Ariana Grande appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Thursday to talk all things Wicked, but they also spent a lot of time discussing her well-received performance hosting Saturday Night Live a few weeks ago.
Talking about the now-viral sketch that featured Ariana as a bridesmaid singing an off-key version of “Espresso,” she told Jimmy that it was her idea to have her vocals get “progressively worse,” adding, “It was really fun.” She also revealed that fans are showing up to Wicked premieres asking her to sign poster-size versions of a photo of her from the sketch in which she played Antonio, a traumatized 13-year-old castrato.
“I’m still unpacking the emotional weight of Antonio with my therapist,” Ari joked.
All the talk of SNL led to a discussion about how Ari got on the phone and “begged” SNL boss Lorne Michaels to allow Bowen Yang to be in Wicked with her. “I don’t know why I thought I had any power … I said, ‘I’ll call Lorne,'” she said. “It was the scariest moment of my life. I was realizing in real time, ‘Oh, I have nothing to say and I have no reason why he would listen to me.'” But of course, it all worked out.
As for Wicked, Ari described what it was like to land the role of Glinda, which she’d wanted to play ever since she was a young girl.
“When they called me to tell me I had the part, I had one heart attack,” she said. “And then they told me I was going to be playing opposite Cynthia Erivo, that was the second heart attack. And then I died and I’m dead. And I’m dead, here, and I’m still dead.”
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