Ariana Grande "Had a Heart Attack" After Joining Wicked Cast with Cynthia Erivo, Talks "Domingo" Bit

Oh, my gosh. We love it when you come to the show. I love being at the show. Love you so much. I miss you. Congratulations on this. Again, I told you already, but two words, legendary. I unbelieve it. You've got to be so proud about this, but I want to first congratulate you on Saturday Night Live. You were great hosting on Saturday. You were on Saturday Night Live, and you could do it all. You did a sketch called Domingo, where you sang. Yes, everyone saw this sketch. It's the most viral thing. Everyone saw it. And it was so funny. You were singing an off-key version of Espresso. And I was watching. I think I loved it the most, because you singing off-key is very rare. Oh. Is it hard to sing off-key? Yeah, it was really fun. I really enjoyed it. Yes, but can you normally? I mean, you're always singing on-key. Oh, that's very generous. Thank you. Yeah. It was really fun. It was a bit that we found, like, in the moment. I pitched it to the writers, Sudi and Jimmy. I said, would it be funny if it got progressively worse as it went on? Gosh, it was so good. I was like, oh, my gosh. I just wanted more. But then I saw a character that I think I will never forget. Antonia. Oh, yes. Now, can we zoom in? Just zoom in. It's just, I mean, I don't know why, but this is my favorite thing I've ever seen. I just think you're so, it's so kind of cute. And, but also the funniest thing, you were in character. Thank you so much. And now I heard that people are coming up to you at Wicked premieres wanting you to sign this photo. Oh, yeah. With posters of Antonio. They were coming to the premieres, which is insane. But I mean, like, I really, I understand it. I appreciate it. He's still with me. You know, he's, I'm still unpacking the emotional weight of Antonio with my therapist. With your therapist. Yeah, you nailed it. That's the thing about you is that I just, you can do everything, you can sing, you can act, but you also have a great sense of humor and you get it. And you know how to do comedy. No, stop. I heard that you had a lot to do with getting Bowen Yang cast in Wicked. He's great. By the way, he has a full dance number. He's amazing. He's absolutely brilliant in this film. He and Bronwyn James, who play Fanny and Shen Shen, they're unbelievable together. I was like, Bowen, are you really dancing? I mean, you were really, are you kidding me? I studied so hard for that. Yeah. He was great. I mean, he's phenomenal. He killed it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. How did you get Bowen to do the film? Well, I didn't, I don't know that I actually had anything to do with it because, you know, Mark Platt and Jon M. Chu and Universal Studios were really trying to make it happen. I don't know why I thought that I had any power here. I was like, I'll call Lorne. That's everyone's answer. As if that was gonna do anything. I'll call Lorne, yeah. So you called Lorne Michaels? Yes, I did. And I don't know why I did because- Because you're family, he loves you. No, but it was the scariest moment of my life. You know what I mean? I was realizing in real time that like, oh, I have nothing to say and I have no reason why he would listen to me. What did he say? I was just like, oh, hi, Lorne, how are you? And he was like, hello, Ariana, what do you want? Is that, yeah, yeah. Thank you very much. What do you want? I'm very busy. No, but I basically was just like, in that moment I realized I don't have what it takes to get this to happen. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no. But you got it to happen. No, but I did beg, I begged. And he worked it out and he flew back and forth between SNL and filming Wicked to be a part of it. And he's unbelievable. And he just put himself through it to get it done. When you first heard, let's talk about Wicked because I can't imagine anyone else's Glinda. You really nailed it. I can't trust it. When you first heard that Wicked was being made into a movie, immediately, did you start preparing for maybe a potential audition? Did you go like, I think I should do this? Yes, as soon as I caught whispers of an audition maybe, or that a movie was gonna happen at all, I started to kind of mentally prepare myself and my team. I just told them, you know, if this is really happening and if they are gonna start seeing people for it, I just wanna be so prepared. I wanna take all of the acting lessons, all of the singing lessons. I wanna train my voice to become coloratura soprano, like legit opera. I have to honor this the way that it requires. And I think that- Yeah. You always, though, you put the work in. You're, I don't wanna say a perfectionist, but every time you've been on our show, you put the time in, you practice, you rehearse, you nail it. I mean, this is a big thing. And I remember how serious you were like, Jimmy, I'm diving into this deep. I'm going for it. Well, we were making our video for the song that's on your number one comedy album. Thank you so much. Oh my gosh. That's right. Yes. When I was going through the audition process, and I just remember talking to you about it and you being so, so, so supportive, as you always are, here and as a friend behind the scenes. And yeah, I just, I wanted to- You nailed it. And what was the audition process? Like you're going in, it wasn't just offered. No, my God. Thank God. I mean, it's wicked. It has to be earned. It's like- Yes. It's the most important thing. That's right. You know, I tried to prepare myself mentally going into it, knowing that, listen, this is going to end up where it's meant to end up. And as a fan of it, I have to trust that and know that it's gonna go where it's supposed to go. But in the meantime, I'm gonna do every damn thing I can to prepare myself for this and to get the chance. And I auditioned August 13th, 2021. That was my first audition. Wow. And then I got called back and then I got called back again. And then I did screen tests with two different actresses. And it was like a three, three and a half hour session that day. And so much goes into, I mean, just even, cause you're really singing. You're, I mean, you're going for it. I mean, you and Cynthia Erivo. Cynthia Erivo, everyone. Great chemistry. Great partner. Great chemistry. When did you find out Cynthia was going to play Elphaba? I found out. So when they called me to tell me that I had the part, I had one heart attack. That was the first one. And then they told me that I was going to be playing opposite Cynthia Erivo. And that was the second heart attack. And then I died and I'm dead and I'm dead here. And I'm still dead. Perfect, you're still, you're still dead. No, yeah. Congratulations, yeah. I mean, I've just been such a fan of hers for such a long time. She's so extraordinary. And getting to play opposite her and also just become true sisters with her has been such a beautiful experience. And I'm so grateful that it was us. It's just, you know, I told you, I was watching the movie. I was just in awe and you're like, man, you took it to the next level. Only, only you can do this. Cause I'm like, you're funny. You're gorgeous. You can act, you could sing. It's everything. And it's so great. I love the whole thing. You, by the way, even that made me laugh. Dude, you got all the, you nailed all the jokes, but you brought us a cool video. Oh yes. A behind the scenes video that you haven't shown anyone yet. No. This is you. What are we going to see? What are we going to see here? This is you in the chandelier. Yeah, so this is the first time ever that I rehearsed the chandelier bit where I'm swinging around on the ceiling. And what happened was we have an amazing stunts team and one of our stunt coordinators was standing in the room just to make sure that I didn't break all of my limbs. And he was standing in the corner really stoically and bravely. And my foot just kind of almost breaks his face. Oh my God. Sorry, good. He just kind of like toughs it out. And then you get to see the very honest, genuine reaction of Cynthia Erivo the first time that I did the stunt. Okay. And all of it, I think feels worth it. Please let me know. Yeah, let's, this is a slow-mo video. Take a look at this. You are here. All right, you're going up. First rehearsal. You're grabbing the thing. Okay. I still have brown hair. This is my last apron. Watch the foot. Look at his face. He's like, Ninja. Oh, Ninja. And now, please look at Cynthia Erivo, please. Cynthia's like, what in the world am I watching? This is exactly, this is exactly what I'm getting into right here. This is going to be a fun movie. You are the best. We're with the Ariana Grande. When we come back, everybody.