“I felt like a protective nerd, like the gatekeeping fan girl in the room,” Ariana Grande jokingly told the crowd at the DGA Theater on Tuesday night. The Oscar nominee, speaking in conversation with Billie Eilish for an FYC event, shared what was nonnegotiable for her in terms of changes from Wicked’s stage musical to film.
“I’m somewhat of a purist when it comes to making musical changes, especially it has to have an emotional attachment or some sort of believable intention behind it,” she explained. The Eternal Sunshine singer said it felt like her job to protect Glinda.
“Stephen Schwartz shared that there was a version of popular in the very beginning that had hip-hop drums in it,” Grande told Eilish and the crowd, noting she thought it was fine to share since Schwartz had already told the story. “I was like, ‘How do I have this conversation in the most loving, respectful way?’ I was like, ‘This cannot happen.’”
The actress said she “mustered up the courage” to express that she didn’t think that fit Glinda. “How different would life be today if ‘Popular’ had trapped drums in it?” she joked. “Everybody, there’s a time and place, and it’s not with Glinda because she claps on one and three, and that’s OK.”
Eilish and Grande spent much of the evening charmingly gushing over one another, with the younger admitting to her longtime fandom of the night’s star. “I love this girl so much, and I love this movie so much,” Eilish said. Grande immediately telling the “Birds of a Feather” singer the feeling was mutual. Eilish then went on to explain that her official YouTube account has been her personal account since she was 11 years old.
“I was just in the car telling my mom that you can find…. There’s like old interviews of you from like 2014, and Billie Eilish comments, ‘I’m team Ari,’” she said, eliciting a big laugh from the crowd and Grande herself. “That makes me so happy,” Grande responded.
