Ariana Grande just revealed that she started training with an acting and vocal coach months before her first Wicked audition.
The 31-year-old singer and actress, who starred as Glinda The Good Witch in the two-part adaptation of the Broadway classic, mentioned that she wanted “every tool in my box sharpened and ready” before she applied.
In a conversation with Australia’s WHO magazine, Grande stated, “Well, I worked with my acting coach, Nancy Banks, who is absolutely brilliant. And that work we were doing started even long before my first audition because I just wanted to be prepared no matter what was going to be asked of me.”
The Thank U, Next crooner continued, “I wanted to have every tool in my box sharpened and ready. And it just really was a lot of reading between the lines. Why is she so fascinated with Elphaba? What is the magic that she has that Glinda doesn’t? And what’s not on the page?”
Then as she discussed how Wicked’s classical styled singing was quite different from her high-pitched pop vocals, she explained, “I started working with my vocal coach, Eric Vetro, two and a half, three months before my first audition just because the vocal chords, like any other muscle in the body, they’re habitual. You have to train them to do new things.”
The 7 Rings hitmaker then noted, “I naturally have a high range, and I sing whistle tones and I sing high notes, but it’s very different than singing coloratura soprano – a classical, operatic.”
“I wanted to train my voice as much as I could so that by the time my first audition came around, it sounded authentic and warm and full and truly, like, what’s required of Glinda. The many beautiful actresses that have played this role before me, you know, they’re all classical soprano trained singers. I wanted to really earn that,” Ariana Grande concluded.
