(Adnkronos) - “Abbiamo bisogno di ‘Wicked’, spero che chi lo guarderà possa chiedersi ‘come posso essere un amico o un’amica migliore? Come posso diventare più buono o più empatico? Come posso mettermi nei panni degli altri? In un mondo così polarizzato l’amicizia, femminile o no, e l’amore rappresentano un mezzo necessario per sopravvivere alla devastazione generale. E lo è da sempre”, infatti, “‘Wicked’ è uscito 21 anni fa e mi è sembrato incredibilmente attuale, così come ‘Il mago di Oz’”. A dirlo all’Adnkronos è Ariana Grande, interprete di Glinda, protagonista dell’adattamento di uno dei musical di maggior successo - scritto da Winnie Holzman e Stephen Schwartz, che ha debuttato a Broadway nel 2003 - insieme a Cynthia Erivo, interprete di Elphaba. Il film racconta l’amicizia tra le due, prima di diventare rispettivamente la strega buona del Sud e la strega cattiva dell’Ovest. Tutto ha inizio quando Glinda si iscrive alla prestigiosa Università Shiz con la speranza di studiare stregoneria con la celebre Madame Morrible (qui con il volto di Michelle Yeoh). L’attenzione della professoressa è tutta su Elphaba, che si è recata all’ateneo solo per accompagnare la sorella disabile Nessarose. Per una serie di eventi, Elphaba e Glinda sono costrette a diventare coinquiline: tra le due nasce subito una forte antipatia, esasperata dalla grande popolarità di Glinda e le discriminazioni che Elphaba subisce per via del colore della sua pelle verde. Per il regista Jon M. Chu (già alla regia di ‘Now you see me 2’, ‘Crazy & Rich’, ‘Sognando a New York – In the Heights’ e ‘Wicked: Part 2’) “stiamo attraversando grandi cambiamenti. Quando siamo bambini ci dicono che tutto è bello e buono, ma crescendo capiamo che la strada per un mondo migliore è affrontarci e ascoltarci. Un film come ‘Wicked’ ci incoraggia a superare qualsiasi cosa se impariamo ad abbracciare se stessi e la propria unicità per unirci agli altri”.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In the movie, Glinda sings about how to be popular.
00:05What does it mean to you to be popular?
00:10What does it mean to me to be popular?
00:12I don't know, it's quite an interesting thing.
00:16It's kind of like, what do you do with it?
00:19And I think with Glinda, she's learning in real time
00:22what she wants to do with it, too.
00:25I think what she wants becomes a lot clearer throughout the two films.
00:33I think she starts as someone who wants to be liked,
00:36who wants to be powerful, and just, you know,
00:40she's discovering what that means.
00:42And I think through meeting Ella, it changes abruptly.
00:46And she does become someone who deeply wants to do good with that power.
00:51And I think we'll see how that continues to evolve over the next film, of course.
00:56But I think for me, it's about what I do with it, really.
00:59Just kind of hoping that your work will make people feel good
01:04and that you'll be able to kind of inspire goodness,
01:09not to sound like Glinda.
01:10But yeah, I guess it's what you do with it to me.
01:15Do you think that with social media, popularity has become an obsession?
01:22I do. I do.
01:24I think it's kind of a slippery slope, social media.
01:29It's hard to keep people safe sometimes.
01:34It depends where you look.
01:35But I really like it as a tool to be able to connect with my fans.
01:42So I kind of live on both sides of the street with that one.
01:46I'm aware of the dangers, but I'm also kind of grateful for it
01:50because it is a tool to connect with others
01:52and to share what you think is important or silly and make people laugh.
01:58But yeah, I do think it's a slippery slope.
02:01Absolutely.
02:02I think that I love, it's crazy how prophetic this musical has been
02:08because even just talking about not just the politics of it,
02:11about breaking the story that was told to us,
02:13but also popularity, being an influencer, how tempting that can be
02:19and how actually every kid in the world now has the power in their hands
02:23to become the most popular kid in the world.
02:26And what kind of incentives does that give us as we grow up,
02:29as we're developing our priorities in the world that,
02:33oh, people liking you, people approving you,
02:36is something that is so important to everybody.
02:39And I feel like a story like this, especially with Glinda,
02:43that at some point, yes, that is a powerful, that's her magic,
02:46even though she doesn't have magic back, that is a very powerful magic,
02:49that there's a responsibility with that magic as well,
02:51that it's not just fun and games,
02:53that the empathy that we have instinctually in us
02:57needs to play out in this sort of artificial idea of acceptance
03:01and seeing each other that we actually have to start,
03:04whether it's putting the phones down or using storytelling
03:08and cameras and music to bring us together.
03:12It's what all the greats have done in the past.
03:14And now I think if we can realize that that's the power we have in hand,
03:19I think we'll have a better future.
03:21Wicked invites us to fight who we are.
03:25When did you first defy gravity?
03:29Oh my goodness.
03:32I think I see little glimmers of defying gravity
03:40in little pieces of art that I'm able to create along the way.
03:43I think with music and with making Wicked,
03:47certain moments have felt like such levity in my life.
03:51And I think art, art makes me feel a little bit of that float.
04:00Oh my, that's a question.
04:04The first time, I don't know, that was hard.
04:07I remember the first time that I,
04:13we were doing a haunted house in our sixth grade
04:16and the sixth graders usually design that
04:18and we all get together and the parents came in and said,
04:21okay, sixth graders, you're doing it for all the other grades.
04:23What is it?
04:24And nobody raised their hands.
04:26But I had secretly written down what I loved about a haunted house,
04:29what I would love to see.
04:30And I made a whole map and everything.
04:31And so I raised my hand and I went up on the board
04:34and I drew what I thought it could be.
04:36And everybody was so excited about that.
04:39And a couple weeks later, we built it.
04:41And that was the first time that I realized
04:43like people want leadership.
04:45People are looking for people with vision.
04:47People are looking for people with big dreams.
04:49And that's an important part of growing up.
04:51I was very lucky to be at such a young age
04:53to feel the empowerment that that can give you.
04:56And I hope that for everybody else
04:57because everyone has that ability and power to do.
05:00Maybe we're just scared about what people will think.
05:02But I think that was the starting point of my storytelling
05:07and seeing that.
05:08Some movies have a saving power.
05:11Why do we need Wicked right now?
05:15I think we need Wicked for the questions that it asks,
05:21which I hope that when people leave this film,
05:24they go home and they kind of can look in the mirror
05:26and have that reflective moment.
05:29And how can I be a better friend?
05:31How can I become more good?
05:35How can I become more empathetic?
05:37How can I put myself in Elphaba's shoes?
05:40How can I be a better ally, a better friend, a better sister?
05:44I think we need it because of the themes of female friendship
05:48and platonic love and how important that is
05:51as a means of survival when the world is
05:53in such a polarized place.
05:55And I think that's how we survive
06:00and have always survived these dark times.
06:04When Wicked came out 21 years ago,
06:06it felt incredibly timely.
06:08When The Wizard of Oz came out, it felt incredibly timely.
06:11And I think it's because that's how we survive devastation,
06:19is with love and friendship.
06:21And I think that's why it's important.