‘Wicked: For Good’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Hey, this is Jon M. Chu and I’m the director of “Wicked: For Good.” ♫ “The truth is not a thing of fact or reason.” ♫ Here is the great Jeff Goldblum playing the Wizard and and Ariana Grande playing Glinda the Good and Cynthia Erivo playing Elphaba. In this scene, we really wanted them to be together so that Glinda could convince Elphaba to stay with the Wizard. And throughout this whole song, they are singing live. ♫ “A man’s called a traitor.” ♫ Also this — when he goes up the contraption — that is actually Jeff Goldblum going up on a rig to fly up in the air. He had to train for that. So he does his own stunts in this movie. Now this shot, this all doesn’t cut. She had to hide behind that drape. And she’s literally right now in real time, running in the hallway to get back to that bookcase. So this is all in real time. We had five engineers, remote control engineers, controlling to the rhythm, the eyeballs, and then she’s running in, making sure she doesn’t slip in the back. And then Ari comes out. ♫ “They call him wonderful.” “So I am wonderful.” “And is so wonderful. It’s part of his name.” ♫ So we haven’t cut yet all the way from before. And I know that when we made this staircase, that’s something that Nathan Crowley, our production designer, and Alice Brooks, our cinematographer, really wanted this red staircase to nod to the old classic musicals. And in another nod to old classic storytelling, we wanted this moment where Glinda could take Elphaba to the side and say the same thing she said in movie one, which is like, imagine what we could do together. And aren’t you tired of running. And then this magical Disneyland ride occurs. I always thought the Peter Pan ride was a great nod in this, that it’s all created by a person, and yet it could still feel that childlike wonder. I really needed Cynthia to go back into a childlike state in order to remember what it felt like to be part of a system, and how nice it feels sometimes to be comfortable, even though what she’s done is more courageous and feels uncomfortable. This is actually, the contraption that they’re on is a huge major engineering feat. We literally built a ride. They’re actually being lifted from the bottom. So we have tracks on the bottom. They’re not being hung from the top. And it went all around the room. This room is actually connected to the throne room with the big Wizard head. So you could walk from this side all the way to the front, which is what you’re about to see as they go through these drapes. I always wanted to see what it’s like to be behind the drape and in front of the drape. That classic idea. And when they walked in here, I wanted to feel like that wonder going into almost a carousel like place. And even as they spin, it’s almost dizzying. And in a weird way, it’s almost like that “Titanic” shot with Leo where they’re spinning right before all the tragedy occurs. “Trust me, it’s fun!”