Billie Eilish Interviews Ariana Grande at ‘Wicked’ Screening, Goes Full Fangirl: ‘My Brother Used to Be Like: Don’t Call Her ‘Ari,’ You Don’t Know Her!’
Ariana Grande was interviewed by Billie Eilish, in full fan-girl mode, following a screening of 'Wicked' for Academy members in Hollywood.
No one lauds the “Wicked” quite like Billie Eilish, at least when she is in full Ariana Grande fangirl mode, as she was in interviewing her longtime singing heroine after a screening of the movie musical in Hollywood Tuesday night. The Q&A at the Directors Guild of America’s theater, held for Academy and guild members, had Eilish doing the moderating, at the personal behest of the film’s Oscar-nominated Glinda.
“My team was like: Who would be a cool person to do this? Who’s your dream person?” Grande said at the outset. “I was like, Billie, (but) she’s not gonna say yes. She’s too busy. She’s too fabulous. It’s too much. But she said yes, and I was like, oh, shit. Now I’m so nervous.”
Eilish piped up with her youthful-worship credentials. “I love this girl so much and I love this movie so much and I love you. And I still use the YouTube channel that… has been my personal channel since I was about 11. I was just in the car telling my mom that you can find old interviews of you from like 2014 with Billie Eilish comments like, ‘I’m Team Ari.’ I didn’t realize that they were still up, but there’s many things where I commented like, ‘God, I just love Ariana so much.’ And I used to call you Ari to my brother, and he’d be like, ‘Don’t call her Ari, you don’t know her!'”
Popular on VarietyHaving established that Eilish was a “Honeymoon Avenue” girl from day one, the talk moved to the movie with the FYC logo still lingering on the big screen overhead, as Eilish admitted she might be a bit awkward in her questioning, saying “I’m not supposed to be doing this kind of thing.” She called Grande “one of the greatest singers of our generation,” and when Grande moved to return the compliment, Eilish quickly interrupted: “This is not about me, ma’am.”
Grande’s first anecdote was to retell the oft-told story of how, in the early days of putting together the music for the film, there was a proposed arrangement of “Popular” with a bit of a modern rhythm, which she said she gingerly told Stephen Schwartz felt out of character. “I do feel like in a way like the nerdy Oz historian that worked on the movie — I felt like a protective nerd, like the gatekeeping fan girl in the room… How different would life be today if ‘Popular’ had trap drums in it? It’s just, there’s a time and place, and it’s not with Glinda, because she claps on one and the three. And that’s OK, but we have to be in character, and she doesn’t have that kind of rhythm.”
Ariana Grande Chris Willman/VarietyWhen Eilish asked about submitting to the auditioning process, Grande told her that there had been at least a short window where the production team was considering her for either lead role, though she had her heart set on just one.
“I went in for my first audition, and I think at the time they weren’t sure what part I would sing or be right for,” Grande said. “So they did have me sing four songs: ‘No One Mourns the Wicked,’ ‘Popular,’ ‘Wizard and I’ and ‘Defying Gravity.’ But, like, I was in all pink. It was obvious! No one was hiding anything. I just think that they were very thorough, so they had me do all of those multiple times. And then I had my callback, which had scenes, and we did dialogue and more Glinda songs — just for Glinda at that point.”
Later, she said, “I had my final screen test, my chemistry test with two different Elphabas. Miraculously, neither of them were Cynthia. We never screen-tested together. Thank goodness. You know, can you imagine if we met and it just went horribly wrong?”
Even at that late stage of auditioning, the process was meticulous, Grande told Eilish: “My final chemistry test was three hours, and I was a basket case by the end. And I remember I was like, ‘I’ve left everything else in this room. You know what, I’m gonna stick my lashes on the mirror.’ And I just left them because they were poking up, because I’ve been crying so much. It was long and thorough — as it should have been, because these roles have to be earned. And we worked really hard and it was the most gratifying work ever. And, yeah, it’s like, the right thing won’t pass you by, you know?”
“You earned it, dude,” affirmed Eilish.
Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande Chris Willman/Variety“Sorry that was so long,” Grande apologized.
“We want it!” Eilish exclaimed.
“I went all the way back to my date of birth,” quipped Grande.
Eilish asked about Grande’s singing regimen in preparation for the film. “I started training my voice three months before my first audition, just because I wanted to have the muscles in my voice get used to singing in a very different way,” Grande explained. “I’ve always had a high voice, but it’s very different than the register that I used to sing pop music, which is what I was mainly doing. And just like any other muscles in your body, your vocal cords just get used to what they’re trained slowly and surely and taught to do. And when I’m singing pop, I’m usually using my mix and my belt and/or whistles, with a little bit of falsetto in between, but Glinda lives in that falsetto. So it’s just kind of spending a lot more time there and then training your vowels and your consonants and your vibrato to act differently. And that’s such a pivotal piece of the puzzle when it comes to Glinda — that coloratura, authentic operatic soprano style of singing. So it was very important to have it be healthy and warm, and it took a lot of work.”
Grande added, “I was on a long flight the other day and my vocal coach, Eric Vetro, who’s amazing, texted me and we were reminiscing together, and I went all the way back in my voice notes to our early lessons in 2021… You can hear (how) sort of the airiness … goes away and it sounds fuller and fuller as the weeks go by. So, just repetition and muscle training and being careful and cautious, and then by the time you get to set, you don’t have to think about that anymore because the muscles have developed a new memory.”
Eilish admitted that she had been a skeptic when word circulated ahead of the film’s release that the most of the singing heard in the film was done live, on-set. “I got into an argument before I’d seen the movie,” Eilish said, “because I saw the trailer and I was like, ‘Somebody said they’re singing live. What are (they) talking about? There’s just absolutely no way that they’re singing live.’ And I got scolded, and my friend was like, ‘No, no, dude. They are singing live and it’s amazing.’ … I know that it took like, what, a year and a half to shoot everything, and I’m sure many days to shoot one scene. And I’m wondering about the continuity of it all and how you managed to keep that up in terms of not just singing, but also just being GlInda and keeping her exact state of mind for the same scene, for multiple days?”
It didn’t feel that unfamiliar, Grande responded. “When it comes to the singing side… you know what it’s like to do a tour? We’re doing so many shows in a row. And Cynthia (Erivo) and I are both Broadway girls. We know what it’s like to do eight shows a week. So it’s imperative, I think, for the emotional integrity of what happens in the scenes (to maintain) the ability to improv. Like, you can’t be married to a track; you can’t be sort of married to certain choices. You have to be able to have the freedom to surprise each other and play and make things up on the spot.
“Or, if it’s an emotional scene, you’re not gonna sound perfect,” Grande continued. “Your voice is gonna crack, and that’s really special to preserve that and to have that option available. It’s just sort of what we love to do — we love to sing, and we’re Broadway girls, and also, there are so many amazing Glindas and Elphabas who do it eight shows a week. So if we have to do it 27 takes in a row, we’re gonna do it in solidarity with our sister witches.”
Also, Grande added, “Simon Hayes and our incredible sound team turned the whole set into a recording studio. So it’s like no matter what happened, if a gust of wind came and hit this mic, there was a mic in Elphie’s hat, so we’re covered. And then there was a boom over us and then there were two on each one of my (lapels) here. It was beautiful — they turned everything into a recording studio.”
Grande took a moment to enjoy the setting. “This is so much fun. I’m very content,” she told Eilish.
“OK, a few more songs,” Eiish said. “And then we go, because we’re only allowed a few more songs. Did I say songs? Oh my God. I meant questions. I’m on tour, you guys. I’m used to saying that. Sorry.”
“.We do need to do that, though,” said Grande, even as members of the audience began calling out requests for an impromptu duet, which the two performers declined to spontaneously oblige.
Reading off a piece of paper, Eilish asked, “Have you caught the bug?” Grande looked at her skeptically, as Eilish apologized for the hokeyness of the question. “Didn’t you write those?” Grande asked. “I didn’t write that,” insisted Eilish. “That’s the only thing I actually read out” (that someone suggested for her). “The question is, have you caught the fucking bug?” Grande repeated, laughing.
Billie Eilish Chris Willman/VarietySeriously getting to the core of the question about doing more film acting, Grande explained: “I would love that. But you know, I’m thankful because I feel like I have so many beautiful artistic outlets. And we are so lucky to be able to do so many artistic things. You know, we wear many hats, and we’re so lucky to be able to do that. So yeah, the bugs are plenty.”
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