Ariana Grandegets it. The big-screen adaptation ofWicked’s Galinda (Glinda?) has long been a champion of queer rights (in addition to her status as a gay icon of pop music), and has never been shy about her feelings about love — in her own life or Galinda’s. Back in November, she even stated that she believes her character might be"a little bit in the closet.“So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see Grande reaffirming those comments in a new interview withVariety.
In afeature cover storyon the incredible success and powerful statement thatWicked’s success has thus far been, Grande was asked to elaborate on her comments on Glinda’s sexuality, and define what she thinks it means for how she played the character. And while she did describe Glinda’s relationship with Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba as “platonic,” she was also quick to say “they’re in love with each other.”
The quote reads as such, in full:
“I think she’s a person who loves so much, and I do think that it goes beyond gender, and I think that’s a common theme in Oz. I also think that the ways in which she loves Elphaba so much, and that forgiveness and that unconditional love that they share — I think they’re in love with each other. I know, yes, it’s platonic …” She cuts herself off before she can say too much; this many press engagements in, she knows the game. “But we’ll talk about it more in depth in movie two.”
In many ways, Grande is merely asking audiences to stop holding relationships — and love — to such rigid standards and definitions. Celebrating love that exists outside of the more traditional, sexually-charged bonds that are so often celebrated and venerated as The Best, Most Important Love Of All To Have (maybe only second to Family Love) is something our society should do more of, to be honest. And if that makes their love a queer love, then so be it.
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Because there are many different ways to love and be in love with someone, and there are many different types of relationships worth celebrating, or even just holding up as an example of how we can and should help and love one another. After all, as Grande says earlier in the same interview, “that’s how we’ve always survived. We’ve always been able to survive with those friendships and those allies.”
That said, it would be a disservice to not consider that the sexual tension and undertones to their relationship are intentional — not only on Grande’s part, but on the part ofWickedauthor Gregory Macguire’s part. You see,in the book, Elphaba and Glinda share a kiss. This has, of course, made fans wonder over the years if there was ever more to their relationship and if that sapphic tension was on purpose.
To which Maguireexplained toThemin November 2024:
That was intentional, and it was modest and restrained and refined in such a way that one could imagine that one of those two young women had felt more than the other and had not wanted to say it. Or perhaps because a novelist can’t write every scene, perhaps when the lights were out and the novelist was out having a smoke in the back alley, the girls had sex in the bed on the way to the Emerald City. I wanted to propose this possibility, but I did not want to make a declarative statement about.
Either way you slice it: the bottom line remains the same — our views on love and what it means and which sorts of love are most important, are deeply flawed. As a society, we deserve to have more varied depictions of love on screen, so that maybe one day there’s just simply more love flowing from person to person on the planet, and we can save the silly human species and the planet we take for granted. For good.
Wicked adapts the Broadway musical into a two-part film, following the unlikely friendship between Elphaba, born with green skin, and Glinda, a popular aristocrat, in the Land of Oz. As they navigate their contrasting paths, they evolve into Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.
