Ariana Grande reveals she had no idea what was happening in viral Wicked interview-Asyia Iftikhar-Entertainment – Metro

Ariana Grande was just as confused as everyone else about viral Wicked meme (Picture: Variety/YouTube)

Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo have shared exactly what went down during the viral ‘holding space for Defying Gravity’ interview – and it is hilarious.

In November, the screenstars embarked on an extensive, and emotional, press tour for one of the year’s most-anticipated cinematic events – the movie musical adaptation of Wicked directed by Jon M. Chu.

Ariana, 31, and Cynthia, 37, made clear the close bond they have forged since playing Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba in the new movie, which is already tipped for multiple Oscar nominations.

But no moment was more bizarre than an interview conducted by Out magazine journalist Tracy E. Gilchrist where she told Cynthia that lots of people were ‘holding space’ for the lyrics of Defying Gravity.

Cynthia’s tearful response to the slightly nonsensical statement, Ariana’s show of support by holding one of her co-star’s fingers, and the reporter’s shaky backpedalling all combined to make it perfect viral meme material.

Now, the God Is A Woman hitmaker has revealed she literally had no clue what the interviewer meant, she just wanted ‘to be there’ for Cynthia (who also had no idea what was going on).

Cynthia Erivo was in tears during this very baffling interview (Picture: Advocate Channel/YouTube)

Essentially, it’s become clear that absolutely nobody in that room had any clue what was going on at any given moment.

‘So I didn’t know what any part of it meant,’ Ariana explained to Variety in a new interview, as Jon started laughing.

She continued: ‘I didn’t understand the first sentence. And then I definitely didn’t understand how [Cynthia] responded. I was like “oh what did she say? What did you hear?”.

‘And I just wanted to be there because I knew something big was happening and I didn’t know how to be there.’

Cynthia also admitted she was slightly befuddled by the line of questioning.

‘But then after a while I didn’t know how to be there,’ she added.

Before Ariana swooped in: ‘The craziest thing was, I remember in the moment asking myself “am I okay? Did I not hear something?” because [Cynthia] looks like she is going to cry again.’

This then led to Ariana delicately caressing her finger.

Ariana had to ask herself if she was okay in the moment (Picture: EPA)

‘I don’t know what the tapping was about,’ she added. The confusion only increased tenfold when the reporter said she was ‘in queer media’.

‘I honestly didn’t know what that meant. Am I also in queer media?. Work , let’s both be there,’ Cynthia recounted.

Ultimately Ariana was ‘relieved’ everyone was as baffled by this moment as she was. And Cynthia shouted out the NYC Gay Men’s Chorus who did a medley about ‘holding space with that’.

The pair are even getting handmade t-shirts with the now famed phrase on emblazoned on it.

Jon even joined in on the joke saying that although he was in another room at the time ‘his finger was itching’.

In an interview post-mortem with Variety, the journalist spoke out about what she had been meaning to say and her own surprise at the intense atmosphere in the room.

She told the publication: ‘There’s a lot of resonance [in the lyrics] right now for anyone who is marginalized. For me, holding space is listening to those lyrics anew and finding solace or inspiration.’

And even added that she didn’t draw inspiration for the questions from ‘a couple of posts’ but rather ‘most of it actually came from a conversation with a friend.’

At the end of the day, it has given everyone a good chuckle (Picture: Variety/YouTube)

And has only boosted their great box office success (Picture: AP)

Needless to say, whether we know what it means or not, plenty of people are holding space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity after the Elphaba star’s stunning rendition.

Wicked has performed wonderfully at the box office, earning $380million (£298m) globally so far.

In an interview with Metro, Jon shared he was ‘haunted’ by the idea of making Defying Gravity perfect.

‘‘We had to make sure that Defying Gravity – which is a gift in itself, but that on its own wouldn’t satisfy – it had to have all the emotional plumbing from the beginning of the movie that you rooted for Elphaba to have this moment,’ he said.

Elsewhere, Ariana addressed another aspect of her press tour that she has struggled with, comments over her body.

‘I’ve been kind of doing this in front of the public and kind of been a specimen in a petri dish since I was 16 or 17, so I have heard it all,’ she said in an interview with Sally.

She continued: I’ve heard every version of it… of what’s wrong with me. And then you fix it, and then it’s wrong for different reasons. But that’s everything from – even just the simplest thing – your appearance, you know?’

And added that it was ‘it’s hard to protect yourself from that noise’.

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