‘I Could See Grips Tearing Up’: John M. Chu On The 'Wicked' Moment That Had Everyone Crying On Set (And Of Course Cynthia Erivo Was Involved)

Cinema Blend

There are plenty of reasons to see John M. Chu’s film adaptation of "Wicked," chief among them being this stellar cast’s renditions of some iconic tracks. Since the film first started screening, people haven’t been able to stop gushing about Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo’s live vocal performances. This is guaranteed to produce some memorable and emotional moments, especially if you were on set at the time of filming and a choir of birds decided to join in.  Haven spoken with John M. Chu himself, and when describing his biggest “goosebumps moment” during production on "Wicked," he told a beautiful story of when Cynthis Erivo as Elphaba sang one of the musical’s most emotional songs, "I’m Not That Girl", with help from some feathered friends.

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00:00One of the most goosebumps moments was, well, I'm not that girl, of course, you have Cynthia singing,

00:08and at that beginning moment, and if you watch it, it's almost like the music comes from nowhere.

00:15And we couldn't actually hear, it's only in her ears, unless I put my headphones on.

00:20So I'm just hearing this little echo in this giant set of a forest that we built in this

00:25soundstage, and there were birds who made nests in the thing. So every time she sang,

00:30these birds would sing, because they had some sort of attachment to her voice.

00:35But her singing that, it was so quiet. Everyone was, I could see grips tearing up.

00:40And I knew that something was very special happening in that, that we all actually

00:45identify with not being that girl, not being the person that's going to get this or that.

00:51And I love that when you, it's a song you've heard over and over again,

00:55and it changes its context, and Cynthia's very good at that.

01:00It changes everything. I knew we could find the movie through those routes.

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