Jon M. Chu Almost Cast ‘No-Namers’ in ‘Wicked’: ‘It’s a Big Enough Property on Its Own’

Taking on as huge a property as “Wicked” meant juggling many balls in the air at the same time for director Jon M. Chu. Not only did he have to honor the original stage musical and its fans, but he also had to consider the cinematic legacy of “The Wizard of Oz” and how “Wicked” fits into it. He had to balance singing, dancing, spectacle, and emotional catharsis and knew whichever actresses he cast to take the reins of witches Elphaba and Glinda would have to do the same. As to not overshadow the material, Chu admitted in a recent interview with SFX Magazine that he initially considered casting unknowns in the part.

“I wanted to have a very clear slate coming into ‘Wicked,'” said Chu. “It’s a big enough property on its own, so we can discover two people. I was like, ‘We’re gonna find no-namers’. But then we got calls from all these great actresses who wanted to audition and we saw everybody, and they were all really great. Anyone could have done this role, except there were two people who were meant to do this role, for this particular movie at this particular time.”

Chu, of course, is speaking of pop sensation Ariana Grande and Tony-winning film and theater actress Cynthia Erivo. In elaborating on the casting process, Chu explained that landing on Grande and Erivo ultimately came down to their control over the music.

“What we found out when we were auditioning everyone, was that the songs are so important in this movie, and so emotionally important to this movie, that the person who’s doing it has to get into song and out of song so easily that it’s like butter, like you don’t even notice it,” he said. “That means having good chops in their skill set.”

In addition to Grande and Erivo, the film also features “Saturday Night Live” comedian Bowen Yang as a school friend named Pfannee. While chatting with IndieWire at the Las Culturistas Culture Awards this past summer, Yang expressed admiration for Chu and how he handled production on “Wicked.”

“My biggest lesson in working with Jon is that the scale of the movie has nothing to do with the intimacy of it — with what it’s trying to do, with the story that’s being told, at the end of the day, or just about the emotional environment of set,” Yang said. “Everyone was so taken care of. No one’s bigger than ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ No one’s bigger than Oz itself. Everyone was there completely humbled and Jon really didn’t push. He just kind of let that cultivate itself and I’m so lucky that I got to be minimally involved in it as I was. He’s such a good director and the scale doesn’t ever actually scale up with the word.”

Universal Pictures releases “Wicked” in theaters on November 22.