The promotion for Wicked – For Good has begun in earnest. Thankfully, the publicity team seems to understand that they probably went way overboard last year, because it genuinely feels like Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have not been everywhere 24-7 for months now. The sequel comes out on November 21st. I’m assuming, then, we’re just getting a more traditional three-week promotional blitz. Fine with me. Ariana skipped the Brazilian premiere last week, but on Friday, she showed up for the Paris premiere. Ari is being styled by Law Roach these days, and Law found a vintage Lili’s Diamond dress from 1950 for Ariana.

Meanwhile, the NY Times recently profiled Ariana ahead of the Wicked sequel’s release, and she comes across really well here. I’m still amazed by all of this, btw. Ariana and Cynthia Erivo both seemed like such tricky customers, but there was something about these movies which allowed both of them to get a mulligan and completely remake their images. Even better, it genuinely seems like Cynthia and Ari care about each other and have a real friendship. Anyway, this Times piece says that Ari’s Glinda is more central to the sequel, and it’s more of her story than Elphaba’s. Some quotes from Ari:

Ari can’t wait for people to see this one: “I have been quietly very eager this whole time for people to see the rest of her journey because she has a big arc in the first movie, and it’s just that much bigger in the second one,” Grande said.

She really had to become an actress: “I don’t know that the projects I have acted in before required the range or the skill set that this one did. I was on children’s television and then swept away by pop music for a long time, then I landed this extraordinary role and I wanted to earn it.”

She studied the Stella Adler acting technique: “This is my first time talking about it. I just wanted to design this person inside and out, even if none of it was necessary for a scene, so that I could reference it for myself and leave my own stuff at home. So every time something had to trigger Glinda, it was a Glinda trigger that I used, not an Ariana one.”

Wanting to step into her own power & charisma: “I’m sort of working through that as well, the permission to step into your own magic. It’s so funny because in my work, I’ve always given myself that permission to kindly and lovingly ask for what I need. But when it comes to my real life, that is where I don’t know how. It’s been a work in progress for years.”

Going back to pop music and touring: “There was something broken about my relationship to pop music that was healed recently through the time away,” she said. When I asked what exactly it was about her pop career that needed mending, Grande laughed softly: “How much more time do we have?” Then she paused for a long time, her composure slipping. “I think it got away from me in a way I didn’t expect,” Grande said, tearing up. “There’s a thing that comes along with your dreams coming true that feels dangerous at times. Nothing prepares you for what comes with it. Until quite recently, it was really hard for me to navigate and I think it stripped a lot of joy out of this for me.”

Firing Scooter Braun: “And by the way, I have a different team now,” she said, alluding to her split from longtime manager Scooter Braun. “Said with love, but that was a piece.”

[From The NY Times]

She left Scooter Braun when all of his other clients left too, like Justin Bieber. For Ariana, it felt like she had outgrown him, or she needed someone to manage every part of her image, life and career, which Scooter wasn’t really doing (or he was doing it badly). Ariana’s affair with Spongebob (Ethan Slater) highlighted that dysfunction – at a moment when she needed serious crisis management, Scooter was in the wind. As for the rest of it… everyone says that Ariana wants another Oscar nomination, or maybe the Oscar itself. I don’t know. She impressed me in the first movie, but I wonder if she will get much awards buzz for the sequel.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.