“It’s something that I’m just really proud of,” she shared of her voice. “Part of why I did want to engage [with critics] is because I am really proud of my hard work and of the fact that I did give 100 percent of myself, including my physicality, to this role. I am proud of that, so I wanted to protect it.”
And while Ariana’s voice may be noticeably different for the film, it’s not the only alteration she made.
For the film—which also stars Jonathan Bailey, Bowen Yang, Michelle Yeoh and lands in theaters Nov. 22—the “Positions” singer is credited with her full name Ariana Grande-Butera.
“This experience was such a homecoming for me,” Ariana said in a Nov. 4 clip of The Streaming Service with Justin Hill. “I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways through what I learned from Glinda, from Elphaba and, you know, that was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old—and it felt like a really lovely way of honoring that.”
Keep reading to see more of Ariana over the years.
(E! and Universal are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)