Paparazzi apparently took their efforts up a notch to capture photos and videos from the set of Universal's upcoming “Wicked” musical adaptation.
Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey, who recently spoke with VMan magazine, were astonished by a hang-gliding paparazzo who flew over the set.
Grande reflected on the intimate and private nature of filming the two-part musical, saying, “We were very spoiled to have done this with [director Jon M. Chu]. It felt like a teeny, little secret student thing — its intimacy. It felt so small and private until all of a sudden, we were outside, and the Daily Mail was hang-gliding over our set — oh, he should play the pterodactyl in your film [‘Jurassic Park’].”
Bailey, who stars in the next “Jurassic World” movie with Scarlett Johansson, described the scene: “A man on a massive kite, floating around with his legs hanging down with a GoPro on his toes.”
Grande admitted her disbelief: “I couldn’t believe my eyes. Well, firstly because I don’t have the best eyes. But secondly, because there’s no way. There’s no way! I was like, ‘Ah! Guy on a hand glider.’”
The “Wicked” film, based on the hit Broadway musical, serves as a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” focusing on the friendship between Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Grande’s Glinda the Good Witch. Bailey plays their charismatic classmate and love interest, Fiyero.
Bailey praised the production, noting, “There were certain elements of it that I was incredibly impressed by and I think that is because of the love and care of [producer] Marc Platt and Jon Chu. Obviously we’ve grown up loving theater and musical theater, I always felt attached to that wonderment. I think my expectation might have been that somehow in the making of something, you lose that. But we were on those incredible sets.”
Chu confirmed in an interview with Vanity Fair that the cast performed their musical numbers live on set. He told Erivo and Grande, “There’s going to be a lot of wind in your air pipes. Is that okay?” They responded confidently, “Yeah. That’s what we do.” Chu added, “These are live vocals. When we were shooting it, those girls were like, ‘Fuck the pre-records. We’re going live.’”
The first “Wicked” film is set to premiere on November 22 from Universal Pictures. For the full interview with Grande and Bailey, visit VMan’s website.
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