Ariana Grande & Cynthia Erivo Throw Water on Pay Disparity Rumors
Between all the viral moments and memes now enshrined in the pop culture pantheon, one would expect the Wicked discourse to have withered by now. After all, it's been well over a month since the blockbuster's release. And yet, along the yellow brick road to the Oscars, it remains ripe for further dissection.
This month, its stars and director covered Variety and addressed at least two of the promotion cycle's most persistent rumors: that Grande and Erivo were paid vastly different sums, and Grande's apparent voice change.
When the film premiered in November, a number of unverified social media reports claimed Grande was paid as much as $15 million for her role as Glinda, while Erivo received just $1 million for portraying Elphaba. At the time, the film's distributor, Universal Pictures, flat-out denied the rumor. Now, Grande and Erivo have put a stop to any further speculation. Both stars claimed they determined their salaries in tandem.
“We went through our contracts together and called each other up,” Grande told Variety during the sit-down. "‘Did you see that? What do you think about that? Let’s get it together!’”
“We both went through it—‘What number are we doing? How do you feel about that?’ We were really fucking honest,” Erivo added. “And that’s really rare. People don’t do that.”
Wicked's director, Jon Chu, also contributed to the conversation, calling the production "modern."
“This is what Hollywood should reflect," he told Variety. "These are co-CEOs of ‘Wicked,’ Inc.” Witches and CEOs. How very modern, indeed!
As for Grande's transformation into Glinda—namely, her speaking voice—Grande pulled an Austin Butler and chalked it up to "disappearing" into her character. Even before Wicked's months-long press tour began, innumerable TikToks dissecting Grande's drastic tone shift and singing style for the role made the rounds.
“Maybe people underestimate how long we spent finding and disappearing into these women,” Grande said. “So when certain inflections or mannerisms take time to melt away, sometimes people poke fun. But we had a job to do, and we had things to get lost in—because that’s what the piece required.”
Daniel D'Addario, the journalist who interviewed Grande, Erivo, and Chu noted that even now, her speaking voice is striking in its reminiscence to "the swaggering crispness of a 1940s movie idol." When asked directly about it, Grande replied that it's simply a lingering result of intensive vocal work.
“I think that might stay,” she said. “Galinda required a lot of vocal work for me. Certain things maybe won’t melt away. Some will, but I’m really grateful for the pieces that will stay with us forever. What a beautiful thing to be left with, and to feel the ghost of every day.”
She then tacked on: “And, you know, I’m still looking for my eyebrows. I’ll let you know if I find them—I hope I don’t.”
She's right. It has been easy to poke fun. But hey, it worked for her and it clearly it worked for the millions who saw Wicked too.