Entertainment Weekly
Source: Entertainment Weekly
For Good director Jon M. Chu argues that Cynthia Erivo has played Jesus more than once.
This past summer, the actress earned rave reviews playing the Biblical figure in the star-studded Hollywood Bowl production of the beloved Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Jesus Christ Superstar in Los Angeles — and now the filmmaker posits that she’s done it again as Elphaba.
The new movie musical concludes with all Ozians believing Elphaba has died — but in reality, she and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) have faked their deaths and escaped into the desert land beyond Oz. Before she goes, she says goodbye to Glinda (Ariana Grande), gifting her the book of magic spells known as the Grimmerie.
“I mean literally, Cynthia could be seen as Jesus going off, leaving us, and she’s giving Galinda the book and saying, ‘You know the power that you have, and you know the truth,'” Chu tells Entertainment Weekly.
“And there’s no answer to it at the end of this movie,” he continues. “It’s a challenge: What are you going to be? We don’t even know what Glinda does, we just know the possibilities are beautiful.”
But it’s not just Glinda with a new adventure in front of her. While the desert Fiyero and Elphaba walk off into looks barren at first glance, Chu is quick to point out it “is not dead space, it’s possibility. No one has explored that horizon because everyone’s too scared.”
Initially, “we explored versions of that desert that were a lot darker and scarier — like walking into your fears,” Chu reveals. Instead, the director said, “Let’s put sparkles in that sand!” and chose to visually represent a sense of hope. “I wanted it to feel like they get to walk off into the sunset and determine what’s next for themselves.”
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