The 'Independence Day' actor confirms his 'Wicked' casting and dishes on one of his days on set where he was left in fear as his childhood nightmare resurfaced.
- Mar 25, 2023
AceShowbiz - Jeff Goldblum has said he's indeed joining "Wicked". Following speculation that the 70-year-old actor would play the Wizard in Jon M. Chu's adaptation of the Broadway musical, Jeff is now admitting he is part of the project.
"I was just on this set of 'Wicked'. I'm not supposed to talk about that, but it's been out and about," he said during an appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!". Of his co-stars, he said, "You should see our witches, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, very good." He added, "I shouldn't talk about it, but I was shooting one day, and I found myself tearing up in fear, a childhood fear came back to me."
He explained that he told his co-star Cynthia - who plays Elphaba - about a childhood nightmare he had about a "very scary queen/witch," who tied him to a tree stump and was "going to chop off my head." Goldblum said his older brothers teased him for weeks but "witches scare me."
The actor joins a host of stars in the movie alongside Cynthia as Elphaba, Ariana as Glinda, and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero. Bowen Yang, Marissa Bode, Bronwyn James, Keala Settle, Aaron Teoh, and Colin Michael Carmichael also make up the ensemble cast of the two-part movie.
Marissa will be playing Elphaba's sister, Nessarose, and like her character, the actress is a wheelchair user. Bowen and Bronwyn will be playing classmates of Elphaba and Glinda at Shiz University while Keala will play Miss Coddle, Aaron will portray Avaric, and Colin will be Nikidik.
Michelle Yeoh will play Madame Morrible, the Headmistress of Crage Hall at Shiz University who convinces Elphaba to create the flying monkeys while she sings in "The Wizard and I". Ethan Slater was also recently unveiled as Boq.
Director Jon Chu decided to make the movie into two parts because it would be "impossible" to put the complex story into a single film. He said, "Thank you for all the support these past several months in anticipation of the 'WICKED' movie."
"Here's what happened, as we prepared this production over the last year, it became increasingly clear that it would be impossible to wrestle the story of 'WICKED' into a single film without doing some real damage to it. With more space, we can tell the story of WICKED as it was meant to be told while bringing even more depth and surprise to the journeys of these beloved characters."
"Wicked: Part One" is set to be released in December 2024, with the second following in 2025.
