Wicked and Moana 2 will battle at the box office this holiday weekend but don't think for a second that means that there’s any animosity between the films' stars. While Wicked’s Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have received a bit of flack for what's being seen by some as an overly emotional press tour, Auli’i Cravalho has got their back and needs everybody to back down and leave them be.
While Wicked is already a box office hit, the audience, and the stars, have also been making headlines for being incredibly passionate about the film. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande have not exactly been keeping calm over the release of their own film. Cravalho tells Vanity Fair that people need to cut them some slack because this is just how theater kids are. She explained…
I need people to understand what it’s like to be a theater kid. Being a theater kid is emotional. Get off my girls Ariana and Cynthia’s backs. Do you understand me? You don’t know what it’s like to be working on a film for this long. The film is two hours and 40 minutes long. If you’re not crying after working with someone for that long, and you’re both theater kids and you’re singing live…I am very passionate about this.
Cravalho likely has a pretty solid handle on exactly how Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are feeling right now. She clearly sees them as kindred spirits. And honestly, the perspective of the two Wicked stars is a little different than even we see, as they’ve filmed not just one but two movies already. While we won’t see Wicked: Part Two for a year, for them the work is likely done, so they’ve put twice as much as much work into all this.
Any performer worth their salt is going to get at least a little emotional when they get a positive reaction for the work they’ve done, and Erivo and Grande are certainly getting that. Anybody who has been a theater kid, or has simply known one, likely understands that they can get even more emotional when it comes to finally being able to put their work out for clothes to see.
And the emotional reaction to the film isn’t limited to the stars. Audiences have been criticized for singing in the theater during the film and we’ve seen a noticeable increase in people using their phones to film scenes of the movie. Whatever you think of the appropriateness of those reactions, it shows that the people can't stop themselves. Wicked is already on track to be one of the highest-grossing films of 2024 and the awards conversation for Erivo and Grande has already started.
Whatever film ends up winning the holiday weekend box office, theater kids clearly win. Wicked and Moana 2 are both all but assured to put up solid box office numbers, and both films are likely to be successes, even if Wicked is all but assured to be the biggest movie of the holiday season. Whatever happens, all three of these theater kids did amazing work and if they get a little emotional about it, that’s fine.