Why ‘Wicked’ star Cynthia Erivo wouldn’t use the bathroom on set (exclusive)

The Wicked trailers show the film’s stunning costumes, which, according to star Cynthia Erivo, are also quite difficult to get in and out of.

“I don’t go to the bathroom,” Erivo says on the Nov. 15 episode of the Broadway Podcast Network’s Wicked podcast, Sentimental Men. “Once I’m in my costume — and this is probably a terrible idea — and the harness is on, I’m not doing it… I’m not dealing with it. There’s too many layers. I’m not dealing with it. I’m not going to the bathroom. It is what it is.”

The ensemble that the actress wore as Elphaba involved not just a black cloak and a pointy hat, but a corset and sometimes a harness for the scenes in which she flew on her broomstick while doing her own stunts.

“Those days were really interesting because once you’re in the harness, you don’t want to come out of the harness,” Erivo said, “because it takes forever to get everything prepped again.”

Sometimes, she was in the costume as early as 7 a.m. for 12 or 14 hours.

“Those days can be really…big,” Erivo said. “They can be really exhausting, because your body is being put through the strangest things.”

People would ask Erivo if she needed to use the bathroom, but she refused.

“No, I don’t need the bathroom,” the two-time Oscar nominee would tell them. “Let’s go. Let’s go. We’re in it.”

She also explained that the harnesses needed to be “pretty snug, because…you’re flying, which I found deeply thrilling.”

Erivo was also thrilled with the filmmakers’ choice of her costar, Ariana Grande, who plays Glinda. “Thank goodness,” Erivo told The New York Times in a joint interview with Grande. “Because it was not the two ladies that I was auditioning with.”

Erivo didn’t say who she auditioned with, but the actresses who have revealed they tried out for the part include Reneé Rapp, Dove Cameron, and Amanda Seyfried.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

For Grande, being cast as Glinda fulfilled a lifelong dream and provided her an opportunity to revisit to her musical theater roots. 

“As soon as I got murmurs of the fact that it could possibly be turning into a film, all I wanted was a chance to audition,” Grande said. “Some members of my team at the time were like, ‘You shouldn’t even have to audition,’ and I was like, ‘You don’t understand — of course I have to. This is something that has to be earned.’ I have so much to prove, and I threw myself at it in every way that I could.”

Wicked, which costars Michelle Yeoh, Bowen Yang, and Jeff Goldblum, soars into theaters Nov. 22.