Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Wicked and Wicked: For Good.
The bromance between Jonathan Bailey and Jeff Goldblum is the real deal.
In fact, it's probably best to have the actors share at least one scene between them.Wicked” And “Evil: For good“because, like a pair of kids who need to be separated in a classroom, nothing will work out as long as they are in the same room.
“I'm the Robin to his Batman,” Bailey tells TODAY.com of Goldblum.
“I’m his son’s Cher,” Goldblum replies.
Between the two of them, they are a true source of talent.
Goldblum was a big-screen star, from his memorable one-liner in “Annie Hall” in 1977 to appearances in blockbusters such as “Independence Day,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Jurassic Park.”
Bailey began his career as a stage actor before making headlines as a member of the royal family in the Netflix hit “Bridgerton“, and also received an Emmy award for his 2023 will be released in the series “Fellow Travelers”.
Bailey most recently joined Goldblum as a Jurassic Park alum after her role inRebirth of Jurassic World“Last summer.
Playing the Wizard of Oz and Prince Fiyero, respectively, Goldblum and Bailey have been traveling the world for the past couple of weeks promoting Wicked: For Good, the sequel to last year's box office hit Wicked. Cynthia Erivo like Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda.
During their final interview together as part of the Wicked: For Good press tour, which Bailey and Goldblum mourn, the two friends banter, mull over plot points (spoilers ahead!) and discuss why this is the right movie at the right time.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
At the end of “Wicked: For Good”, the Wizard flies away in a hot air balloon. Where will he end up?
Jonathan Bailey: We were just talking about this.
Jeff Goldblum: We talked about this because…
JB: He appears in the opening sequence of his spin-off (laughs).
DG: Gregory Maguire's books, I think there are seven of them, I think there's a lot of material in there that will probably answer a lot of questions. I was just asking (Maguire) about what's going on with Fiyero… what is this place of nothingness? I think it's covered in some of these books. What are they going to do?
Have you seen the movie? Did you realize that (Fiyero) is now eternal? Live forever as a straw man? I'll have to see this many more times.
JB: (Elphaba and Fiyero) have a family.
DG: They have children… you said. They are in the books children.
JB: Yes.
DG: There are a lot of books. And Frank Baum (author of The Wizard of Oz) wrote a ton of books in the early 1900s, so there's plenty of material.
JB: I just want a movie called The Wizard with Jeff (laughs). But you would play every role, like in Big Momma's House.
DG: I would like to see “Mama's Home.” Or, I would love to see Fiyero and Elphaba in Dunescape.
JB: Let's call it… “Making hay.” (Laughs)
DG: “Making hay” is excellent. (Laughs)
JB: We make hay around the clock. (Laughs)
DG: I think this is very serious. It's like Scenes from a Marriage and we cover the next 20 years of their relationship.
Speaking of Fiyero, let's talk about his remarkable transformation into the scarecrow at the end of the film.
JB: It was all prosthetics. No computer graphics, no special effects. It's extraordinary to be in any film that celebrates the creative arts the way Wicked does, and I think everyone was able to put years of skill to work.
It lasted four and a half hours every morning. This burlap texture was created by Mark (Coulier), a designer extraordinaire, and that was my first conversation with Frances (Hannon) when I was thinking about what the literal transformation would end up being.
We explored so many things, including physicality, obviously with a nod to Ray Bolger (the original Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz).
There are camera shots that made me… I almost cried because it was so reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz, and it was me and Ethan (Slater) as the Tin Man and Bethany Weaver as Dorothy.
They had a chalk board and we just walked up and down the yellow brick road and just studied the characters. In fact, it was almost one of my highlights.
DG: I'd like to see this. There are a lot of things about the ending that intrigue me right now. What is nothing? What's happening to them? You know, Bok, this is very interesting and wild, all his things fascinate me. But two ladies, our main story, woohoo!
JB: Grimmery really comes to life.
DG: And doesn't Elphaba now have the powers she had with Grimmery? And why couldn't she possibly trust (Glinda)? There is a beautiful phrase: “I must be evil so that you can be good.” Glinda is amazing, why (Elphaba) couldn't believe it: “Hey, we'll be okay. Don’t try to contact us, etc., etc. Don’t tell anyone that we faked it.”
Or, or Is the loss that Glinda experienced through the portal what activates her power, her ability to survive the loss of the greatest love she ever had with Elphaba? Does this activate her ability to have this power?
Perhaps we need a third part, “Wicked,” that will answer all these questions.
JB: I think what's going to happen is that Dune Part 3 is going to hit theaters next year, and I think Fiyero and Elphaba are just going to come into the picture…
DG: (Both laugh) And you say: “People…”
JB: “Timmy?
DG: “Timothée Chalamet?”
Do you think Glinda knows Elphaba is still alive?
JB: I think the answers always lie in Grimmery.
I do think it's especially exciting to see the Grimmerys come to life, and for someone – Ariana (Grande) is drawing so brilliantly on the charts – it's the absolute knowledge that (Glinda) doesn't have magic and she doesn't have powers. Seeing Grimmery come to life feels like a transport and a conversation between two women to me.
DG: Of course, Elphaba does this telepathically as they communicate with each other across space.
Glinda? …Good question. Glinda says: “I don't think I did it. Are you around here somewhere? Perhaps it should be ambiguous. Ask Jon M. Chu that question because every moment means something and I'm sure he intended and unearthed all the logic behind it all.
JB: As we sadly know, these people always exist in different forms, don’t they? So, in a metaphysical sense, they are still living together.
DG: Yes, you changed me forever, that is, both, of course, forever.
Jonathan, you recently said that “Wicked” is about otherness, identity, and the power of it all. Can you explain what you mean?
JB: There is so much hope and optimism in this story and it comes from seeing other sides and being curious about other points of view. And what a time to celebrate this idea.
DG: Sympathy. Sympathy. A valuable commodity, now more than ever. If this movie isn't a mechanism for spreading empathy, I don't know what is.
JB: And it only takes one person to do this. It can be one act of kindness. This can have a ripple effect, and one deliberate act of radicalism can inspire and change things.
DG: A pebble in a lake and spreading rings.
