Ariana Grande was 'nervous' to sit with Kristin Chenoweth at Wicked premiere: 'We were both crying'
Ariana Grande was "nervous" when she sat next to Kristin Chenoweth at the 'Wicked' premiere because she needed to know she had made the Broadway legend "proud" as she took on the role her close friend had originated.
Ariana Grande was "nervous" when she sat next to Kristin Chenoweth at the 'Wicked' premiere.
The 31-year-old pop star has taken on the role of Glinda the Good Witch in the upcoming adaptation of the hit musical and "held hands" with her close friend Kristin - who originated the part on Broadway - at one of the first screenings of the film, but just needed to know if she had made her "proud" with what she had done.
Speaking on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show', Kristin said: "It's like a love letter to our show, it's a love letter to Broadway. I sat there with Ariana at the premiere holding her hand. I've know her since she was 10, she came to my dressing room and said 'I wanna play Glinda' and I said 'You will!' When she got the audition, we both squealed. We sounded like dolphins. And then she gets the part.
"After we watched the movie...she was nervous, she paid beautiful homage to my work but she did her own, too. Very much so. She looked at me, we were both crying, and she said 'Are you proud of me?' I lost my mind. 'What do you mean?', I said, 'I'm so proud of you!'"
The 'Into You' hitmaker recently insisted that she always knew she had to "earn" the coveted role and quashed the notion that she had just been handed it because of her celebrity status.
Speaking on the 'Sentimental Men' podcast, she said: "People sometimes say that to me, like, 'You had to audition?' Of course! It's 'Wicked'. It requires a totally different skill set than people know me for or have ever seen me do anything like.
"It's 'Wicked'. That's the most respectful thing, it has to be earned. It can work against me, in certain ways because when you have this caricatured persona that's out there and people know you very well as this one thing...is this person going to be able to erase that? This isn't about me."
