If you’ve been following Ariana Grande’s Wicked journey, you might have noticed an extra touch of nostalgia: she’s chosen to go by her full name, Ariana Grande-Butera, in the movie credits.
In a recent interview, Grande explained why honouring her full name for this role felt especially important. Describing the experience as a kind of “homecoming”, Grande revealed how playing Glinda brought her back to her roots, connecting her to her younger self.
…”It Felt Really Full Circle”
“I just feel like this experience was such a homecoming for me,” she shared. “I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways through what I learned from Glinda [and] from Elphaba. [Ariana Grande-Butera] was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old, and it felt like a really lovely way of honouring that. It felt really full circle, and it just felt like something I wanted to do.”
This emotional connection came full circle when she landed the coveted role of Glinda, a character she has loved since she first discovered the world of Oz. In previous interviews, Grande has called the day she was cast as Glinda “the best day of [her] life”. Her dedication to the role runs so deep that she even has a tattoo of The Good Witch on her hand.
“I Had to Completely Erase Pop Star Ari”
Her decision to be credited with her full name also highlights the transformation she underwent to embody Glinda. As Grande shared in another interview, taking on such a role required her to separate herself from her well-established pop star persona entirely.
“I trained every single day to prove to [Wicked producers] that I could handle taking on this other person,” Grande revealed. “I had to completely erase pop star Ari, the person they know so well, because it’s harder to believe someone as someone else because they’re so branded as one thing. Had to really go all the way to strip that down.”
Wicked hits cinemas on November 21. You can grab your tickets here.
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