Jon M. Chu, the director of the Wicked movie, shared that Lin-Manuel Miranda, a well-known composer and actor, really wanted a part in the film.
Miranda, who previously worked with Chu on the movie In the Heights, called him several times, asking to play a small but specific role.
He wanted to be the Munchkinland citizen who asks Glinda (played by Ariana Grande) at the start of the movie, “Is it true you were her friend?” referring to Elphaba (played by Cynthia Erivo).
Advertisement I got many calls from Lin. He might have even tweeted about it. He thought a cameo from Miranda, 45, would be “too distracting”. Sorry, Lin!
recalled Chu and then he further added
Lin-Manuel Miranda did tweet about wanting the role, but it ended up going to actress Kirsty Anne Shaw. In the movie’s final version, she is listed as “Skeptical Munchkin” on IMDb. Back in June 2016, Miranda shared a New York Times article about the early stages of the movie’s planning, when Stephen Daldry was the director. He tweeted, “WICKED MOVIE! FINALLY.”
Dear Stephen Daldry: Can I play the guy who goes, ‘Is it true you were her FRIEND?!’
he added to his post after that a fan replied him
Is that the wicked equivalent of the loud hailer in Les Mis, to which the Hamilton scribe replied simply, “YES.”
There’s no bad blood between Chu and Miranda. They were recently seen smiling together earlier this month at the National Board of Review Awards Gala in New York City, where Chu won the award for best director for Wicked.
Cynthia Erivo, 38, and Ariana Grande, 31, play the roles of Elphaba and Glinda, originally made famous on Broadway in 2003 by Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda.
Read More: ‘Wicked’ Has Surpassed $700M at the Global Box Office
Chu also shared in a talk with SFX Magazine that before casting Erivo and Grande in the lead roles for the Wicked movie, he first thought about using “no-namers.”
I wanted to have a very clear slate. It’s a big enough property on its own, so we can discover two people. I was like, ‘We’re gonna find no-namers.’ But then we got calls from all these great actresses who wanted to audition and we saw everybody, and they were all really great. Anyone could have done this role, except there were two people who were meant to do this role, for this particular movie at this particular time.
he recalled in the November 2024 interview
You can now buy or rent Wicked online to watch at home.
Source: People.com