Ariana Grande Had to ‘Pitch’ Lorne Michaels to Allow Bowen Yang to Be in ‘Wicked’

Just call her the casting queen: Ariana Grande had to almost literally cast a spell for Bowen Yang to join “Wicked.”

Grande said during Yang’s “Las Culturistas” podcast that she had to personally pitch “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels to allow Yang to film the musical adaptation while on the weekly sketch series. Yang had to fly back and forth between the “Wicked” production in London to the New York City based show.

“I was so, so over-the-moon excited that you were going to be able to do it. I called Lorne [Michaels],” Grande said to Yang. “Well, because I knew that it was a huge, massive ask and also, probably an impossible one. And I didn’t have anything — any sort of resolution to pitch him.”

She added that Michaels “made it work” for Yang, to which Yang said, “It’s the only time that I’ve ever pulled, like, a pouty face in front of him, to be like, ‘I really wanna do this.’ And then he was like, ‘OK.'”

Yang previously told Vanity Fair that it was “mentally fraying” to be part of both the series and the feature simultaneously.

“Whatever you think about the situation, however, you think it’s unique to you, however, you think you might be the exception to the rule, Lorne is here to be like, ‘Actually, it might not be so good on the body for you to fly back and forth between New York and London to go shoot a movie,’” Bowen said. “[It] was an incredible experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I really thought I could hack it. I was like, OK, I’ve got my nootropic gels that I’m going to suck on the airplane, and I’m going to take my little CBD potions that are going to help me fall asleep and get over the jet lag. I had all these things in the armory, and then none of it really could beat back that tide.”

He added, “It really did get to me just on a somatic level — I was just like, wow, my body is refusing to lift an arm, or whatever. It really got to that point that was a little mentally fraying. It was a tough summer, just between the strikes and the constant bouncing back and forth.”