With just over one week until Wicked hits theaters, Ariana Grande is opening up about the grueling audition process.

The 31-year-old actress returns to the big screen for the first time since 2021’s Don’t Look Up to play the iconic Glinda in this musical adaptation, arriving November 22.

The film is being eyed to inject new life into the box office with a projected opening weekend between $80 million and $85 million next weekend.

She appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, where she revealed her first audition for the film was more than three years ago. 

The outing also comes just a week after her co-star Cynthia Erivo threw some shade at other actresses who tried out for Glinda the Good Witch. 

With just over one week until Wicked hits theaters, Ariana Grande is opening up about the grueling audition process.

She appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Thursday, where she revealed her first audition for the film was more than three years ago

The Wicked stage adaptation debuted on Broadway in 2003 – based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel – set before Dorothy Gale’s arrival in Oz as told in The Wizard of Oz – and the 1939 film classic.

The musical production is still going strong 21 years later, currently the fourth longest-running Broadway production in history.  

There had been rumblings of a movie adaptation since 2012, but it finally came together nearly a decade later.

Grande revealed that she was such a fan of the musical that she started preparing immediately after hearing about a movie adaptation. 

‘I started to kind of mentally prepare myself and my team. I just told them, you know, if this is really happening, and if they are going to start seeing people for it, I just want to be so prepared,’ she told Fallon. 

‘I want to take all of the acting, all of the singing lessons, I want to train my voice to become coloratura soprano, like — like legit opera. I have to honor this the way that it requires,’ she said to applause from the studio audience.

Grande added that she was glad she wasn’t offered the role immediately based on her musical pedigree, adding, ‘Thank God. I mean, it’s Wicked, it has to be earned.’

‘I tried to prepare myself mentally going into it, knowing that — listen, this is going to end up where it’s meant to end up,’ she said of her preparations. 

Grande revealed that she was such a fan of the musical that she started preparing immediately after hearing about a movie adaptation

‘I started to kind of mentally prepare myself and my team. I just told them, you know, if this is really happening, and if they are going to start seeing people for it, I just want to be so prepared,’ she told Fallon

‘I tried to prepare myself mentally going into it, knowing that — listen, this is going to end up where it’s meant to end up,’ she said of her preparations

‘And as a fan of it, I have to trust that and know that it’s going to go where it’s supposed to go. But in the meantime, I’m gonna do every damn thing I can to prepare myself for this and to get the chance. And I auditioned August 13th, 2021, that was my first audition,’ she said.

‘And then I got called back, and then I got called back again. And then I did screen tests with two different actresses, and it was like a 3 1/2 hour session that day,’ she said.

Grande added that she found out that Cynthia Erivo would be playing Elphaba just after learning she landed the role herself.

‘So when they called me to tell me that I had the part, I had one heart attack. That was the first one. And then they told me that I was gonna be playing opposite Cynthia Erivo, and that was the second heart attack. And then I died, and I’m ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, and I’m ᴅᴇᴀᴅ here. And I’m still ᴅᴇᴀᴅ,’ Grande joked.

She added of her co-star Erivo, ‘I mean, I’ve just been such a fan of hers for such a long time. She’s so extraordinary. And getting to play opposite her and also just become true sisters with her has been such a beautiful experience, and I’m so grateful that it was us.’

She also revealed this is the first project where she’s credited under her full name – Ariana Grande-Butera, after they showed a snap of young Ariana playing Dorothy in a childhood production of The Wizard of Oz.

‘Well, I feel like this whole experience was a little bit of a homecoming to that, to this girl, in the little gingham dress there,’ she said of the throwback pic.

‘And, you know, that was my name the first time I saw the show. That’s my name, that’s my real name, so. It just feels like a coming home to little Ari in certain ways,’ she said. 

Grande added that she found out that Cynthia Erivo would be playing Elphaba just after learning she landed the role herself

‘And, you know, that was my name the first time I saw the show. That’s my name, that’s my real name, so. It just feels like a coming home to little Ari in certain ways,’ she said

‘And that’s a lot — what this movie is about. It’s sort of taking your little self with you and grabbing its hand saying, “We might have gotten far apart along the way, but I’ve got you now, and we’re going together,”‘ she added.

Others who auditioned for Glinda included Renee Rapp, Dove Cameron and Amanda Seyfried, with Grande’s co-star Erivo seemingly throwing shade at others who tried out for Glinda.

When The New York Times asked both Grande and Erivo what their reaction was to their casting, Erivo seemed to shade at least two of the other candidates.

‘Thank goodness, because it was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with,’ Erivo said, without identifying the other actresses.