Cynthia Erivo Recalls Being 'Ill by the End' of Her 3-Hour Wicked Audition: 'I Was in Bed for the Next Week'

Cynthia Erivo talks about her first taste Wicked.

The actress, who plays Elphaba in the upcoming film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, November 13, and shared her experience auditioning for the role.

Erivo, 37, revealed her audition lasted three hours, prompting Fallon, 50, to ask: “Three hours? Were you exhausted?”

“Oh, I was very sick until the end,” she replied. “I was in bed for the next week, about four days, with a temperature of 104.”

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It was an extremely big weekend for Eriv. The night before the audition, she performed at Disney Hall.

Ariana Grande, Eriv’s co-star who plays Glinda in the film, said she spent six months preparing for the audition for Wicked. In an interview on Amazon Music The Zach Sang Showthe “Pozicije” singer said that she was simply excited about the opportunity.

“Since I was 20, I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know when this is happening, but when it is, can I at least audition?’ That’s all I wanted, was an audition,” Grande, 31, said. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”

Her preparations included daily acting and voice lessons, she said.

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Erivo and Grande didn’t know each other until they were cast together, Erivo told Fallon. But there was an “instant chemistry” between them. Erivo even invited Grande over, and they just sat on the floor, talked and quickly became friends.

“It was very easy. It was very easy,” Erivo said of the early stages of her friendship with Grande.

They first sang together at a dinner with Jon M. Chu, the film’s director, and Stephen Schwartz, the composer and lyricist. Schwartz sat at the piano as Erivo and Grande sang a duet of “For Good.”

“And our voices worked,” said Erivo. “And it was like magic.”

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Source: HIS Education

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