In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and senior editor Vinnie Mancuso for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
For most performers, the chance to audition for the film adaptation of “Wicked” would be a singular dream-come-true moment. For Tony, Grammy, and Emmy winner Cynthia Erivo, it was one of two life-changing opportunities over a 48-hour period. “That evening [before the audition], I also had to go into Disney Hall because I had a concert with [LA Philharmonic music and artistic director] Gustavo Dudamel. I was the headline of the concert,” she tells us. “I remember thinking: I’ve got to finish this and get out of the building fast. Because I need to get home and go over what I’m going to be doing the next day.”
Erivo, of course, crushed both performances. She plays Elphaba in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked: Part I,” in theaters Nov. 22. (“Wicked: Part II” debuts Nov. 21, 2025.) Also starring Ariana Grande as Galinda and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, the “Wicked” films—based on Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s hit Broadway musical, which was adapted from the novel by Gregory Maguire—tells the story of the green-skinned Elphaba, who will eventually be better known as the Wicked Witch of the West in Victor Fleming’s “The Wizard of Oz.”
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Erivo describes chemistry as “a two-way street” between actors.
“Ariana and I had chemistry when we met each other, in that it was really easy to speak to one another. There’s a click; you find a common ground, and it becomes easy to have conversation. That is a chemistry in itself, and then the choice is yours about whether or not you build on that chemistry. What we went from was having chemistry to being friends to being in relationship with one another, which allows for the chemistry of the characters to come through. But there’s a difference between having chemistry onscreen and being friends, knowing each other, and being able to translate that through the characters. And that meant that we had to make the space really safe for each other to actually exist.
I actually think that chemistry also comes from a willingness to listen…and [being] open to what you might get from that person. People joke about the fact that Jon Bailey can have chemistry with anyone, but it’s because he’s deeply willing to be available. I can say that because I’ve had to work with him in that capacity…. It has to be a two-way street. He’s able to have really beautiful chemistry with people because people are also willing to be open to what he has to offer, and he’s also willing to offer that back, which I think is marvelous. He has the wonderful ability of making whoever he is in front of feel really safe and seen. I can say for myself that he also cares for you afterwards. That’s the same for Ari and I. We care for each other before, during, and after. So the chemistry doesn’t just live on the screen; it grows and goes beyond that.”
Courtesy Universal Pictures
She finds singing to be a true test of a performer’s vulnerability.
“To sing is one of the most vulnerable acts you can commit, because you are opening yourself up to judgment. I think the best of us will do it and have to tell the truth at the same time. So you’re exposing yourself in a way that you don’t necessarily have to when you speak. If you meet an arrogant person and you ask them to sing, you’ll quickly reveal that arrogance is a veneer for their insecurity. It’s such an exposing place to be when you have to sing in front of people.
Now, I think that when you have to find someone to sing with, the reason it’s intimate is because both of you have to come together to do a vulnerable thing; and whilst you’re doing that vulnerable thing, you also have to be willing to listen and hear the other person in order to make a harmonious sound. The intimacy that is shared between two singers, when it works, is an agreement, silent or otherwise, that says: I’m going to listen to you, because I know you’re going to listen to me. There’s always a beautiful ebb and flow, like a dance. That’s really intimate to me. It’s what a relationship is.”
The actor believes there’s power in the decision to split “Wicked” into two films.
“I think it will sit a little differently with people, but I’m hoping it holds the same gravity. I honestly, truly believe that it’s very right to finish it there. We really expanded this first act; and so to allow people to just go home, come back [in a year], it allows us, in real time, to grow with these characters. These characters come back and they’re grown. They grow up. So I think that’s why you need to go away. I’m going away, and there’s going to be some time before we come back. And when we do, there’s going to have been some time that’s been lived by these characters when they come back to the table, which I think is kind of wonderful.”