Ariana Grande ‘Was Not Hiding’ Personal Struggles in ‘Wicked: For Good,’ Said Director Jon M. Chu

Ariana Grande filmed Wicked: For Good amid a divorce and a new, headline-making relationship. Unsurprisingly, it was a bumpy period in her life. Grande said she connected deeply to her character, and had to show up to set on days when she didn’t feel her best. Director Jon M. Chu said this was obvious to him while they were filming.

Ariana Grande didn’t hide anything from the cameras in ‘Wicked: For Good’

While preparing to embody Glinda, her character in the Wicked films, Grande said she meticulously plotted out her character’s life. She said she didn’t want to pull from her own life.

“This is my first time talking about it,” she told The New York Times. “I just wanted to design this person inside and out, even if none of it was necessary for a scene, so that I could reference it for myself and leave my own stuff at home. So every time something had to trigger Glinda, it was a Glinda trigger that I used, not an Ariana one.”

Still, Chu said she worked through some personal upheaval on camera. While filming, she navigated the end of her marriage to Dalton Gomez and the beginning of her relationship with co-star Ethan Slater. Their romance made headlines because they both left their respective spouses shortly before they went public. Chu said all of this was on display in Grande’s performance.

“I got to watch her on days be upset in her real life and have to open up even more to deliver Galinda for us,” he said. “She was not hiding anything from this camera.”

Wicked: For Good comes to theaters on Nov. 21.