Ariana Grande was “immediately obsessed” when she first saw the Munchkins on the Ivinghoe set of Wicked back in 2022.
‘She became obsessed immediately. He wanted his phone to take pictures of all of us,” recalled Ricardo Ludgero Souza, who plays a dancing Munchkin. TMZ On Wednesday.
‘The film uses CGI. So we had blue blocks everywhere to replicate for post-production. So we would sit and she would just come up to us and talk and try to take pictures.’
And while Victor Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard of Oz brought together more than a hundred little people to play Munchkins, director Jon M. Chu took a completely different approach.
“We really wanted to define the Munchkins as a culture, not a size or an appearance,” the 45-year-old filmmaker said at the BTS report.
Ariana Grande was ‘immediately obsessed’ when she first saw the Munchkins on the Ivinghoe set of Wicked back in 2022.
‘Oz is made up of many different types of people. They are a very agricultural culture. They are in charge of collecting the color of the tulip fields.’
31-year-old pop star Good Witch of the South’s character Glinda Upland travels to Munchkinland to break the news of the Wicked Witch of the West’s death and reveal her backstory in an opening number called No One Mourns. the Wicked.
‘There’s a scene where she uses her wand. We were trying to get a really precise camera angle. And it continued to be misunderstood,” recalls the 20-year-old Englishman.
“She would just start laughing and say, ‘Damn! I made a mistake! I was wrong!” And it’s really fun because you see the celebrity-likeness that you don’t see, like, face to face.
‘You don’t have normal conversations (to see) how human they are, really. And it was nice to see her turn a mistake into something so fun for everyone. And not just for herself.
Ricardo called Ariana “nice,” “well-spoken” and “beautiful” on set, gushing, “She had this nervous, excited energy that made us all excited to do what we were doing.” In reality, it was simply a musical theater fan’s joy.
Souza, who does cartwheels and backflips, concluded: “She’s literally turned into Glinda. There’s no other way to put it.
Grande’s real-life boyfriend (born in Butera), Ethan Slater, plays a Munchkin named Boq who attends Shiz University with Glinda, who eventually becomes the Woodsman, aka the Tin Man, in the big screen adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical.
Ricardo Ludgero Souza, who plays a dancing Munchkin, recalled to TMZ on Wednesday: “She became obsessed immediately. She wanted her phone to take pictures of all of us.
The 20-year-old Englishman continued: “We were sitting and she was just coming up to us and talking and trying to take photos.”
And while Victor Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard of Oz brought together more than a hundred little people to play Munchkins, director Jon M. Chu (M) took a completely different approach.
The 45-year-old filmmaker said in the BTS featurette: “We really wanted to define the Munchkins as a culture, not a size, not a look.”
Jon added: ‘Oz is made up of many different types of people. They are a very agricultural culture. They are in charge of collecting the color of the tulip fields.
The 31-year-old pop star’s character, the Good Witch of the South, Glinda Upland, travels to Munchkinland to break the news of the death of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Ricardo recalled: ‘There’s a scene where she uses her wand. We were trying to get a really precise camera angle. And she continued to misunderstand him.
Souza said: “She would start bursting out laughing, like, ‘Damn!’ I made a mistake! I was wrong!”… It was nice to see her turn a mistake into something so fun. Something for everyone. And not just for her.
The One Dance UK choreographer went on to talk about how Ariana was “nice”, “well-spoken” and “beautiful” on set: “She’s literally turned into Glinda.” There is no other way to say it’
Grande’s (born Butera) boyfriend Ethan Slater (right) in real life plays a Munchkin named Boq who attends Shiz University with Glinda, who eventually becomes the Woodsman, aka the Man of Tin, in the big screen adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical.
On Tuesday, Gold Derby reported that the two-time Grammy winner ‘now ranks among the five most likely supporting actress contenders’ for the 2025 Oscars due to her performance as Glinda.
The first part of Wicked hits US theaters on November 27, followed by the second part on November 26, 2025.
On Tuesday, golden derby reported that the two-time Grammy winner ‘now ranks among the five most likely supporting actress candidates’ for the 2025 Oscars due to her performance as Glinda.
The first part of Wicked hits US theaters on November 27, followed by the second part on November 26, 2025.
The $145 million-budgeted fantasy film also stars Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Peter Dinklage, Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum.
Last Friday, Ariana earned three nominations, including best pop vocal album for Eternal Sunshine, at the 67th annual Grammy Awards, which will air Feb. 2 on CBS.