It would be difficult for Jon M. Chu to mount a film adaptation of Wicked without paying some tribute to the Broadway sensation’s original stars, Idina Menzel (as Elphaba) and Kristin Chenoweth (as Glinda). Those of you who have seen the new movie – and based on box office numbers, it’s a large number of people – know that Menzel and Chenoweth appear in Wicked in the third act, when Glinda and Elphaba leave Shiz University and arrive in the Emerald City. They are a huge part of the musical number “One Short Day.” But when we spoke with Chu, we learned that they had different plans for Menzel and Chenoweth, and they changed rapidly as the shoot went on.
Jon M. Chu appeared as a guest on CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, where he spoke about the film’s reception, and several elements of the filming of the Broadway musical. And when we brought up the cameo appearances of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, we talked about walking the complicated line of showcasing these talents, but not taking audience members out of the movie that they have shown up to see. As “wickedly” talented as Menzel and Chenoweth are, they have the ability of possibly stealing focus away from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, whose movie this very much is.
Jon M. Chu appeared as a guest on CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, where he spoke about the film’s reception, and several elements of the filming of the Broadway musical. And when we brought up the cameo appearances of Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, we talked about walking the complicated line of showcasing these talents, but not taking audience members out of the movie that they have shown up to see. As “wickedly” talented as Menzel and Chenoweth are, they have the ability of possibly stealing focus away from Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, whose movie this very much is.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00It's a tightrope that you have to walk to the placement
00:03and how you use them.
00:04I'm sort of curious how you came up with that perfect spot.
00:06Yeah, it was a tightrope that we all had to talk about
00:09a lot with Steven and Winnie as well,
00:11like where's the best place.
00:12And we had them as cameo roles at some point.
00:14Oh, maybe they're Galinda's parents
00:16or maybe they're this or that.
00:17And those were all fine and good.
00:19But every time we sort of thought about it more,
00:22it didn't feel like they're at the top
00:24of their game right now.
00:25They're not like some people who don't do it anymore.
00:28Like they are there.
00:29You want them to do their thing.
00:30And I always felt like as a fan myself,
00:33like if I see them in this movie,
00:34I'm gonna want them to do their thing.
00:36And so we had the section already of this Wizzomania.
00:40It wasn't exactly those words and it wasn't exactly,
00:42it was actually more of a ride that they go on.
00:46Wizzomania was gonna be this almost like a,
00:48it's a small world where you get into a boat
00:50and it takes you through the history of Oz.
00:53And it was gonna be a performance that happens around them
00:55and all this stuff and then send you back out
00:57to the wizard's palace.
00:59So we had that because we needed to set up
01:01what the show didn't have too much about
01:03that we had to do was set up the grimmery,
01:05why the wizard was here, what the prophecy is.
01:08Like we had a lot of information to give.
01:10And it was during those conversations
01:12that Steven and I were talking and I suggested,
01:16we have this section anyway,
01:17that's sort of outside of the narrative that we need to give.
01:21Maybe that's where you do it.
01:23So you can add a little sugar to the information.
01:25And he was like, give me one night.
01:27And he rewrote the whole thing as a performance
01:29for these girls and he did it.
01:31And it made, it was like so fun.
01:33And that's where it felt like, okay,
01:36this is a great moment of sort of a sendoff.
01:38But even in the edit, we debated it back and forth,
01:41like how much to give, how much to see them,
01:44plenty of shots where they bow, where they leave,
01:46where they wave goodbye and like how much is too much
01:49for the audience.
01:50And so we wavered back and forth a little bit
01:52and tried to find the right medium of that.
01:54I mean, that's somewhat in testing,
01:57but that's why I love the editing process too.
02:00Imagine being able to just say, give me one night
02:03and then coming back with that.
02:06And that one night was raining.
02:08So it's like pouring rain.
02:09We have this giant canopy over the stage,
02:13but it's raining everywhere else.
02:14Our cameras are under,
02:16our technical creative is under this canopy
02:18and we're trying not to get them wet.
02:19They have these beautiful outfits
02:20that if it gets wet a little bit,
02:22they're gonna drag and change
02:23and you have footsteps everywhere.
02:25So we're trying to keep everything dry
02:27so that you don't have footsteps and wetness.
02:29And it was, but we had one night and it was a magical night.
02:32Everyone was there and it was just
02:34one of those crying nights all night.