Actor Amanda Seyfried has revealed she auditioned for the role of Glinda in Wicked six times before losing out on the role to pop star Ariana Grande.
The 39-year-old Mamma Mia! star would have appeared alongside Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba in the film adaptation of the hit Broadway show, based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Upon its release in November last year, Wicked grossed $114m (£83.1m) in US and Canadian box office sales within its opening weekend.
Erivo and Grande were nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the 97th Academy Awards, respectively and will reprise their roles in the film's second instalment, Wicked: For Good, this November.
Speaking on the In The Envelope podcast, Seyfried explained she did numerous auditions for Wicked, despite prior commitments, because she “loved it”.
“I was busy. I barely had time to do it, but I made it work,” she said. “I worked my ass off for years and years and years on that music.”
Seyfriend also mentioned the experience back in March, on the Happy. Sad. Confused. podcast and she revealed she’d even performed with Erivo.
“I do think everything happens for a reason,” she reflected on losing out on the role. “I also got to sing with Cynthia, and that was a moment in itself.”
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The highly anticipated sequel welcomes back both Grande and Erivo in their respective roles as Glinda and Elphaba.
It will follow a now powerful Elphaba who has been declared an enemy of the state by the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh).
Despite being a commercial success, the first instalment divided critics. “Wicked looks like every other film now. That’s its problem,” The Independent’s Clarrise Loughrey wrote in a three-star review.
“Wicked is shot and lit like we’re being sold an Airbnb in Mykonos.”
Wicked: For Good is out in theatres November 21.
