How ‘Defying Gravity’ took flight: The untold story from 3 ‘Wicked’ Oscar nominees
“Defying Gravity” is the defining moment of Wicked, serving as the showstopping climax to the movie musical that has racked up 10 Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture, editing, visual effects, and sound. Three of those nominees — film editor Myron Kerstein, visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman, and production sound mixer Simon Hayes — sat down with Gold Derby to spill the tea on “Defying Gravity,” explaining how the magical moment came together. Watch the full interview above.
“The outpouring of love [is] amazing,” says Kerstein of learning about his Oscar nod. Helman notes how the “big family” atmosphere of Wicked comes from the top with director Jon M. Chu. And Hayes recalls getting congratulatory texts from friends he hadn’t “seen for 30 years.”
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The “Defying Gravity” song was performed live on set by Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda the Good Witch), which provided its own unique challenges for the filmmaking team. “Right from the beginning of shooting, the one sequence that every single member of the crew wanted to talk to me about was ‘Defying Gravity,'” recalls Hayes. “They said, but surely she can’t sing it live. She’s going to be flying 30 feet in the air. She’s going to need wind on her, she’s going to need wires.” Thus, they ended up having to design a “silent wind” machine that could “fire jets of wind at her” without being heard on camera.
Ultimately, Hayes concedes, “I don’t see how we could have made ‘Defying Gravity’ without it being live. … It enabled Cynthia and Ariana to basically choose their own tempo. Through a lot of the track, they were being accompanied by a keyboard player, [who’d let them] accelerate into moments and then hold back and completely let their emotions drive the piece. And the live vocal also means that the sound design behind it — the sound of the monkeys, the sound of the wind, the score, and everything — all can blend into something that is just absolutely believable and pulls the heartstrings.”
Kerstein readily admits that reading the “Defying Gravity” sequence in the script made him “cry like a baby.” He remembers saying to Chu, “If we can make the ending work the way it works on the page at least, then we know we can end the first part this way. If it feels satisfying emotionally, then it’s going to work. So how do we do that?”
Step one for the film editor was cutting the scenes between Erivo and Grande to “get [their performance] right.” However, “Then we had a strike that had prevented us from finishing ‘Defying Gravity.’ In some ways that was a bit of a blessing, because we were able to tinker with a majority of what we did have of the song. But we didn’t have her flying, which was going to be the climax of the film. So we were trying to do a lot of experimentation through the edit, as far as how to start and stop that song, and how to hold the audience tight emotionally and dramatically.”
As for Helman’s biggest hurdle? “How do you portray flying, and what is it that we’re going to do here that is different than anything else?” Add in the fact that Erivo “wanted to do her own stunts,” and the VFX team members had their work cut out for them. “Cynthia wanted to sing while she was being thrown in the air, which actually helped us because we are looking for the truth. And the truth is that she was mitigating all the forces of gravity, let’s say, throughout.”
Helman explains that “the cape had to be visual effects because of the wires, and some of the body had to be replaced. But the spirit of the whole thing and her singing is there, and that contributes to the illusion that we are all trying to create for storytelling.” Helman also wanted to emphasize the “connection” between Elphaba and Glinda, saying, “It was really important for Cynthia as an actress to be in front of somebody, and that she was singing to somebody, and somebody was singing to her. So the balcony was there just for her to have interaction.”
Adds Hayes, “The interesting thing about the whole sequence is it starts with them down at the bottom of the stairs, quite low volume and very, very emotional and very, very sensitive. And then it just kind of blossoms as they run up the stairs, and then they have that face-to-face where they make the decisions, and they’re both dueting together just absolutely beautifully. The way their voices blended was something very, very special.”
Helman confesses that when Elphaba grabs the broom for the first time, it’s “half practical and half [computer graphics], because she can’t really handle the whole broom.” As he explains, “It was a stick, a little part of it, and then it was replaced. I think that this is one of the reasons why I like working in visual effects, because nobody really can tell what’s real and what is not. Once she turns around, it is a visual effects broom, and you can’t tell.”
Kerstein notes, “What I love about that moment [with the broom] and the moment with her putting on the cape is that basically we’re finishing the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West. And so of course when I get the dailies, I get every angle under the sun because Jon likes to give me a lot of options in the edit room. He often says that he’s capturing butterflies on the day of the shoot, or giving me every spice in the kitchen, and then I get to make this meal.”
For fans who loved Wicked, just wait till you see what’s in store for the second part, due out in November. As Hayes teases, “Let me tell you, you haven’t seen For Good yet. Just buckle up.”
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