Ariana Grande is not that girl.
The Grammy winner, 31, isn’t looking to change the long beloved song “Popular” from “Wicked” despite being pitched a different and new version of the tune.
“In the spirit of being open to new things for the movie, my music team and I thought, let’s refresh the rhythm. Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit,” the film’s composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
“Ariana said, ‘Absolutely not, don’t do it. I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda.’”
Grande was adamant that her version of Glinda could not have any similarities to her own pop music career but Schwartz was trying to reimagine “Popular” for the movie.
The actress was also not convinced when it came to tweaking the end of “Popular.” The project switched up octaves during the finale of the song to take full advantage of Grande’s vocal range.
“I had this idea for a new vocal ending. Ariana was a little hesitant about it, but I told her that if I had thought of it for the original show, this is how it would have been,” Schwartz added. “Once she was reassured that this new bit of music was coming out of character, she was on board.”
“Wicked” director Jon M. Chi also told the Times that he first pitched going bigger for “Popular” when it came of its visual scale, but producer Mark Platt shot it down.
“I first had a version where Glinda and Elphaba go into her closet and get lost in this pink world where she turns a corner, and then another corner and another — like, how big is this closet?” the 45-year-old revealed. “But [producer] Marc [Platt] said, ‘I don’t know if we should go fantasy like that. Remember, Glinda doesn’t have magic, so it’s confusing.’”
“Okay, what if all the bags we’ve been seeing this whole time were actually her closet, and you just didn’t know it yet?” Chu continued. “So then it became an extremely huge technical feat to make this closet come to life — grown men in small spaces pulling doors and making things open at the right time, gadgets that unfold remotely with batteries and cords. That mirror is a very heavy piece of machinery, because it has to bend backwards so she can walk on it. That was always scary; even in rehearsals, I was always hesitant. If she steps on those lights, she cuts her foot.”
Meanwhile, fans have been in a frenzy over rumors that Grande was paid $15 million to star as Glinda the Good Witch in the two-part movie musical, while Erivo, 37, only got $1 million to play Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.
However, Universal Pictures denied the alleged $14 million pay gap on Tuesday.
“Reports of pay disparity between Cynthia and Ariana are completely false and based on internet fodder,” a spokesperson for the film studio said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.
Despite not revealing how much the pair were paid for the film, they added: “The women received equal pay for their work on ‘Wicked.’”
Erivo and Cythina continue to be thicks and thieves, even doing interviews together throughout the “Wicked” press tour to promote the movie.
“The crux of this particular piece is the relationship,” Erivo told E! News earlier this month. “If we couldn’t be there for each other as Cynthia and Ari, then how could we possibly be there for the characters Elphaba and Glinda?”
“I think that there’s something to be said for being able to make the space for a person who is going to share all that time with you,” she continued. “It allows for the experience of making something to be 100,000 times more pleasurable than it could be if you don’t. It serves us both to be that way for each other.”
And Ariana couldn’t agree more. “We really did the work to take care of each other onscreen and offscreen,” she chimed in. “We weren’t alone in anything, and it was a really beautiful thing. I think that trust and that love is important because not only does this story require it, but just being a good partner in that way.”
“Wicked” is out in theaters now.
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