Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande Each Contracted COVID Days Before Their Biggest Wicked Musical Numbers

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande had their work cut out for them filming Wicked. And the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help. 

“There was one time when I got Covid, there was another time when she got Covid,” Erivo, 37, revealed to The New York Times in an interview published Wednesday, Nov. 6.

Not only that, recalled Grande, 31, but each actress contracted the virus in the days before filming their biggest musical numbers: Erivo, who plays Elphaba, future Wicked Witch of the West, sings the climactic act one closer “Defying Gravity,” while Grande as Glinda the Good Witch performs the bubbly “Popular.”

“We only got sick once each, but both were before some of the most important works of the whole movie,” said the “Yes, And?” singer. 

Filming “Popular,” she added, “I came to set with a mask on my final days of recovery… no one liked this joke but I loved it so I’ll tell it: We were in the dorm room together and I sang in her ear, ‘Positive, you’re going to be positive!’ But I wasn’t positive anymore, don’t worry! I took the test.”

For Erivo, catching COVID the week before shooting “Defying Gravity” was a cosmic sign: “It was literally like, ‘Sit down, Cynthia, not yet.’”

The Jon M. Chu-directed screen adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Tony-winning Broadway musical (itself adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked, a revisionist prequel set in L. Frank Baum’s Oz) was also delayed by the 2023 Hollywood actors strike, as Erivo and Grande confirmed to the Times. 

“At first, it felt like an interruption, and then as it went on, it felt like the rest we needed,” recalled Erivo. “We’d worked ourselves to the bone. I was really grateful because the next thing that we had to do [until the strike happened] was ‘Defying Gravity,’ and it felt like the universe going, ‘You need your full strength to do this.’”

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“It was funny though because no matter how much time passed, the second we got back into those clothes, the characters were right there with us,” said Grande, growing emotional when asked about wrapping filming and leaving Glinda behind. “We cried every minute, every hour. We both were in a horrible state for a few days.”

Erivo said she was “devastated” upon finishing filming as Elphaba, adding, “I still fiercely love her.”

“Me too,” said Grande. “We brought our corsets home and our shoes and our wands. I still have all of my wigs.”

Wicked: Part One is in theaters Nov. 22. Wicked: Part Two is slated for Nov. 26, 2025. Adapted by Holzman and Dana Fox, the movies also stars Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Bowen Yang as Pfannee, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, Ethan Slater as Boq, Peter Dinklage as the voice of Dr. Dillamond and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.

Buy PEOPLE’s Wicked special edition here.