Cynthia Erivo

I think I had an inkling that there was a connection soon after I started doing the music, singing the music, learning the music.

But I think it really actually clicked when I was making the film, when I was playing the character, that I realized, oh, this is a lot closer to home than I had imagined.

But I didn't realize that there were so many sort of

Real parallels, the relationship with her father, the relationship to being in spaces that don't really include you, all of that sort of dawned on me as it was happening.

So the feelings you see in the movie are very real feelings because they're sort of immediate.

Yeah.

We were shooting, and this is going to sound so strange because it's such a small moment, but we were shooting the scene when Nessa Rose is about to be sent off to school and their father asks Elphaba to take care of Nessa.

And I remember he speaks to her quite harshly.

And the feeling that I got in that moment sort of was a click moment for me.

It was that moment that I realized, oh, this relationship is a complicated one.

And that's when I sort of thought, oh, I recognize that.

I mean, we're talking over a decade or so.

The first time I discovered it was when I was 20 or 21.

Yeah.

This was the exact piece of music I escaped into when I was in drama school.

If I was having a really bad day or was miserably aware of how odd I felt there, an outsider who couldn't connect with the others, I would hide out in a music room with a friend, Michael.

We'd sing this together.

We'd stay in that little room until the very last minute before we had to go back to class, belting our hearts out.

This song gave me refuge, singing it during a very vulnerable time in my life.

These songs made me feel safe.