{"id":2170776,"date":"2025-11-21T17:47:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2170776"},"modified":"2025-11-21T17:47:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T17:47:40","slug":"cynthia-erivo-ariana-grande-improvised-their-i-love-you-in-wicked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/cynthia-erivo-ariana-grande-improvised-their-i-love-you-in-wicked\/","title":{"rendered":"Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande improvised their ‘I love you’ in ‘Wicked’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Spoiler alert! The following post contains major details about the ending of \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d<\/a> (in theaters now<\/a>). Stop reading if you don\u2019t want to know what happens.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every \u201cWicked\u201d fan knows that the song \u201cFor Good\u201d is emotional terrorism.<\/p>\n

But in the new movie musical \u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d it\u2019s what happens immediately after that will break audiences open.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the film, Glinda (Ariana Grande<\/a>) travels in secret to the castle where Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo<\/a>) is hiding out. Elphaba is exhausted from fighting and ready to surrender, having been shattered by the losses of her lover Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey<\/a>) and sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode<\/a>). She hands over the Grimmerie to Glinda, asking her to use the book of spells to enact positive change in Oz. And through tears, the longtime friends<\/a> sing \u201cFor Good,\u201d as the witches acknowledge the indelible marks they’ve left on each other’s lives.<\/p>\n

Join our Watch Party! <\/strong>Sign up to receive USA TODAY’s movie and TV recommendations right in your inbox<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Glinda<\/span><\/div>\n

Glinda (Ariana Grande, left) and Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) say they will always be with each other, “like a handprint on my heart.”<\/p>\n

After the song<\/a>, Elphaba grabs Glinda\u2019s hand and hides her in a closet, assuring her that everything will be all right before saying \u201cI love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you, too,\u201d Glinda responds, sobbing. Elphaba closes the closet, and the two women lean their heads against opposite sides of the door, weeping together one last time before Dorothy runs in<\/a> and throws a (seemingly) lethal bucket of water on our green-skinned heroine.<\/p>\n

The gut-wrenching scene is not in the original Broadway musical, and was actually improvised by the actresses.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither one of us knew what we were doing on the other side of the door,\u201d Erivo tells USA TODAY. \u201cWicked\u201d director Jon M. Chu \u201cjust let the camera run. When we had rehearsed that scene, we knew how important it was for them to say those words because you hadn\u2019t heard them say \u2018I love you\u2019 to each other. Both of us were very aware that this might be the final time these two women see one another.<\/p>\n

\"Cynthia<\/span><\/div>\n

Cynthia Erivo, left, Ariana Grande and director Jon M. Chu filming the “For Good” scene in the new “Wicked” movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really overwhelming, knowing this was a moment for them both to just let go and grieve,\u201d Erivo adds. \u201cElphaba has tried to be really strong the entire time, and even when she says, \u2018Goodbye, it\u2019s going to be OK,\u2019 she\u2019s still smiling. It’s when she shuts that door that I felt my heart break. It was just really desperately heartbreaking to let go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Erivo is grateful to Chu for allowing her and Grande to be so unguarded in that moment: \u201cTo have that space to fully release all of the things they\u2019ve been holding onto was really special.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jennifer Lawrence, Cynthia Erivo, Jennifer Aniston in the best celebrity photos from November<\/h2>\n

1<\/span> of 20<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thank goodness: The wait for “Wicked: For Good” is nearly over. The press tour for the highly anticipated musical sequel is officially underway after kicking off with stars Cynthia Erivo and Jonathan Bailey stepping out on the red carpet in Brazil on Nov. 4. Ariana Grande missed the Brazil premiere due to flight issues but caught up with the group in London for the Nov. 10 red carpet. <\/p>\n

“Wicked: For Good” sees Erivo and Grande reprise their Oscar-nominated roles of Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, in an adaptation of the second half of the Broadway musical. New cast members for the follow-up include Colman Domingo as the voice of the Cowardly Lion. <\/p>\n

As the cast brings the magic of Oz around the world, scroll through for the best photos from the “Wicked: For Good” red carpets so far, starting with Erivo and Grande at Cineworld London Leicester Square on Nov. 10, 2025, in London.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Initially, the scene was written much closer to how it plays out on stage, screenwriter Winnie Holzman says: \u201cBut the girls just went for it and I love what they did there. They\u2019re extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chu confirms that the witches saying \u201cI love you\u201d was \u201cdefinitely not scripted.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Erivo and Grande finished singing \u201cFor Good,\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t call cut, so they just kept going because they were so present,\u201d Chu recalls. \u201cSuddenly, they were improvising this scene and they said, \u2018I love you,\u2019 which was almost meta. On that day, we never planned for the shot of the door in between the two of them. But watching them do it, I was like, \u2018We\u2019ve got to do the door shot.\u2019 There\u2019s this separation, and yet they\u2019re connected. It gave me the catharsis I needed in that moment, and I think for our audience, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a really beautiful and really real moment,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m really glad people see it and feel it, because I felt it.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Elphaba, Glinda’s gutting ‘Wicked: For Good’ scene was improvised<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spoiler alert! The following post contains major details about the ending of \u201cWicked: For Good\u201d (in theaters now). Stop reading if you don\u2019t want to know what happens. Every \u201cWicked\u201d fan knows that the song \u201cFor Good\u201d is emotional terrorism. But in the new movie musical \u201cWicked: For Good,\u201d it\u2019s what happens immediately after that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2170777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[24076,40246,368119,368120,305572,367149],"class_list":["post-2170776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-ariana-grande","tag-cynthia-erivo","tag-elphaba","tag-glinda","tag-jonathan-bailey","tag-marissa-bode"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Cynthia-Erivo-Ariana-Grande-improvised-their-I-love-you-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170778,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170776\/revisions\/2170778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2170777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}