“Loving and encouraging” Ariana Grande convinced Michelle Yeoh to take ‘Wicked’ role

Michelle Yeoh has praised Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo for convincing her to take a role in Wicked.

The Everything Everywhere All At Once star, who plays magic teacher Madame Morrible, in the movie was reluctant to take the part because she couldn’t sing.

Jon M. Chu directed Yeoh in 2018 rom-com Crazy Rich Asians and when he asked her to come on board she told The Times: “I read the script and said, ‘Jon, you know I don’t sing.’”

She continued: “The next thing I received was this video call with Jon, Ariana and Cynthia and the three of them are going, ‘It’s imperative that you come and join us now!’”

Yeoh had never seen the original stage musical but eventually agreed to the role and started performing duets with Erivo.

“They were very loving and encouraging,” Yeoh said of the trio’s input. “They found me an amazing voice coach. Cynthia was like, ‘Don’t be shy, you can do it.’”

Meanhile, the first European screening of Wicked took place in London last night (November 18) and the reactions were overwhelmingly positive.

Yeoh, Grande, Cynthia and Jeff Goldblum were among the cast to brave the rainy weather as the capital’s South Bank was transformed into the Emerald City.

The film, an adaptation of the stage musical which tells the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, is set to be released in both the UK and the US this Friday (November 22).

After the global domination of ‘Barbenheimer’ in the summer of 2023, film fans are looking forward to the phenomenon of ‘Glicked’ when Wicked goes up against Gladiator 2 in the US later this week.

Both movies are set to take the box office by storm in the coming days when they are simultaneously released much like Barbie and Oppenheimer last year.

According to Deadline, Jon M. Chu’s Wicked and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 are set to pull in huge takings on their openings with the former expected to pull in over $80million (£62.8million) and the latter $65million (£51million) domestically.

Wicked is also expected to be popular with women while Gladiator 2 is set to pull in men and also older women.