Nothing can pull Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo down.
The stars of Jon M. Chu‘s sweeping musical Wicked Part 1 showcased their signature powerhouse vocals in a new behind-the-scenes clip shared on social media of the climactic song “Defying Gravity.” While just 11 seconds long, the snippet of the duo’s pitch-perfect voices are sure to produce goosebumps for listeners.
“You two have swept us away🧹🫧,” the forthcoming film’s Instagram account commented underneath the post.
Shared alongside the snippet was a new featurette teasing scenes and musical moments from the play-turned-pic, as well as interviews with Chu and actors Grande, Erivo and Jonathan Bailey. The cast and director discussed the importance of ensuring live singing in place of dubbing.
“When we came into this movie, we weren’t sure how much we were gonna do live or not, but they are the best singers in the world and so, every scene, they have been singing live,” Chu said, as the video showed Grande’s vocal warm-ups, shots of the director guiding scenes and BTS imagery of Erivo on a flying harness.
Erivo added that singing live allowed her to be more connected to the lyrics and her co-star, while Grande said the decision was a “no-brainer.”
“What we’ve managed to do is immerse the audience because, effectively, our movie set is also a recording studio. So that raw and real emotion we are recording on set right now will be what you hear and experience in the theater,” Chu explained. “It was like the best concert you could have ever attended at the best seats in the house.”
Releasing Nov. 22 in theaters, the highly anticipated adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway production — itself adapted from Gregory Maguire’s bestselling novel, which retells the story of The Wizard of Oz from the point of view of the Wicked Witch of the West — follows Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda’s (Grande) prequel journey toward their destinies as evil and good witches, respectively. The all-star cast includes Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang and Peter Dinklage.
Watch the clip in full below: