Ariana Grande's recent success feels "different"
The 31-year-old pop singer first found fame as a teenager, starring on Broadway and on the Nickelodeon show 'Victorious' - but Ariana feels she's been able to show more of her real-life self while promoting the 'Wicked' movie
14 February 2025
Ariana - who played Glinda in the 2024 film adaptation of the musical - told The Hollywood Reporter: "It's a beautiful thing to feel like the work that I'm doing or have done is kind of, I suppose, I don't know, enough or louder or whatever it is.
"This feeling that people are seeing me - like, actually me - it's so silly because I've been seen for so long, but it feels like it's maybe for the first time and it's just different."
Ariana admits to playing a "character" during her pop career.
The singer - who released her debut album, 'Yours Truly', back in 2013 - explained: "At a certain point, you get tired of that [pop star] character, because it is a character.
"There are pieces of you and your story that are woven throughout your songwriting, but then, because of the way it travels and becomes sensationalised, it gets away from you. And beneath all of it is just a girl from Boca [Raton, Florida] who loves art, and I think that's why it's been such a deeply healing gift to disappear into this character - to take off one mask and put on another."
Ariana attended three auditions for the role of Glinda, and the singer feels she really "earned" her part in the movie.
She explained: "People who didn't understand would say, 'Oh, that's so silly, they know how talented you are,' and I was like, 'That's very nice, but Glinda requires so much. I have to be able to earn this and I don't want it unless I've earned it.'
"It became this beautiful evolution of getting to know myself beneath it all. I was like, 'Oh my goodness, I love this person underneath the drag.'"
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