- Cynthia Erivo wowed audiences with her portrayal of Elphaba in Wicked
- And now the sound team has revealed just how they were able to balance the actor singing live while performing her own stunts
- Sound mixer Simon Hayes also explained how they made Ariana Grande’s costumes work with the live recordings
Cynthia Erivo wowed fans with her amazing performance as Elphaba in Wicked – so much so, that the actor earned a slew of awards show nominations for her portrayal of the role.
And one of the most impressive things about Erivo’s take on the part was her insistence to sing live… while also flying.
Fans of Wicked will know that the 2003 Broadway show is actually the prequel to The Wizard of Oz – and Erivo’s character Elphaba is better known as The Wicked Witch of the West, who flies around on her broomstick and terrorizes Ozians across the land.
Now, sound mixer Simon Hayes has opened up about how he and his team made the stunts possible while shooting the movie.
“From the first moment Jon [M. Chu, the director] and I met on Zoom, he said, ‘I really feel like we have to go live, but I’m worried – I’ve got three cameras on cranes, some of the sets are 50 feet tall. Is it possible?’” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “I said, ‘We can go live, if you’re asking the whole crew to support the live process.’”
While Hayes admitted that pre-recorded tracks were essential for rehearsals, he went on to say, “The pre records always [stayed] in our back pocket. It became clear, and this shouldn’t be surprising, that [the actors] have incredible vocal stamina and could sing live all day, 10 hours, and not wear their voices out.”
When it came time for Erivo, 38, to give her amazing rendition of Defying Gravity – the number which closes the first movie – she also insisted on doing her own flying stunts.
Hayes explained that any sounds, including wind, had to be controlled so they wouldn’t interfere with her live vocals.
“Cynthia was adamant that she was going to sing live, so we had to make this scene as quiet as possible – but it also had to be super windy,” he said. “The sound and special effects teams worked together to devise ‘silent wind’, pumping air from wind machines outside the soundstage through holes in the set walls, with technicians pointing plastic, flexible tubes at Erivo as she flew through the air.”
The sound team’s trouble with Ariana Grande
Erivo wasn’t the only cast member to put the sound team to the test.
As fans swooned over Ariana Grande’s bubblegum pink gowns as she played Glinda, they also posed a problem when it came to recording the live sound.
To combat these issues, the team made sure Grande, 31, had two personal mics on her at all times – one on her right and one on her left, due to the low-cut dresses she was wearing.
The two mics allowed the team to record her vocals whichever way her head turned, and if one picked up the rustle of fabric, there would be a backup track.
Additionally using two boom operators to capture the sound, the mics on clothes were edited out in post-production by VFX supervisor Pablo Helman.
“The VFX removal of a microphone has a financial penalty, but so does rerecording a vocal,” Hayes explained. “Our whole MO is: If we’re going to spend some money, let’s spend it on supporting the original performance.”
Cynthia Erivo trusted Grande with her vocals
While the sound team took care of capturing the live recordings, Erivo had only one person she truly trusted when it came to cutting her vocal tracks – her co-star, Grande.
“We built a real partnership and collaboration between the two of us, right down to vocals,” she explained in an interview. “[Ariana] was like, ‘I will listen to both of our vocals. We will keep listening, and if there’s something you don’t like, come to me’.
“Because she basically edits her own vocals. She’s one of the most intelligent, brilliant people when it comes to music. It’s not just the singing.”
Erivo continued, “When we had to do the tracks we would use to sing to when we were rehearsing and what not, the only person I really trusted with my vocals to cut them and pick the choices was Ariana.
“And we would sing it together, we would sit in the studio together, and I’d be like, ‘These are the things that I like’. Then she would send me a version – like, ‘Which one do you like, this or this?’ She would sometimes put the comps together.”
