US actress and pop star Ariana Grande said spending time with her Wicked co-star Cynthia Erivo and morphing into a character who "believes in herself" for the prequel blockbuster has helped her heal.
The two-part film is an adaptation of the hit musical and stars Oscar-nominated actress Erivo as Elphaba, alongside Grammy-winning singer Grande, who plays Glinda.
Grande said forming a close friendship with British star Erivo was one of her "most cherished parts of this experience", while Erivo said meeting Grande had "changed my life".
"I feel really inspired by her fierce ability to be truthful and protect herself," Grande told the New York Times.
"Just by being around her, I have become more of an ally to myself when I used to do a lot of self-abandoning, and I really do credit that to our friendship.
"Through spending this time with her and also with a character that believes in herself, I feel like I've been able to heal certain parts of myself that were in deep need of having a friend like Cynthia and a friend like Glinda."
Grande agreed that she had been prone to people-pleasing in the past, having "trouble listening to the voices that I knew were true for fear of being judged".
"I think that it’s a really beautiful thing to overcome," the 31-year-old said.
The pair described the final day of filming Wicked as a "nightmare", crying "every minute, every hour" but said they took their costumes home.
When asked why she decided to use her full name – Ariana Grande-Butera – in the credits of the film, the actress said it was a "nice gesture" to portray a full circle moment.
"I feel like I truly came home to myself in a lot of ways during the filming of this movie, and it was a nice gesture to portray that in the credits by using my full name," she said.
Directed by Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker Jon M Chu, Wicked also stars Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero Tigelaar and Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard of Oz.
Last year, production was postponed for several months as a result of the Hollywood strikes.
Erivo said at first it felt like "an interruption", but quickly felt like "the rest we needed" because "we’d worked ourselves to the bone".
The pair confirmed they both caught Covid "before some of the most important works of the whole movie", with Grande catching the virus before she was set to film the musical sequence to hit song Popular.
Meanwhile 37-year-old Erivo said she caught the illness before filming Defying Gravity.
The first part of Wicked arrives in cinemas on 27 November.
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