Amanda Seyfried reveals gruelling multi-year audition process to play Glinda in Wicked

26 June 2025, 11:58 | Updated: 26 June 2025, 12:34

By Sam Prance

Amanda Seyfried auditioned to play the role of Glinda "six times" before the role ultimately went to Ariana Grande.

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Amanda Seyfried has opened up about the intense audition process for Wicked and how long she tried out for Glinda.

It's no secret that multiple actresses were in the running to play Glinda in the Wicked films. Before Ariana Grande was cast, Mamma Mia Amanda Seyfried got close to getting the role. Talking to Backstage in 2022, Amanda said that she auditioned while filming The Dropout: "I literally bent over backwards while playing the hardest role of my life."

Now, Amanda has explained just how gruelling the experience was and revealed that she auditioned six times in total.

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Amanda Seyfried sings ‘Popular’ from Wicked

Appearing on Backstage's In the Envelope podcast, Amanda said: "I'm in that privileged spot where I just don't have to [audition].” However, Wicked was different because so many people wanted the role. She said: "I auditioned six times for Wicked because that had to be really just right."

Amanda then confirmed that the experience was a multi-year process. She explained: "I loved it. I was busy. I barely had time to do it but I made it work. I worked my a-- off for years and years and years on that music."

She added: "I'm competitive. I'm competitive with myself in a really healthy way I think."

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Like Amanda, Ariana has also revealed that she spent multiple years preparing for the role. Speaking to Podcrushed, Ariana explained that she started training for the role a year before auditions started to perfect Glinda's voice.

Ariana said: "Glinda’s a soprano, like an opera soprano, not in the way I’m a soprano in my pop. It’s just a very different placement in the voice and I was just training it and training it because even though the notes were there, it’s a different placement and singing them completely differently so I wanted to train my muscles.

“I would go every day and train to learn the tools that I needed to sing and to be Glinda through and through. I just wanted to know her really well. The very classical operatic stuff, I wanted to make sure it sounded authentic and so I trained really hard to do that stuff.”

Ariana Grande as Glinda in Wicked. Picture: Alamy

Speaking to People last December, Amanda praised Ariana's performance. She said: "It’s an extravaganza, which is what she does really well. And [my kids] have been playing the soundtrack nonstop. Everything is as it's meant to be for sure.”