'Wicked' director Jon Chu on Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and his favorite songs from the musical

"Wicked" has just released the trailer for the movie starring Ariana Grande (Glinda) and Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba) and it's magical, delightful, and spell-binding all at once.

Directed by Jon Chu, the film adaption of the beloved Broadway musical will be a two-part presentation, with the first movie hitting theaters in November.

"Wicked" also stars Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard. 

In this exclusive, Jon Chu talks to GMA News Online about seeing the musical before it even hit Broadway, choosing to build expansive elaborate sets instead of relying on CGI, and working with Ariana and Cynthia.

It has been edited for clarity and length.

Could you tell us about your experience of seeing Wicked for the first time? 

This was in 2002 I think, I was 22, 21 maybe. It was in San Francisco; they hadn't gone to Broadway yet. My mom invited — we used to go all the time to the city to watch musicals and my mom was like 'come back, there's a new musical by Steven Schwartz! And it's based off 'Wizard of Oz!'"

And I remember having this great night with my mom, which I hadn't had in a long time and remembering, like, this musical feels like a movie more than any musical I've ever seen. And whoever gets to do this as a movie one day is so, so lucky.

And it's always left an impression on me, specifically about leaving friendships. I was just in college and was leaving a lot of friendships from high school. I was changing as a human being, finding my own identity. There were a lot of goodbyes, and a lot of change and I think that was so powerful about watching the show. It sort of healed me, saying 'it's ok to change' and 'it's going to be ok.' And that's what I think the world needs now more than ever.

Was that the experience that made you say, this should be in the big screen?

100% I didn't ever think I would get that opportunity. I wasn't even close to having the ability to get it. And then for 10-15 years, I would call Mark Platt of Universal and say 'Hey, do you guys have a director still for this 'cause when are you guys gonna make it? I think I have the right take.' They never took my meeting 

I knew Mark Platt but 'Wicked' was way up there. It was only in the last couple of years did I get the phone call from them, saying 'OK here's your opportunity. Tell us what you think.' And I got to tell them what I thought what "Wicked" should be and got the job.

How easy or difficult was it to adapt "Wicked" from stage to film?

It wasn't easy. I mean, to translate from a show to a movie is very difficult. It's two different mediums, the show was very self-conscious of the audience. They would refer to the audience, they would wink to the audience, and it's really hard to do that in a movie, especially one that's emotionally driven but I think we found the right balance.

It feels like the show but with made it with some adjustments. Of course, you have Cynthia Erivo and Ariana grande who are amazing and are gonna shock the world. I think people who don't know how good of an actor Ariana grande is because they've never seen her lead a movie like this and she just throws herself completely into it.

When you watch it, you forget it's Ariana Grande. It's Glinda. And when you watch Cynthia, you see a vulnerability you've never seen.

Both those voices, live in their singing, is just magnificent 

Is it true you didn't rely on excessive CGI, choosing to build elaborate sets instead?

We have great partners. We did build a 16-ton train that moves on a railroad. We did grow 9 million tulips. When the studios was like, 'Why not just CGI the flowers?' I was like, 'no, we wanna feel the dirt and the sand of OZ.' Give the audience an experience of cinema.

You're so lucky you were allowed and given the budget.

I'm not sure they allowed us. I think we just did it. I think we told them 'we already planted the tulips, sorry.' We just kept doing that, which was great.

Looking back, how difficult was it to direct? Are you regretting any of your choices?

No. Every day of this has been a pleasure. It is a dream project of my life. We have a dream crew, craftsmen and women who built the sets, and who have generations under their belts.

"Wicked" is a big known musical. Everyone's here because they want to be here. It's not just a job to people and I think we're serving joy and optimism and healing to a world that needs it right now.

I'm so proud and honored to be in this position and deliver that for an audience that needs that around the world.

You clearly came with a vision — which part was most difficult to translate from theater to film?

Part of it is the tone, because it's a funny show. It's a really, funny comedic show. But it's also very intimate and emotional.

And so for us, the most difficult was finding an Elphaba and Glinda that could walk that fine line, that could be funny and broad but at a turn of a dime, could be vulnerable and could be raw and yearning.

And the switch to music and dance and also make that feel honest and not just a show but make it feel like it's part of their dialogue. 

You have two masters of their craft — singing and movement— and you have to have masters of the craft of acting. And then you have to be on the same page of what movie you wanna make, and that the chemistry works in that way.

If we didn't find those two women, we couldn't make this movie and we would've walked away. But we knew that from the very beginning, and we're very lucky we're in that era of Ariana grande and Cynthia Erivo.

Earlier you mentioned having to adjust some of the songs.

We didn't remove any songs, not to my memory. Every song had to earn its way into the movie. There are updates but we wanted to feel classic. I didn't want to do the hiphop version of Wicked or the pop version of Wicked.

This is true to its classic, timeless nature. The song "Popular" should feel like "Popular." That said, we gave some new energy — "Defying Gravity" is just epic. It feels like not just like an orchestra in the pit but like an orchestra in the stadium. It's soaring, live in the wires. When we paint the wires out, and her cape is going — it's just not possible on the stage.        

When she's singing "Dancing Through Life" and we have this giant library and the shelves are in a circle and so they turn and the dancers are in this turning thing, it's almost crazy and it's almost anti-gravity because they're singing with books and jumping with books. That was just so fun. You can't do that on the stage. It was nuts.

When you make a movie at this scale, there's a responsibility to make it feel like it's on that scale. And you put "Wicked" on top on that. You have a responsibility to the fans to make sure it is the show they imagined in their heads. And for the people who don't know "Wicked" at all, that you're bringing them into a world they haven't experienced it before. How can you not enjoy that? 

Was there a song you first overlooked when you saw the musical that became a favorite now? 

That's tough because all the songs are great. "What is this feeling?" I loved in the show but it was very straightforward. What we discovered in our conversations with the actors is it's a more interesting complicated idea. They're singing the word "loathing" — they hate each other — some people even name the song "oathing. 

But what we realized is "What is This Feeling'" is not about loathing at all. It's actually about hating the person who's gonna change the rest of your life. The person that's gonna change you — you hate that person because nobody ever wants to change. 

So this is actually a song about destiny. It's a song about love, even though it's about hate. And so, you have to get a sense that each of them has something the other doesn't have, that the other needs. 

It's like the meet-cute of a romantic comedy. Like 'those two deserve each other even if they hate each other.' That kind of stuff was really fun.

 

 

 

 

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Do you have a favorite "Wicked" song?

"Defying Gravity" and for the movie, I was very scared because you want to see her flying but those words are so potent. Every word she says: "Something has changed within me/something is not the same." Or when she says, "and nobody in all of Oz/No wizard that there is or was/Is ever gonna bring me down."

You wanna see her singing that but it's a movie, so you also want to see her fly. So finding when she flies, we give priority to the scope, and when we give priority to her face to say the words. That was really tricky.

We had to give extra room in the song because we didn't want to compromise. I had to give it all and do more. And she's in this harness and she's singing and what we found was the flying had to be as powerful as the singing itself. It had to be the further expression of the words otherwise, why watch it?

We had to find the language of flying. It wasn't just a stunt. 

Of course Cynthia had to do all that, so we also had to learn from Cynthia what her moves were. How does the witch move? And she's doing all her stunts and all her live singing. We had to work very closely together to needle and sow together.

The movie comes in two parts. Is it going to be like first act, intermission, second act?

We tried not to make it feel like an intermission. We really tried, when we split it, we said if we're going to do that, each one has to feel like a complete movie that are connected. I didn't want people leaving the first movie feeling not emotionally satisfied. That was very important to us.

And I think we pulled it off that by the end, you feel like you've been waiting for that the whole movie. I've never made a movie where the energy just accelerates into the atmosphere. But that's what it feels like. 

— GMA Integrated News