Jonathan Murray Chu reveals truth behind Ariana Grande’s ‘Wicked’ audition

Jonathan Murray Chu shared that he had a major misunderstanding while auditioning Ariana Grande for the long awaited musical Wicked.   

In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, the American film director was asked if Ariana had been considered for a different role, to which he firmly replied, "No."

"We were getting mixed messages," he shared. 

He explained that from the start, he was certain the We Can’t Be Friends singer would be perfect for the role of Glinda, but the casting director had mistakenly convinced him she was auditioning for the role of Elphaba.

 "I'm like, 'That was not the plan.' And they're like, 'Well, she prepped it,'" he said.

After making the 31-year-old singer prepare for multiple Elphaba’s songs, Jonathan and Ariana, both, didn’t want to go ahead with it. 

Even though the American singer and songwriter has previously spoken about Glinda being her dream role, the casting directors thought she wanted to play Cynthia Erivo’s role, after seeing her performance of The Wizard and I on NBC’s 15th anniversary show.

On the Sentimental Men podcast the Sam and Cat actress mentioned that she had auditioned for both roles.

"I was hearing really mixed things from people who were like, 'Oh, they maybe want you to read for both,'" she explained.

"And I thought, 'I guess that's because they don't know what my voice is, and maybe they think vocally I might be better-suited for Elphaba but I secretly knew that I was only meant for Glinda."