“Pink goes good with green…
Goes well with green”.
– Don’t make me sob
As someone who loved Wicked: Part 1 (2024), I have been waiting all year for the second one. Unfortunately, I will have to hold on a bit longer until I am finally in the cinema, living my best life as the enchanting vocals of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande lead my theatre-loving heart on a journey through Oz. It is a good thing (kind of…) that people love sharing movie spoilers, as there are enough screenshots posted online to keep me in the loop: especially, when it comes to the creative direction of well-loved franchise.
The outfits, lighting, props, sets and overall tone of the film has been carefully curated by the artists – on and off screen – to provide viewers with a cinematic experience that I am sure will be just as breath-taking as the first movie was. When it comes of filmmaking, everything is chosen for a reason. With this is mind, I want to go through a few stylistic decisions made in the Wicked series, to give appreciation to the creatives that have made it happen.
GOING BACK TO PINK
Let us all have a moment to remember the iconic bubble dress from Part 1. Glinda owns the colour pink – a notion that is immediately thrust upon us in the ‘in media res’ scene and then reaffirmed through the flashback. The constant use of pink in her wardrobe reminds us that she will be ‘The Good Witch’ we see in the beginning of the film. Her exposition if defined by her graceful coming down in a bubble, then popped to reveal her beautiful pink ballgown in all its glory.
Paul Tazwell (costume designer) mentioned in an interview for Buzzfeed UK that he “was very inspired by the Glinda of the 1935 film”. The movie and the play differ in their colour schemes for Glinda; in the theatre production, the dress was meant to be pink but was changed to blue due to copyright laws. In the second film, we do see Glinda wear a lavender, blue and pink bubble dress, giving homage to the Broadway musical. Her choice to later change to pink, as we can infer from Part 1, is perhaps her way of having agency and bringing her identity into the role of ‘The Good Witch’. Therefore, this return to pink builds authenticity around the character of Glinda as she adopts the colour like she was originally meant to: in both the narrative and the theatre production.
ACCEPTING GREEN
In the Wicked: For Good trailer, Elphaba’s style is a contrast to Glinda’s, donning distressed leather as she goes on the run from The Wizard and his followers. This material has a shedding effect, emphasising its usage but also symbolising her break out from expectations and affinity to nature. Her actions in the first film were driven by her empathy towards the animals of Oz, illustrated through her style in the second as a clever reminder of Part 1 for viewers.
Furthermore, Elphaba’s green skin is a prominent topic for the characters, causing her to be insecure about who she is. In the song, ‘The Wizard and I’, she sees her face reflected in various coloured stained glass. When she fantasises about her meeting with The Wizard, she imagines him saying “would it be alright with you, if I degreenify you?”. At this point, a pink hue crosses over her face, neutralising the green. Another lighting effect happens to Glinda in the ball scene. When she finally understands Elphaba, she is encompassed with green hues that signify her new friend. They both experience being casted over with the colour that is representative of the other character. It is interesting to point out that through this experience, Glinda changes her mindset. Elphaba changes as well, but in a different way; throughout the film, she progressively becomes more confident in her skin. The creative team plays around with the colours in this world, using it as a sign for us to track their shifting attitudes and overall character development.
BECOMING ELPHABA AND GLINDA
Now that I have seen Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande play these two iconic characters, I cannot unsee them. It seems like they were born to play these roles. However, they did have to adopt new styles in order to embody the lives of Elphaba and Glinda. In their auditions, they came in their usual fashion styles. In an interview with Teen Vogue, Ariana Grande mentioned she arrived in a ponytail and cat-eye makeup – something she says is very “familiar”.
“I needed to disappear into this role, and I think when someone is, you know, branded one way as a certain caricaturised version of themselves already, it’s hard to trust that they’ll be able to disappear into a story” – Ariana Grande
Cynthia Erivo then added onto this: “I was asked to like, let go of the thing that was like, that are me – very me. So like, all the piercings”. She commented that the director wanted to see the “canvas” of them, so that they could imprint their direction of the protagonists onto the actresses. Taking on these well-known and beloved characters would be a challenging pursuit for anyone. These two do it so flawlessly, but we need to be reminded of how much work it probably took to achieve the end result.
Although they felt like they had to strip away their own styles as artists, I do believe that there are some parts of them than shine through their portrayals of Elphaba and Glinda. For Cynthia Erivo, it was important to her that Elphaba’s hair reflected her cultural identity.
“I wanted to get microbraids” – Cynthia Erivo, The British Blacklist.
She mentions that the hair for the on-stage production is different from this, but for her, she wanted Elphaba’s hair to feel “connected to me as a Black woman”. Cynthia Erivo then went on to discuss how she spent time with her hairstylist, discussing the movement, emotion and versatility of the hairstyle to ensure that it is representative of both Elphaba and herself.
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I wish I could go through every creative decision that was made in this movie, but I do believe that I would go on for what seems like forever. The artists have really gone all out with bringing to life The Land of Oz. From a stylistic lens, the amount of wonderfully magical and imaginative elements that are embedded into this adaptation makes it clear why Wicked: For Good is one of the most anticipated movies of the year.