Wicked star Kristin Chenoweth shot back at the conservative Christian group One Million Moms (OMM) for encouraging people to boycott the new film due to its “LGBTQ agenda.”
“Everyone knows the ‘one million Moms’ are a mere few hundred. Maybe,” Chenoweth wrote in an Instagram comment on an article covering the boycott, along with an eye roll emoji.
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“It’s called entertainment. Artistry,” she continued. “I am a Christian woman or originated the role of Glinda and all the silliness that these women spew out of hate. No no no. I can’t help it : i try to love em anyways. For they don’t get it. For anyone who wants to see girl power, then go so WICKED. Onstage or in a movie theater.”
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OMM posted its anti-Wicked petition earlier this month asking supporters to send the following message to the film’s distributor, Universal Pictures: “I disagree with the LGBTQ agenda you are pushing on families in the film Wicked. My family and I will not watch this film. Universal has left conservative and Christian families with no choice but to avoid Wicked since it goes against our beliefs and values. My family will not support Universal Pictures; you have lost our trust.”
On its website, OMM takes issue with the “tremendous amount of witchcraft and sorcery” in the film — a revisionist origin story of The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West — making the somewhat odd claim that such content would prompt “most parents to avoid taking their children to see Wicked.”
But for those who may not be quite right-minded enough to shield their precious kiddos from cinematic depictions of witchery, OMM also warns of “not-so-discrete crossdressing and men crushing on men” in the film.
Worse still, according to the organization, “Four of the film’s main characters are openly queer or gay in real life, or at the minimum, these actors have spoken about their queer experiences.” Presumably, OMM means four of the film’s stars; while Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, and Marissa Bode are all openly queer, Wicked features exactly zero explicitly queer characters.
“As such, the queer representation and visibility in Wicked: Part One were important to them,” the petition continues of the film’s stars. “Obviously, this part of the movie is a nod to inclusivity, along with a blatant attempt by Universal to normalize same-sex crushes.”
And OMM may actually have us there. The film’s stars have definitely spoken about Wicked’s queer subtext — particularly Erivo and co-star Ariana Grande, herself a vocal LGBTQ+ ally.
“Every day in the Emerald City is a Pride parade,” Grande said in one recent interview, in which she also suggested that her character “might be a little in the closet.”
Chenoweth originated the role of Glinda on Broadway alongside Idina Menzel, the original Elphaba. Both actresses made surprise cameos in the film.
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