In all ofWicked,one moment rises above all the rest.
And she does it by singingthe song Defying Gravity.
Unlike the stage show though, audiences wont see Part Two in 20 minutes.
Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in Wicked.Image: Universal Pictures
Itll be a year.
It was hell on Earth, Chu told io9 about finding that balance.
And, in fact, he keyed into one moment in particular.
Chu with his stars – Universal
Defying Gravity,' Chu told io9 when asked what he wanted to adapt the most.
Thats the easy one to go to.
But its way more difficult than I thought.
Chu and his cast – Universal
So picking where we were big and where we were with her, that was torture actually.
I had many versions of how to do that.
Chu then dove a bit deeper into the specifics of the scene.
Where he chose to expand, where he chose to add things not from the musical, and more.
That was scary, Chu said.
So theres a lot of work, [a lot of] plumbing that had to be done beforehand.
The Wizard and I, how that had to be the antithesis to [Defying Gravity].
Who had such a moment at the OzDust.
And so the moment she says, Come with me, are you coming?
The unsaid thing is Im not coming.
I want what you want but I found my destiny.
They are so different from each other, but they share this beautiful humanity together.
And so that was really hard.
But I love the fact that she didnt earn it, actually.
She had to save herself for that little girl in herself.
And so I loved that.
And those were all very difficult versions.
We did versions without it.
We did versions with it.
So all those things factored into that.
It was hell on Earth.
It wasnt until after the long break that everyone came back to do the movies biggest number.
[Cynthia] had trained a year to do those stunts.
And to know where to put her voice.
And suddenly for six months shes not doing it and she has to come back.
For us, it actually really helped in the end because we got to gather our energy again.
We had been shooting for 160 days at that point.
And I think she dropped in so quickly and easily.
And Ari also dropped in really easily.
They were these characters and it was not as difficult as I thought it would be.
The result speaks for itself.
Wicked Part Oneis now in theaters.
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