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From a perfectly yellow brick road to three-hour makeup sessions! Join us as we reveal the thrillifying behind-the-scenes stories from "Wicked: For Good." Our countdown includes how both parts were filmed simultaneously, Michelle Yeoh scaring Ariana Grande's contact lens out, new songs being written, and more! Which magical movie moment has you most excited?
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00:00You know, when we were talking about just Wicked Part 1, we couldn't talk about the full breath and meat of what this story actually is.
00:08Welcome to Ms. Mojo.
00:10And today, we're counting down our picks for the most thrillifying behind-the-scenes tidbits from Wicked for Good.
00:15I'm sorry all my contact came out.
00:19It was a really cherished moment.
00:20I love scaring you.
00:23Number 10. The Right Kind of Yellow.
00:26As we saw in Part 1, finding a color that...
00:29It just says Road to me.
00:30...is incredibly important.
00:32What we didn't get to see, however, was how they perfected the shade of yellow that screams Road the loudest.
00:38According to John M. Chu, when we first saw his Yellow Brick Road, it didn't seem yellow enough.
00:43Just because you see one thing with your eyes doesn't mean the camera captures it the same way.
00:47The Yellow Brick Road is one of the most indelible visuals in movie history, so it had to be perfect.
00:53I did not understand emotionally how it would feel until you have the Yellow Brick Road in front of you.
00:58And you're like, oh s**t, we're making Oz.
01:03That was like a surreal moment.
01:07The team ended up working to the wire to ensure the brightness popped on screen just as it had all those years ago.
01:12Follow me, Yellow Brick. Follow me, Yellow Brick. Follow me, Yellow Brick Road.
01:16Number 9. Madame Orable's Choreography.
01:20One thing you may not know about Michelle Yeoh is that she comes from a dance background.
01:24I understand the rhythm and the emotion of what Madame Orable can do.
01:31This turned out to be quite helpful when she was trying to find her character's movements,
01:35and how to convey so many layers of depth through hand gestures.
01:38She collaborated with choreographer Christopher Scott to come up with the movements Madame
01:43Orable would conjure up when summoning a certain something.
01:45She would just start to move with the influences from Tai Chi and from Kung Fu and martial arts,
01:52and through that, and then I do like a lot of finger-tighting and hand stuff, and so I would just,
01:56we had never said it verbally, but it was like, she would go into that world,
01:59and I would like work with her there, and then I would be like, and then like little things like this.
02:02She'd be like, oh, I like that.
02:03They worked together on even the smallest styling to come up with these gestures
02:07that reflected so much of what they wanted to convey to the audience about the character.
02:11Of course, it helped having these grand, swishy sleeves that you just want to swoop around.
02:15Of course, Paul had designed the most amazing dress that I need these long, you know, sleeves
02:23that I could flick in the air, which I did, and the effect was spectacular.
02:28Number eight, the makeup process.
02:32How much time do you spend on your makeup routine?
02:35Granted, probably few of us get fully greenified as part of the process,
02:39but by the sounds of it, Cynthia Erivo's daily routine was more like an endurance test.
02:44So every day, every day was a two hour, 45 minutes to three hour makeup session,
02:50and then it was an hour, hour and a half de-rig session.
02:53A de-rig is when everything comes off.
02:55It would take around three hours to get her ready, and then about an hour and a half
02:59to get it all off at the end of the day.
03:01Oh, and did we mention that this was over a long period?
03:05So from day one to day, I don't even know.
03:10Yeah.
03:11200 and something.
03:12200 and something, yeah.
03:13I was, it was every day, three hours, in a chair, sometimes more.
03:18Every day was an early day.
03:20Every day started between, I think my pickup was sometimes 4 a.m., 5 a.m.
03:26Very often starting at times that most of us are still fast asleep.
03:30There's no denying Erivo looks phenomenal, but knowing she basically sacrificed sleep
03:35to give us that makes us love her even more.
03:38It takes a second to wind down.
03:40I would always shower because the green gets everywhere.
03:42Yeah.
03:43So by the time I get to bed, it's like 12 and I'm up at 3 a.m.
03:47Number 7, John M. Chu's Mood Board.
03:50We'll cover how both parts of the movie were filmed later.
03:53For now, let's look at how Chu set the tone for each scene.
03:57There was an opportunity to expand Wicked from the stage.
04:00So we could expand that world, expand the emotions of it.
04:04For one thing, since the movie was shot out of sequence,
04:06it was important to make sure everyone was on the same page
04:09in terms of the emotions they wanted to convey.
04:11So he created an emotional buzzword for each scene to give everyone,
04:15from actors to designers to editors, a mood to work with.
04:19It actually was an extremely technical feat to go back and forth,
04:23and we all had to be in complete cohesion and understanding
04:27of where we were in the story emotionally,
04:29and I had to have a lot of clarity of what we were trying to say.
04:34While part one had lots of big, flashy moments,
04:38For Good has a more intimate feel,
04:40which he created by getting his creative team, quote,
04:42out of the way so the scenes felt more honest.
04:45In a movie, you can be two inches from their face.
04:49Oh yeah, you can be 10,000 feet above that moment.
04:53That's exciting.
04:54Number 6. Where have we seen those sets before?
04:57In For Good, there are some fun callbacks to part one tucked into the production design.
05:01This is the, um, the book place.
05:06There's a collection of, um, rare books around here somewhere,
05:10and some medium rare as well.
05:12A few sets return in updated forms,
05:14including the Governor's Mansion,
05:16where small details from Shiz's library and Madame Morrible's quarters can be spotted.
05:20The Emerald City gets a redesign too,
05:22so it reflects the trio now running things,
05:25the Wizard, Madame Morrible, and Glinda.
05:27It's more important than ever
05:29that you lift everyone's spirits
05:33as only you can.
05:38Even the train that first brought the leading ladies into the Emerald City shows up again,
05:42now fully Glindified.
05:44We have no doubt there's more to look out for too.
05:47All of it adds these nice touches that make the movies feel connected,
05:50and it's genuinely satisfying to catch them all.
05:53You don't want to miss this.
05:54Number 5.
05:55The Wonderful Wizard of the Wardrobe
05:57Paul Tazwell, sorry, that's Oscar winner Paul Tazwell's costumes in Part 1 are outstanding.
06:04And he's back working his magic again on for good.
06:07There's an emotional arc that's created by the choices that I'm making as far as the clothes are concerned.
06:12They're different reflections of who these women are,
06:15and what their style is,
06:16and as we move through their year,
06:19they're all so emotionally changing.
06:21You can read so much about these characters just by looking at what they wear.
06:25From the wizard's showman look to Madame Morrible's lightning-esque embellishments,
06:28to Glinda's wedding and bubble dresses.
06:31But pay close attention to Alphaba's outfit.
06:33You've seen it before.
06:35Kinda.
06:36Everything that she chooses to wear is very intentional.
06:39It supports where she is emotionally and within her character.
06:44Tazwell has brilliantly incorporated looks from her past
06:47to show her metamorphosis and how she's embraced the person she's become.
06:51Although Fierro certainly left his mark too.
06:54Erivo also used specific perfumes to ignite the emotions each scene demanded.
06:58Perfume, so there's a scent that's specific to Alphaba at the very beginning.
07:02Then there's a scent for Alphaba at the end of the first film.
07:07And then there's a scent for Alphaba in the second movie.
07:09Anyway, if Tazwell doesn't get another Oscar, we'll eat Alphaba's hat.
07:16It sounds like the two new songs,
07:18No Place Like Home and The Girl in the Bubble, were real team efforts.
07:22Not just with their performers, but with Chu himself.
07:24Just like he did with much of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holtzman's material,
07:40Chu seemed to push the composer to dig deeper into what the songs were trying to say.
07:43Why do I love this place that's never loved me?
07:51But there's no place like home.
07:57Schwartz would send musical voice notes, and Chu would come back with questions like,
08:01Where are you going with that?
08:03Or, What about this?
08:04Together, they worked through all the what-ifs to create two songs that pull the audience into Alphaba and Glinda's minds,
08:10and give even more insight into their psyche than the stage runtime could ever allow.
08:15We could go into more depth with the characters at certain points in the story,
08:22and there were a couple of places that felt like they needed to sing.
08:30We'd also be remiss not to mention the intricate choreography that helped bring those emotional beats to the audience in those moments.
08:36She was using her daughter's, like, little toy dolls and her iPhone to choreograph the camera movement in and out.
08:42No way.
08:42So technically, it was just such a massive assignment from making sure each step that I took matched on either side of the filming,
08:51and then emotionally it had to line up, and vocally it had to line up, and everyone had to kind of be very in sync.
08:57Number 3. Ariana Grande Loses a Contact
09:00If you've seen the show, you'll know there's a scene toward the end where Glinda has a revelation,
09:05which Madame Morrible quickly and fiercely shuts down.
09:09Chu apparently told Michelle Yeoh to unleash her biggest, scariest inner witch for this moment.
09:14In fact, he literally told her to, quote, scare the hell out of her co-star.
09:17And I love when I look at you, you're, like, fresh and naive.
09:21And then John will come up to me and say, scare the hell out of Ariana.
09:25And I'm like, are you sure?
09:27She says, yes.
09:28And she did.
09:29Maybe a little too well?
09:31In an outtake from the scene, Ariana Grande actually breaks character because Yeoh's commitment scared the contact lens right out of her.
09:38She was so scared.
09:39My contact lens popped out.
09:40A contact lens popped out.
09:43My contact lens popped out.
09:45I'm sorry, all my contact.
09:50Don't worry, Grande holds no grudge.
09:52Glinda, on the other hand, well, you'll just have to wait and see.
09:56So I just turned and ran at her, literally, like,
09:59This is the best moment of my life.
10:03Number 2.
10:04Capturing the title song.
10:05As great as it would be if every shooting day went perfectly according to schedule,
10:10working with the elements, especially in the UK,
10:12means Plan A sometimes gets rain-checked for Plan B.
10:16We actually shot for good on a weather cover day,
10:18which meant that we were supposed to be shooting outside at Munchkinland,
10:22but it was raining, so we decided to come inside and do for good, so it was a surprise.
10:26That was actually the case for capturing the song's title number for good.
10:29Given how the song has the tendency to stay like a handprint on even the iciest hearts,
10:41it sounds like perhaps that worked in their favor,
10:44as there wasn't much time to overthink it.
10:46It wasn't like it was a one-day shoot, either.
11:01The leading lady shared that they filmed multiple versions,
11:04only for Chu to choose the most stripped-back, quietly devastating take of them all.
11:09I just love that John went with the simplest and quietest and most honest version.
11:13Even though he covered it so many different ways,
11:15it just speaks to how incredible he is as a director.
11:18Just kind of sticking to the heart.
11:19Just continue attuned to what is necessary to tell the story, yeah.
11:21Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
11:25Jeff Goldblum goes veggie.
11:27The oppression of animals in the movie changed Goldblum for good.
11:30After doing this movie, we talked about the animal cruelty.
11:33I stopped eating meat.
11:34Did you?
11:35And poultry.
11:36Casting Coleman Domingo.
11:38When John M. Chu slides into your DMs to ask you to be in the movie, you don't say no.
11:43I just DM'd him on Instagram.
11:45I was like, hey, would you ever want to come in and do this?
11:47I know you're very busy.
11:48I'll come to you.
11:49And he was like, why the F not?
11:51Sangria Hour.
11:52The cast apparently set up a secret sangria hour to help them cool off on a particularly warm day.
11:58And before we could blink, someone came around the corner and was like,
12:00I've got a bottle of sangria here and some cups with ice in it if you want one.
12:05And I was like, yes, yes, please.
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12:24Number one.
12:25Both movies were shot at once.
12:28You might have had to wait a whole year to see the story reach its grand conclusion,
12:32but Choo chose to shoot it all at once to get the bigger picture, control the pacing,
12:36and make sure they were delivering a fully fleshed out story.
12:39However, that doesn't mean it was all shot linearly.
12:42Stay in that emotional state.
12:44That's huge.
12:45Oh yeah.
12:46Rouncing back and forth between like dancing at shiz and death.
12:49As Choo shared, they went from the fun highs of popular to the emotional depths of for good,
12:55practically back to back.
12:56And that we were shooting at the same time.
12:59So one day we'd be shooting popular and like two days later we'd be shooting pieces of for good
13:04or moments where they're way more mature.
13:07Meanwhile, Bronwyn James shared that she only knew where they were in the Wicked timeline
13:11once she put on her costume for the day.
13:13It was very much like, I'm just going to go in and like,
13:17I'll know what I'm doing by whatever costume I've got on.
13:20Well, at least we don't have to wait long to see if these decisions impacted the story for the better.
13:25You can say you haven't changed for the better.
13:30Which behind the scenes story has you most excited for Wicked for Good?
13:34Let us know in the comments.
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