In ‘Wicked,’ the Ozdust Ballroom Changes Everything — for Editor Myron Kerstein, Too

“Wicked,” Jon M. Chu’s maximalist “Oz” extravaganza, was full of tonal shifts to navigate for go-to editor and ACE-nominated Myron Kerstein. But that was part of its allure, along with picking the best performances of Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda to fit the tone.

“I love films that have a lot of tonal shifts,” Kerstein told IndieWire. “My first film with Jon was ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ and I loved how it started with a romantic comedy and, by the end, it’s like a big melodrama. But this was so much bigger.

The first thing Kerstein did was take a crash course in editing VFX-intensive movies with the aid of editor Wyatt Smith (“The Little Mermaid”). He learned about previs and postvis, talked to animators about world-building and creature work, and built a roll of selects reflecting the best acting performances, camera moves, and what moved him most emotionally in a given scene that supported the story. After building the selects, he started to edit the scene.

Cynthia Erivo in ‘Wicked‘Universal Pictures

An example was when Elphaba casts a spell on Chistery, the head monkey in the Wizard’s (Jeff Goldblum) palace, causing him to grow wings. Production VFX supervised by Pablo Helman of ILM, it took eight months to complete the scene. For Kerstein, it was like cutting a Universal horror film. He even recommended an emotional arc by prolonging the pain and then suggested that ILM transform 100 monkeys instead of 12, which got approved.

“All those things took a lot of experimentation about how much we should stay on the shot,” Kerstein said. “And then you don’t realize that there’s a whole army that’s been transformed. When this started to come together, I thought this is the best iconic moment I’ve ever been a part of.”

For the thrilling 20-minute “Defying Gravity” finale, in which Elphaba escapes Emerald City on her broom, the challenge was to emotionally build toward the cliffhanger. (“Wicked: Part 2” is set for a November 21, 2025, release.) “You have to make sure that you hold the audience tight when you’re starting and stopping the song,” Kerstein added. “Everything was on paper, but interweaving all of those set pieces with a song [sung by Cynthia on wires] wasn’t easy, whether you’re cross-cutting action with the monkey chase and the balloon chase, making the emotions sing between Elphaba and Glinda, or having Elphaba falling off the tower and seeing her younger self.”

Behind the scenes of ‘Wicked’Giles Keyte

But the sublime transformational moment between Elphaba and Glinda at the Ozdust Ballroom required no VFX heavy lifting. That’s when Elphaba proudly walks down the staircase in her witch hat and elegantly performs her eccentric dance. The classmates laugh and jeer, but Glinda, repaying Elphaba’s act of kindness, joins her in a wordless duet. It’s a surprising moment of acceptance that solidifies their friendship and spreads throughout the room.

Yet it was a challenge for Kerstein to cut Erivo’s performance because of the unusual way cinematographer Alice Brooks shot it. “I would get these 10-minute takes of Elphaba entering the scene [all the way] to leaving Ozdust,” Kerstein said. “So I had a mountain of dailies that every single take made me cry. And I’m like: How am I going to cut this?

“I had to figure out what the essence of the scene was,” he continued. “But one of the things I really loved was this notion of being seen and the shifting point of view. Everything from how we’re watching Elphaba come down those stairs to the crowd watching her is from Glinda’s point of view, to this moment where she claps her hand and all the sound goes away. None of that was scripted.”

Neither was the moment toward the end when Glinda wipes a tear from Elphaba’s face. It was about finding ways to make us feel uncomfortable, being one with Elphaba and the crowd at the same time. But wanting to go further inside Elphaba’s head, the editor muted the sound for a moment. This forced her point of view into the scene.

“I liked the idea of her taking some power and wanting to silence the room,” added Kerstein. “You think that she’s won in some way. But then they creep back in again, and the sound is unmuted. Then you realize that she just isn’t powerful enough, and then Glinda steps in.

“I think that gestalt makes you feel very emotional about how she wins them over totally, with the lead of Glinda,” Kerstein said. “And I think that’s how she won me over in those 10-minute takes.”

“Wicked” is now in theaters.