Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo both have Oscar buzz for their performances in Wicked, but when the actual Academy Awards take place, Ariana says all she wants to do is see Cynthia become an EGOT winner.
Cynthia already has won an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony, so if she’s nominated for best actress and wins, she’ll score the coveted title. While speaking to Variety about their Oscar chances, Ariana told Cynthia, “You, Miss Elphaba, deserve your flowers, and I can’t wait to hold your train as you get that EGOT.”
Cynthia, meanwhile, is counting on Ariana to be nominated, too. “I will raise hell if this lady does not get her nomination,” she tells Variety. “It’s a really f****** hard job to jump into the middle of something like this and have it be your first time.”
Luckily, Ariana won’t be competing with Cynthia for the Oscar, because she’s running in the supporting actress category. “I’m just honored to have been that support for Cynthia’s performance, and to be able to be a part of this,” she tells Variety. “That’s how I feel.”
In the same interview, Ariana says she thinks her and Cynthia’s Wicked characters, Glinda and Elphaba, are “in love with each other.” She adds, “I know, yes, it’s platonic,” before cutting herself off and adding, “But we’ll talk about it more in depth in movie two.”
In a previous interview, Ariana said that she thought Glinda “might be a little in the closet” — but she’s not imagining things. Gregory Maguire, who wrote the novel on which the Wicked musical and movie were based, revealed in an interview that the sexual tension between the characters in the book was “intentional.”
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