British actor Cynthia Erivo, who stars as Wicked Witch Elphaba in Jon M. Chu’s forthcoming musical, revealed why she would go days without using bathrooms on the set.
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During a recent appearance on a podcast, actor Cynthia Erivo divulged that she would go on a 12-14 hour shoot day on the ‘Wicked’ set without using a bathroom, only to avoid the hassle of getting out of her costume and the harness, and the strenuous process which follows to get back in it.
“I don’t go to the bathroom,” Erivo exclaimed, leaving the hosts in splits. “This is probably a terrible idea but once I’m in my costume and the harness is on, I’m not doing it. I’m not dealing with it. There’s too many layers.”
The actor mentioned that she would get into her costume at 7 or 8 in the morning and the shoot would continue for the next 12-14 hours, when the crew would offer her bathroom breaks but she would refuse.
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Erivo disclosed that she was using three different harnesses for shooting different stunts and would wear them over her corset and costume. “Those days were really interesting because once you’re in the harness, you don’t want to come out of the harness because it takes forever to get everything prepped again and wires and whatnot. Those days can be really big. They can be really exhausting because your body is being put through the strangest things,” she recalled.
Based on Stephen Schwartz’s same-titled musical, which itself was adapted from Gregory Maguire’s book, ‘Wicked’ follows the story of the green-skinned young woman Elphaba, who goes on to become the Wicked Witch of the West and privileged and popular Glinda (Ariana Grande), who became Good Witch of the North.
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Besides Erivo and Grande, the title also stars Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Bronwyn James and Peter Dinklage.
The first of the two-part ‘Wicked’ series by Chu is scheduled to hit theatres on November 22, with the next film set for November 2025 release.
