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Jon Chu’s film adaptation of the musical Wicked has been out in theatres for nearly three weeks and has broken countless records, including the highest-grossing Broadway musical movie at the box office, inching towards the $500 million mark. Starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, the casting contains a web of invisible strings between the actors and their characters. It’s no secret that both Ariana and Cynthia were huge fans of the musical and worked their entire lives to fill these roles, but one lesser-known arc is the invisible string from the world of Oz that belongs to Ethan Slater who was undoubtedly destined to be a part of this world.
Ethan’s first introduction to Oz was just him trying to please his older sister, who had landed the starring role in their local production of The Wizard of Oz and needed someone to play her beloved pup, Toto. A few years later, he became one of the lucky ones to say he witnessed Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel in the original cast of Wicked. In sixth grade, he played the wizard in his middle school production of The Wizard of Oz. But before finally landing the role of the lovestruck Munchkin boy Boq in the Wicked film franchise, he had auditioned for, and almost landed the part of Boq on Broadway several years prior. However, he instead went on to play SpongeBob in the SpongeBob Broadway Musical, where he received a Tony Award nomination and won a Drama Desk Award in 2018. But whether through his extensive training, his roles in quirky, heartfelt musicals, or his ability to convey vulnerability and charm, it was as if the magic of Oz had been calling him all along, waiting for the perfect moment. In a way, Slater’s journey to Boq mirrored the themes of Wicked itself: unexpected connections, personal transformation, and the discovery of where one truly belongs.
A few weeks after the film’s release, Schön! had a chance to sit down with Ethan Slater to chat about everything from his journey down the yellow brick road, his connection to Oz, what it was like walking onto the larger-than-life colourful sets of Wicked, and what it means to be a part of something bigger than oneself.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me and congratulations on this huge release! I know this movie has been a very long time in the making. I think everyone expected it to be huge, but how does it feel seeing the overwhelmingly positive reactions from critics and fans?
It has been exciting and heartwarming. In some ways, I too expected it to be big because I’ve known Wicked as a stage musical has done amazingly across the globe with so many touring companies, it was already a phenomenon, but you never really know how something is going to land. I do think that musical theatre in some ways feels very niche, no matter how big something is. Musical theatre is its own little niche community, and so there’s always the worry about it extending to the broader world and how it’s going to be received, but I think the beauty of Wicked and this movie is that it’s a really intimate story, particularly about these two women, and set in this land in the world of Oz, and it has a lot to say about our world. Yes, it’s a musical and we don’t shy away from that in any way, and that’s what I think makes it phenomenal. It’s been a cool thing to see– there’s something for everyone in this movie, and everyone is getting something out of it.
There have been a few moments between you and Wicked fans from some of the early screens that have gone a bit viral on social media. What has it been like to connect with fans in person throughout the release of the film?
It’s been really special on a couple of different sides. I mean, to meet Wicked fans across the world who are excited about this movie because they love Wicked so much is really cool, because I feel the same way! I am a huge fan of theatre and I saw Wicked when it first came out when I was 11 years old, so I’ve been excited about this movie for 20 years. That’s been a very cool thing. I think there’s also often a barrier between people, and that barrier is the internet– you were just talking about seeing the videos of these interactions online, and it’s amazing that those interactions reached so many people. But that was really between me and just a couple of people that were really there and we were having this moment together, in person, and that’s a really beautiful thing, to take away the barrier of social media and be able to meet people and talk to them, and be real people with each other. I mean, it’s kind of amazing, and to be able to do it in the excitement of something that we’re all really passionate about has been super fun. I really didn’t know what to expect going into a sort of world tour promoting a movie, but it was really fun.
That must be really special, to remove that barrier, and it definitely came through in the clips that were shown online. You sort of touched on this already, but going back a little bit, I would love to talk to you about your first introduction to Oz? Were you a fan of The Wizard of Oz growing up?
I definitely was a fan of The Wizard of Oz growing up, and I watched it countless times with my family. When I was 5, my sister was playing Dorothy in the neighbourhood production of The Wizard of Oz, and she needed a Toto, so she called on her little brother who would do anything for his big sister, so I put on dog ears and played Toto! I had one responsibility, which was – spoiler – revealing that the wizard was actually a man behind the curtain. And I tripped, and not just pulled down the curtain, but the steel contraption holding up the curtain crashed down on the one adult that was in the cast playing the wizard [laughs]. I remember it being a humiliating moment, and the moment I realized I was born to do this [laughs].
Amazing [laughs]!
But I did eventually get to play the wizard! When I was in sixth grade, my middle school did The Wizard of Oz, and I was the wizard in that, so I feel like there was some sort of a redemption arc, or a karma thing that happened there. But it’s always been a big part of my life. This kind of goes back to what we were saying earlier– my sister loves Wicked, and she’s seen it a bunch. I took her and her daughter on her oldest daughter’s ninth birthday to see her first Broadway show, which was Wicked. So it was my first show, it was my niece’s first show, and my sister has seen it in every city she’s lived in. My other sister – also, if you’ve seen the video on my instagram, sorry [laughs] I feel embarrassed saying that, you’ll see a video of me as Toto and my sister as Dorothy, and in the back, you can also see my other sister is in the ensemble – she had never seen Wicked. So, we have one sister who is a huge Wicked fan and one sister who hadn’t seen it, and they both saw this movie and getting to hear the reasons why they loved it separately and how they both loved different parts of it was a really cool experience. Both of them care about me, so they are obviously excited going into it. But one came in with all of the knowledge of the musical, and the other one was like “wait a minute, that’s what happens?”
Wow – what a really beautiful invisible string. This world has always been a part of your life, and here you are now.
Totally! And it’s been this invisible string for a lot of people. Obviously, in our cast, it’s been this visible string actually [laughs] but I also think it’s been such a big part of the world and culture and theatre for so long that it’s kind of permeated our worldview and so many things that we now take for granted the way that we do with The Wizard of Oz, we take for granted in Wicked – like little musical motifs that are absolutely classic now. It’s a cool thing to recognize the impact it’s had over time, and now to be a part of that, and have the movie be a part of that, is pretty cool.
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And on such a large scale too, which is very cool. I know you’ve seen the musical several times, but what was your first introduction to the Wicked musical? I actually had the pleasure of seeing it with the original cast, and I’ve kind of refused to see it again because I’ve been afraid it won’t live up to Kristin and Idina!
Mine was also the original cast! When I was in sixth grade we took a field trip from Washington DC up to New York in the spring for 2004, right before the 2004 Tony’s. I just remember the bus ride back to DC and everybody singing the songs over and over again, and it was just immediately on repeat. That was my introduction, and I remember loving it right away, and it just stayed that way. I think the next time I saw it was probably six or seven years later, but since then I’ve seen it time and time again. I’m not 100% sure, but I think I’ve seen it 5 times. It’s not the biggest number actually– but I met someone in London who asked me how many times I’ve seen it, and I said “5 or 6.” And he replied, “Yeah, 114 for me,” and I was like “Okay, you’ve been me by just a few!” [laughs] I don’t remember what the actual number was, so don’t quote me on that.
Leading up to this role, most of your career has been spent on the musical theatre stage. Is acting on-screen something you have always wanted to do?
I have always wanted to do movies. I love film. I never actually thought musical theatre was going to be my thing – I always sang and I love singing, but I was never super confident in my singing voice and I was never super confident as a dancer. The thing that I loved doing was acting and being in character, and when I auditioned for Spongebob, which was my first big job, they didn’t know it was a musical yet – all I did was physical comedy.
Wow!
I did a scene from Spongebob – I don’t know if you ever watched the Spongebob TV show..
I did, yes!
Okay. There’s this great episode where Squidward bakes a pie and thinks that he’s baked a bomb into the pie, and Spongebob eats it. The scene I did was watching the sunset– Squidward thinks that Spongebob is about to explode, and then he doesn’t. And then I did three different long-form physical comedy routines. I was obsessed with Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Danny Kaye – these comedians in early film that I fell in love with and I’ve always emulated. So even doing Spongebob was sort of hearkening back to that. I’ve always loved film, and I’ve done film, just never to this scale. I would like to say I’m a student of film, but when people say they’re a student of film, it means that they really know what they’re talking about – I’m more of a student who I like learning. I want to learn more– you know I read books about it, I watch a ton of movies and I have my whole life. It’s definitely something I’m passionate about doing more of.
I know landing a role in Wicked was highly coveted – can you walk me through what the process was like? Leading up to the audition to auditioning to receiving the call that you booked it?
Yeah! I feel like one of the things about being an actor is you might make 100 self-tapes in a year, and most of them, you never hear anything back about. If you make 100 self-tapes, you’ll be lucky if you hear back about ten, and it’s more likely that you’ll hear about one. And that one is “it’s not going further” [laughs]. This is one of those 100 self-tapes, and I remember I got the self-tape and I thought to myself, “Every single person who is under 5”7 in the world is going to be auditioning for this,” so on the one hand, that gave me a sense of like “okay well what can I do? There’s no chance I’ll get this.” And on the other hand, I was like “Well, I might as well give it my all, I want to give it the best shot I can,” and I kind of always feel that way about every tape.
But this one– I had auditioned for Boq in 2013, and I didn’t get it. I was still in college and I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it was one of the first auditions where I had a couple of rounds and made it to final callbacks and ultimately I ended up not getting it, and I was okay with that. But this time I remember feeling like I actually have a take on Boq. I think I have an idea about what he is – he’s the same Boq, but a little different. But I didn’t have anyone to read with me, so I recorded myself playing Glinda and playing Nessa for the scene..
Oh my gosh, that sounds so hard [laughs].
[laughs] I know– and I left spaces for my lines, and I put my computer screen behind my camera, and I read with myself and was my own scene partner. I sent it in, and as soon as I sent it in I was like, “that was so embarrassing, I cannot believe that I sent that to Telsey’s office!” And then I didn’t hear anything for a month, and I was like “okay that’s probably done.” Then I got a call asking me to Zoom with Jon Chu, which was incredibly exciting. I’m such a huge fan of Jon already. So I got on that Zoom with Jon and we talked for like 20 minutes and we read the sides maybe once each, and we just talked. We talked about a lot of things that you and I have talked about actually– my first introduction to Oz and my first introduction to Wicked and what it means to me. Who I think Boq is and what it means to be a Munchkin. Munchkins have a very interesting thing about them– like they are ‘small minded’ as Elphaba says. So what does it mean to come from that community and go to where you’re going, and we talked a lot about the arc, and then we talked a little bit about our lives– and then I didn’t hear for another month.
Oh wow.
I remember thinking and calling my manager and saying, “I hate to do this, I’m sure it’s not going further, but do you mind just checking in? I think it went really well and I think I really clicked with Jon.. and if it’s not going further, that’s great, but do you think it would be appropriate to maybe send him a thank you note? It was really great and I would love to thank him for taking the time to meet with me,” and he was like “yes, absolutely. I’ll give him a call.” About two minutes later, he calls me back and asks, “Can you be on a plane by tomorrow to LA?” And I said, “Yeah! We’ll figure it out. I’ll get on a plane tomorrow and go to LA.” There I had my final round of auditions with everyone. That’s the long-winded story, but it’s funny because you never really know. I’ve talked to Jon about it a little bit, and I was so embarrassed about my audition, and he said, “no, it was a good audition! You kind of booked it off of that audition. Watching that self tape, we knew right away.” And I told him that was crazy because after two months I was sure it was gone. It’s just so funny because, again, there are two sides to every story. From my side, it was this shot in the dark and I needed my manager to call and remind them, but when he called it was just good timing.
Right – well if you booked it off the self-tape, did you ask him why you didn’t book Glinda? [laughs]
Right– you know what, let me text him right now [laughs]. “If my Glinda was so good…”
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I love all of the behind-the-scenes looks we’ve gotten from the beautiful film sets – what was it like stepping into these beautiful sets Jon created for the first time?
It’s really crazy. I will say, one of the things that makes acting a lot easier is when you have to use a little less imagination. Being in the classrooms that are so specifically and uniquely of this world, and not just of this world, but fully thought out. There’s no detail where you have to figure it out, you know? Nathan Crowley and Jon, who designed it together, had created an intimately detailed world. First of all, it was an absolutely mind-blowing experience to walk onto a set and be like “holy shit, it just keeps going up,” or “I cannot believe that somebody not only built this, but invested in this way.” It’s just so incredible. Every corner you turn, there’s something new to discover and every book you open, there’s something new to read. Just mindblowing craft, you know? But it also makes the job of an actor just that much easier, to be in awe in an awesome place. Just to drop in and feel like a student on their first day of school – it’s a load off. To be able to interact in a space that way makes it feel that much more real when you’re there, and hopefully when you’re watching it too.
That makes sense because in a lot of these big movies now everything is done in post and you don’t really know what the end result is going to look like.
Yeah, you’re staring at a tennis ball or something like that.
The musical numbers in the film are truly grand. One of my favourite numbers in the film is “Dancing Through Life” – it’s so much fun to watch. What was it like to film something so big? Are there any behind-the-scenes moments you can share that didn’t make the final cut?
Oh gosh, filming the entire “Dancing Through Life” sequence was so fun. It takes weeks and weeks – we were in the library for probably over a week, and then we were in the Ozdust Ballroom for probably a week. Running through the quad at Shiz, that was a fun one, all running through the quad to get on the boat together – I know that’s a small moment in the song but I remember that night so well. I think, being a part of a big number like that is really exciting, you spend weeks and weeks practicing the choreography and getting into your bones, and then being in a room with 100 people just executing over and over again and seeing the ways that Alice Brookes comes in with her cinematography and captures it in a really cool way – there’s one moment where one of the dancers leaps from ladder to ladder and does a jump roll into a flip, and the camera catches it from underneath and everyone is dancing. That was actually one shot. It’s just an unbelievably beautiful and incredibly acrobatic move, and beautifully choreographed and shot. Those kinds of moments were really stunning to witness.
I do remember this great moment where Jonny (Bailey) jumps out of the tornado wheel, quiets everyone down and then gets everyone hyped up, and that part was not scripted at all. The dancers just felt the excitement and reacted to it. I remember Jon calling over to the sound guy, Simon Hayes, and saying, “Hey can we make sure we are getting all of them really clearly doing that, because that is perfect. Even for the dancers that aren’t mic’d up, we need to make sure we’re getting that.” And even in the movie, it’s just this huge release like everyone is on board with Fiyero now, it’s just so great. I love that moment.
That’s amazing! Choreography-wise, was that difficult to learn?
Yeah, it was all difficult to learn! [laughs] But it was a fun challenge. There was one section where Chris (Scott) was trying things out early on and I remember he had this group of sick b-boy dancers trying out all of these different things, and I said, “Hey, maybe Boq does a little b-boy,” and he was like, “do you?” And I said, “oh no! I don’t, but maybe I could try and learn?” And said, “Sure! Let’s get in there.” I woke up the next day and I couldn’t move. I came to rehearsal the next day and I was so sore in parts of my body that I didn’t know existed, and Chris said, “I am so sorry – I hate to break it to you but that whole b-boy section, we’re not going to do it,” and I said “Oh no! That’s terrible!” [laughs] thank god. It was really really funny, but it was really intimidating.
But you did it once!
Yeah, I did! Also, working with Hannah, who is a wheelchaired dancer and choreographer and was working with Marissa (Bode) on our choreography– that was a really beautiful moment because it was using choreography to learn our characters and learn our relationship, and we spent weeks rehearsing that choreography, and in doing so it kind of gave ourselves a palette to draw from for where our relationship would go. I think that was a cool experience.
Music has obviously been a huge part of your life and your career. You obviously must be a massive musical theatre fan, but outside of that, I would love to know what kind of music you listen to. Is there anything, in particular, you’ll put on during a day off or after a long day of filming to unwind and disconnect? I love music myself, so I would love to hear any music recs!
Yeah, oh, man. I don’t know that I have great music recs myself [laughs] full disclaimer. Music that I really love to listen to to wind down – I love The National, that’s always been my go-to for a kind of chill vibe. Bon Iver I really love and listen to a lot, I really associate him with a specific period about six years ago in my life. But I definitely sort of live in that world a lot of the time. And then I always go back to Simon and Garfunkel, or Paul Simon. Paul Simon is the songwriter who influenced my songwriting the most, and I will constantly revisit it.
I have to ask, because you mentioned The National and Bon Iver – are you a Taylor Swift folklore / evermore fan at all?
Really funny – I feel like this is such tricky water to kind of go into it, but I am not the most familiar. I do know that there’s a lot of overlap, and I know that they’ve worked together, but I’m not super familiar with those.
That’s fair! I’m going to encourage you to listen to those albums because they are fantastic. She worked with The National and Bon Iver on those albums, and as a fan of those artists, I’m going to encourage you to check them out!
I appreciate it! It’s really for no good reason other than I just haven’t listened to them yet!
Wicked, especially this film adaptation, really celebrates diversity and staying authentic to yourself, no matter the circumstances. We definitely live in a time where stories like this are more impactful than ever. How does it feel to be a part of something so powerful and meaningful to so many people?
It’s moving in a way that – I think if you had asked me this question before the movie came out, my answer would have been “I feel really proud to be a part of it,” which is still true. I feel proud of the movie, I feel proud of the messaging, and I feel proud of our approach to it all. Now that I’m seeing the way that it’s impacting others, I feel something more than pride. I feel moved by it, and I feel impacted by it in the same way.
There was a great moment when we were doing a junket interview, where we were interviewing interview after interview, and every one of them is different. Sometimes they are fun, and sometimes it’s the same thing over and over again, and every so often things pop out where we’re like, “wow that was a crazy moment.” Marissa and I were talking to someone who read a YouTube comment on her “day in the life” video. The YouTube comment was, and I’m going to paraphrase badly, but it was “I am disabled and I am in a wheelchair, and I never knew that I could pursue what I wanted to do until I saw you do this.” That kind of hit me in a really big way because Marissa is an amazing actor, and she’s a wonderful person and a great friend. To see this additional thing, which is that she’s a representation for so many people and that no matter what society is telling you, you can rise above and be the change that you need. That’s something that I hear her talk about a lot, so this is just me repeating what she said. But being a part of the change that you needed to see to get where you are is a really beautiful thing, and I see that in so many different ways with this movie. So to be a part of it, I’m proud of that, and I’m also constantly impacted by it, and I think it’s having its intended effect on me at the same time.
I won’t say too much as I’m sure a lot of people aren’t aware of what happens in part 2 of Wicked, but Boq has a huge transformation coming up. Have you seen part 2 yet?
I haven’t seen it yet! I am dying to see it. I am pestering everyone who might be able to help me see it. I think we will see it whenever it’s ready. But I can’t wait – I’m excited. Yes, Boq has a big transformation, and I think it’s been fun in movie 1 to sort of establish Boq, and Boq & Nessa in this sort of beautiful and optimistic way. Yes, there are some mistakes here and there that they both make, but to sort of live in that world in movie 1 is so fun. I’m excited for people to see how that progresses in movie 2. I loved getting to do it and getting to play the full arc of Boq has been special, so I’m excited to see it myself, and I’m excited for the world too.
I’m excited to see it too! Just everything we were able to witness in part 1 was so beautiful, and I can only imagine that part 2 will be just as grand, if not bigger.
It’s cool. I mean, being on set – the other thing that I learned, I had high expectations going in because we knew how it looked when we filmed it, and it does look how it did when we were filming. It’s not one of those things where they do so much to the footage – it looks like what we saw, you just get to see it in a bit of a different way. And I was there for movie 2 [laughs] and it was amazing! Some of the moments in movie 2 were exciting, so I can’t wait to see it.
Me too! Well, I have one last question for you. I know you have a two-year-old son. He’s probably still too young to sit through a 2.5-hour movie musical, but how excited are you to be able to introduce him to the world of Oz one day?
Aw, it’s a really special thing to be able to introduce the people that you love to this movie. I think it’s going to be really fun. I will say one of the things that’s really important to me, while I’m introducing things to my son is to let him introduce himself to the world when he’s ready. I do my best to not talk too much about him because I want him to become his own person and then meet the world in that way, but the idea of introducing him to the things that I have worked on is a really exciting one as a parent.
I’m sure, especially because this has to be something you are very proud of.
I am so proud of it and that is one of the great things about having something on film, is that it’s there for when you’re ready for it.
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Wicked is in theatres now.
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talent. Ethan Slater
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interview. Rachel Martin
