Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo Cried Over 'Wicked'

By Jason P. Frank, a Vulture writer covering comedy, theater, and music

Lady Gaga did not bless us with any insanity on the press tour for Joker: Folie à Deux this autumn, but, thank goodness, 2024 still granted us some overanimated triple threats. The best press tour award goes not to Gaga but to her “Rain on Me” collaborator Ariana Grande(-Butera) along with Cynthia Erivo for their extremely weepy promotion of Wicked. And we get it — Wicked is important to a lot of people, and it’s an emotional process to put your art into the world. The duo even apologized during an Entertainment Tonight interview on November 10. “It’s really emotional,” Grande said, with Erivo adding that “we’re trying our best, but there’s a lot of emotional things that happen, and we’re just going with it.” But are they staying hydrated enough? What if their bodies run out of water? Do they know that there’s an entire other movie coming out next year? Well, for comparison’s sake, here are the best moments from Erivo and Grande’s extremely weepy press tour (part one).

During a November 6 podcast interview, we get a preview of just how easy it is to bring the witches to tears. Host Em tells them how important the movie is. “This film means so much to me and there are so many millions of kids like me who find refuge in the witches,” she says.

“Can you stay all day?” Grande asks in response, while crying.

Did they cry? Yes, lot so tissues.

Both women appear on their co-star Bowen Yang’s podcast with Matt Rogers, Las Culturistas, as part of the promo. Grande, whose episode came out on November 6, gets exceedingly emotional. At one point, Rogers, who isn’t in the movie, begins crying while telling Grande, “It’s so amazing to see someone do something that they were born to do.” He thanks her for taking care of Yang, and Grande holds his hand while crying.

Erivo’s episode, out November 13, is less emotional, though she does get very impassioned while talking about music culture.

Did they cry? Ariana Grande (water sign) did cry, Cynthia Erivo (earth sign) did not.

At the end of a brief interview with Jake’s Takes on November 8, Jake references the duet “For Good,” which will appear in Wicked: Part Two, turning both actresses into sobbing messes, asking: “In what ways has the person sitting next to you changed you for good?” That question is the equivalent of bringing a tornado around a house of cards, and they near-immediately fall apart. “When we first started, each of us was missing a little chunk, and I think we’ve been able to see in each other a bit of a reflection, and so, I think I got a bit of her softness,” Erivo explains. Grande, barely able to speak, responds, “Her strength.”

Did they cry? Yes, a lot.

Nischelle Turner, for Entertainment Tonight, runs in an emotional roller coaster of an interview on November 12 with Grande and Erivo. The former cries when Turner asks for her dad’s reaction to using her full name in the credits. “He cried and, you know, it just, um …” Grande says in response. “That was my name when I first saw Wicked.”

To Erivo, Turner comments on how it felt growing up Black in a predominantly white area, like Elphaba, continuing while Erivo becomes so bereft all she can say is “Yeah.” “I just know what it feels like to feel like you don’t fit,” Erivo whispers.

Did they cry? Yes, a lot.

Somewhere around this time, the tears start to dry up, maybe because the actresses have been informed of the bit — note the aforementioned acknowledgement of their crying on November 10. In a viral interview posted on November 13 on the Advocate’s YouTube channel for Out, an interviewer tells them that people are “holding space” for the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” in the aftermath of the election. Remarkably, though she takes it seriously, Erivo refrains from crying. Maybe Ariana’s finger-grab gave her back some strength.

Did they cry? No, but Erivo’s definitely on the verge.

Here, we mostly want to give them credit. All the questions in this interview, which came later in the run, on November 20, are bait, and they don’t take it. The interviewer asks things like “How did you guys celebrate getting the news that you’d landed your dream roles?” and “If you both could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?” and “Who has been the biggest mentor to you throughout your career?”

Did they cry? No!