kind of connection.”
Rather cosmically, her earliest impression was Judy Garland. It is one of the many full-circle moments that has brought the star to Wicked, Jon M Chu’s sprawling adaptation of the hit stage musical — and The Wizard Of Oz spin-off — which has surpassed $700m at the worldwide box office for Universal.
Far from an impersonation is Grande’s performance as Galinda (later known as Glinda), the angelic queen bee who forms an unlikely friendship with Cynthia Erivo’s outcast Elphaba. The role has earned her Oscar and Bafta nominations for best supporting actress, as well as a host of other accolades.
Swapping hats
The blockbuster marks Grande’s return to acting, having debuted on Broadway in 2008 with 13: The Musical and broken out on Nickelodeon series Victorious a few years later. Aside from the odd gig, including a small role in Adam McKay’s 2021 apocalyptic satire Don’t Look Up, she has since focused on music, with seven bestselling albums under her belt.
A year before an audition for Wicked had even been set, Grande began working with acting coach Nancy Banks to get back into shape. “She had me doing plays and monologues and all sorts of random assignments, just to make sure I was using all my tools, learning and stretching myself because it had been so long [since I’d acted],” she says.
“Auditioning was so important to me,” continues Grande, referring to the vigorous three-round process that got her the role. “That’s why I wanted to do as much work as I possibly could to show up for Glinda and for the auditions, because it had to be earned.”
Preparations, for both the auditions and the subsequent role, also included working closely with a voice coach to transform the singer’s vocal range. “I’ve always had a naturally high voice, but this required a different kind of training to be able to sing coloratura soprano,” she explains. “It’s a different roundness and warmth and vibrato. It took a long time for the muscles to adjust to that.”
For a self-described “theatre nerd”, it is no surprise Grande wanted to earn the role. The character of Glinda has been with her since a first experience of the stage show at 10 years old.
“I have always felt like Glinda the Good,” recalls the actress. “When I was a little girl, I loved her for one reason. Then, as I grew up, life kind of prepared me for her, and I was able to recognise the thing I love most about her is not the pink and the laughter and the high notes and all of this light — it’s her strength.”
Much has been made about the emotional press tour for Wicked, which has seen Grande and co-star Erivo shed many a tear in interviews, but this is nothing new for the actress, who grew up performing community theatre in Boca Raton, Florida. “Whenever a show wrapped, it was hard for me to let go of these families. I had a hard time saying goodbye to the characters and the show,” she recalls. “It was like a funeral every time.”
Her first experience on stage came at just eight years old when she played the eponymous role in a local production of Annie. “They couldn’t find a Molly [a younger orphan character] who was smaller than me so I could carry her to bed,” explains Grande, who stands at just over 5ft tall today. “I couldn’t be the mature caretaker Annie because I was so little. I had to just walk across the stage and pat her on the head instead.”
Balancing act
Grande was already playing around with the idea of improvisation as early as the auditions for Wicked, inspired from a young age by the likes of Saturday Night Live and Christopher Guest films. “It was kind of terrifying to do in an audition, but I took a couple of little risks just to see what [Chu’s] reaction would be,” she explains, referring to a slight change of word or different inflection. “He was like, ‘I love the differences. It’s so fun, and it’s still honest, and it’s still Glinda.’”
Every opportunity for comedic flare was matched by equivalent moments for Grande to flex the more serious and layered nuances of the character. “That’s the beauty of a character like Glinda,” she explains. “It is the dichotomy between the pain and insecurity that’s just beneath the surface with the desire to please and be liked, and make others laugh.”
It is a balance she has navigated throughout her career. “My coping mechanism has often been to make light of dark situations,” says Grande, alluding to the pop music on which she has built her name. “It often sounds fluffy and light but, when you look at the lyrics, it’s often a heartbreaking experience of mine that has been woven through these poppy, fluffy sounds.”
Under pressure
Grande is arguably one of the most recognisable faces in music for a certain generation. With an Instagram following upwards of 375 million people and a highly scrutinised personal life, the singer admits to a certain pressure to prove herself with Wicked. “I tried very hard to put my blinders on and just focus on the work, and not be online very much,” she explains, likening it to an episode of the AppleTV+ series Severance, of which she is a fan.
Wicked began production in late 2022 and wrapped in January 2025 after Screen Actors Guild strike delays. The only other pause for Grande came when she contracted Covid. Upon her return, she was set to film ‘Popular’ – a crucial moment for the singer and actress to set herself apart from all other iterations of the well-known hit.
“We had rehearsed it for months and months, it was pretty set in stone,” she explains, adding that an extended outro had not been part of the plan until they saw the hallway at Shiz University, courtesy of production designer Nathan Crowley. “We were like ‘We have to do something in this hallway. It’s so beautiful, [Crowely] fucking killed it! We have to show this thing off!”
The day before they were set to shoot, Grande, still suffering from a Covid hangover, was taught a new sequence, to accommodate the extended outro, that included parading along the hallway and bouncing off the walls. “No turning back now!” she remembers saying to herself.
The sequel Wicked: For Good is set for release this November — having shot back to back with Part One — and Grande hopes it is not the end of her new acting phase. “I would love to exist in this space for a while longer,” she says. “I love finding characters that make people feel seen and human. I’d love to continue on this road.”
The day before Screen’s interview, reports swirl online that Grande is being wooed to star in the Jennifer Aniston-produced remake of 9 To 5, alongside Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney. “Oh my god, I love all those women,” gushes Grande, seemingly unaware of the rumours. “I’d love to work with all of them, but I think it would be really cool if we worked on something original.”
As for further filmmakers and actors she might want to collaborate with, Grande is holding those cards close to her chest. “I have had some beautiful conversations with so many directors and creatives I really admire [since Wicked],” she reveals. “They say don’t meet your heroes, but I haven’t felt that yet.”
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