Michelle Yeoh has admitted she had to be coaxed into singing as part of her role in Wicked.
The Oscar winner plays the sorceress Madame Morrible in the hit movie musical, which required her to sing on screen for the first time.
During a new interview with The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Michelle admitted she didn’t know anything about Wicked when director Jon M Chu first approached her about taking part, to the extent she didn’t even realise what would be required of her.
“He called me and he said, ‘I would like you to read the script, I really would love for you to play Madame Morrible’,” she recalled. “And I go, ‘OK’.
“And so, I read it. I know The Wizard Of Oz very well but I hadn’t seen the musical Wicked in the West End or Broadway. So I call him back and I say, ‘Jon, my love, it’s a musical – and I don’t sing’. Not properly or professionally or anything like that.
“So then, typical of Jon M Chu, he says ‘don’t worry about it’. I swear to god this guy is a visionary, and he can convince you to do the impossible.”
Michelle explained that while she was still “mulling it over” and wondering to herself about how she could “pull off” the role, she received a call from Jon’s phone, with her future co-stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo telling her it was “imperative and important that you join us now”.
“And that was it,” she said.
Once it came to recording her vocals on set, Michelle made no secret of the fact she was “terrified”.
“These two girls – bloody hell! – they sing live. Come on, cut me some slack, please!” she joked. “So, when we started my song with Cynthia Erivo, The Wizard And I, I was literally squeaking.
“And the next thing I knew was these two lovely hands held mine, and I looked up, and there were these beautiful green eyes looking at me going, ‘I know you can do this, Michelle, I’ve heard you sing’. And you know that’s so generous of spirit and that kind of encouragement and love, you go, ‘hell yeah, I’ll sing’.”
Michelle added: “So I had a lot of fun – and the best thing was, I am actually on the Billboard 100 because of that. Miracles do happen!”
The Everything Everywhere All At Once star was actually still in the middle of shooting Wicked when she won her first Oscar in 2023, and revealed to Colbert that the set became a safe haven for her.
“[Cynthia and Ariana] were such joy, because at that point I was going between LA, New York, London,” she said. “Coming back to London, to that set, where it was so loving, it always gave me a safe place with all the craziness on this side of the world, [I could] go back there and relax.”
Watch Michelle’s full interview on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert below:
Michelle will reprise the role of Madame Morrible in the sequel Wicked For Good, which is due to hit cinemas later this year.
The sequel will feature two new songs written by Wicked’s original composer Stephen Schwartz, and will also include a number of tweaks from the stage production.