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Wicked Star Ariana Grande & Jimmy Fallon Recreate Viral Wizard of Oz Meme: "Her Sister Was a Witch!" (WATCH)
"SHE WORE A CROWN AND SHE CAME DOWN IN A BUBBLE!"
Things don't get more meta in the merry old land of Oz than Ariana Grande recreating the viral "THE WICKED WITCH OF THE EAST, BRO!" meme ahead of Wicked's theatrical opening next weekend.
Grande, who plays Glinda the Good in the long-awaited film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, lip-synched to the famous YouTube video (watch it here) — which depicts a heated debate regarding Glinda's relationship to the Wicked Witches of the East and West — alongside Jimmy Fallon during a guest appearance on The Tonight Show Thursday evening.
RELATED: Wicked's Cynthia Erivo Whistles Gorgeous, Haunting Version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (WATCH)
The bellicose individual in the original 2018 video, a guy named Matt, actually doubled down on his position on a Season 10 episode of Tosh.0, refusing to budge on the ill-fated argument that Glinda is a princess and not a witch.
Ariana Grande says she had two "heart attacks" after joining Wicked movie
As we reported previously, Grande actively lobbied for the role of Glinda as soon as she "caught whispers" that Hollywood had begun to set its sights on a big screen translation of Wicked. "I started to mentally prepare myself and my team," she told Fallon last night (see the video above). "I just told them, 'If this is really happening and if they are gonna start seeing people for it, I want to be so prepared. I want to take all of the acting lessons, all of the singing lessons; I want to train my voice to become coloratura soprano, legit opera. I have to honor this the way that it requires.'"
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She continued: "I tried to prepare myself mentally going into it, knowing that, 'Listen, this is going to end up where it's meant to end up. And as a fan of it, I have to trust that and know that it's gonna go where it's supposed to go. But in the meantime, I'm gonna do every damn thing I can to prepare myself for this and to get the chance.'"
Following several auditions (the first one took place in August 2021), Grande finally landed the role. "When they called me to tell me I had the part, I had one heart attack. Then they told me that I was going to be playing opposite Cynthia Erivo [Elphaba] and that was the second heart attack ... I've just been such a fan of hers for such a long time. She's so extraordinary. Getting to play opposite her and also become true sisters with her has been such a beautiful experience. I'm so grateful that it was us."
What is Wicked about?
Based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, the Broadway musical and its two-part film adaptation imagines a Wizard of Oz prequel centered around the green-skinned Elphaba, the eventual Wicked Witch of the West. Before that though, she's a talented student at Shiz University, where she rooms with the popular Glinda. Things start to go downhill once Elphaba travels to the Emerald City and meets the so-called Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), who may not be as "wonderful" as we once thought.
Wicked exclusively hits the big screen next Friday — November 22. Pick up tickets here! Wicked Part Two drops a year later, November 21, 2025.
