An Invisible String Connected Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater For Years Before Meeting on ‘Wicked’

Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater are Hollywood’s hottest couple at the moment. From stirring up a tsunami of controversies last year when the rumors of their relationship surfaced to attending the premiere of their highly-anticipated musical film, Wicked, the couple has certainly come a long way.

While Grande has addressed her relationship with Slater before, it was not until recently that the latter began talking about it more openly. That said, they might not have begun dating until a year or so ago, but their fate seemed to be tied by an invisible string for more than a decade as they both were trying to get a role in the live-action adaptation of Wicked.

Ariana Grande Once Admitted That She Had to Face Years of Rejection Before She Landed Her Wicked Role

Ariana Grande might be one of the biggest pop stars in the music industry right now, but she began her career as a child actress. She rose to fame with her role as Cat Valentine in the Nickelodeon TV show, Victorious. In the next couple of years, she completely rebranded herself into a pop icon.

Her focus completely shifted from acting for quite a few years save for a couple of cameos here and there until 2019 when she appeared in the political satire, Don’t Look Up. However, one of her acting endeavors that she never let go of was starring in a film adaptation of Wicked.

In an interview on The Zach Sang Show, she claimed that she spent years to find producer Broadway producer, Marc Platt, and requesting him to give her a chance to audition.

Since I was 20, I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t know when this is happening, but when it’s happening, may I please at least just audition?’ That’s all I wanted, was an audition. I’ve never wanted anything more. I have never wanted something as badly as I did this.

She further said that she spent six months preparing for the audition just to make sure that she would be able to impress the producers of Wicked.

Thankfully, all her hard work paid off. However, the most surprising part is perhaps that her boyfriend, Ethan Slater spent almost the same amount of time to land a role in the same movie.

Ethan Slater Opened Up About How Long He Waited to Land the Role of Boq in Wicked

If anyone is wondering whether or not dreams come true, Slater is perhaps the best person to answer the question. He has been working as a theater actor for almost a decade now, and recently, he revealed that he has spent almost the same amount of time to get a chance to star in Wicked.

During a recent interview with extratv, Slater was asked how did he bring his own spin to his character Boq in the movie. He responded:

I don’t know, it was like one of those lifelong dreams. I actually auditioned for Boq like 11 years ago or something, uh, yeah, and I didn’t get it—which is fine and probably the right choice. But I feel like since then, I’ve had it in the back of my mind that this is something that I kind of wanted to do, and I wonder if I would ever get to.

When he was called in for the audition, his first thought was that he had to nail it and his second thought was that he would never get it. Luckily for fans, himself and Grande, he nailed the audition as he had hoped and played the role of his dreams in the movie. Fate perhaps saved him and the 7 Rings songstress for this project because they were destined to be together.

Wicked is scheduled to be released on November 22, 2024.