Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey are recalling the shocking moment when paparazzi used hand-gliders to fly over the Wicked set one day.
The two stars, who play Glinda and Fiyero, respectively, opened up during a conversation for VMan magazine about the extensive lengths paparazzi went to in order to seemingly leak photos and videos from the Jon M. Chu-directed movie’s set.
“I think we were very spoiled to have done this with him [Chu]. It felt like a teeny, little secret student thing — it’s intimacy,” Grande said. “It felt so small and private until all of a sudden, we were outside, and the Daily Mail was hand gliding over our set — oh, he should play the pterodactyl in your film [Jurassic World 4].”
“It was a man on a massive kite, floating around with his legs hanging down,” added Bailey, who is set to start in the upcoming Jurassic World movie with Scarlett Johansson. “With a GoPro. With a GoPro on his toes.”
Grande admitted she “couldn’t believe my eyes” at the spectacle, adding, “Well, firstly because I don’t have the best eyes. But secondly, because there’s no way. There’s no way! I was like, ah, guy on a hand glider.”
Wicked, based on the hit Broadway musical of the same name, follows Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), a young woman who is misunderstood because of her green skin, as she forges an unlikely but profound friendship with Glinda, a student with an unflinching desire for popularity. Part one is set to hit theaters Nov. 22, 2024, with part two debuting Nov. 26, 2025.
When Grande asked Bailey about his experience filming the highly anticipated movie, the Bridgerton star said, “There were certain elements of it that I was incredibly impressed by and I think that is because of the love and care of Marc Platt and Jon Chu.”
“Obviously we’ve grown up loving theater and musical theater, I always felt attached to that wonderment,” he continued. “I think my expectation might have been that somehow in the making of something, you lose that. But we were on those incredible sets.”
