Ariana Grande is unable to talk about her role in Wicked amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. But she can talk about her new tattoo, which just so happens to be her character in the upcoming film adaptation of the musical: Glinda the Good Witch.
The star revealed in a new interview with Allure — which predominantly focused on the release of Grande’s new R.E.M. Beauty foundation line — that she’s gotten the original Glinda illustration in L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of Oz books inked on the back of her right hand since being cast in the Jon M. Chu-directed project. “This one I knew I wanted to get for a very long time,” she told the publication, showing off her hand.
“This is my most recent one,” she continued. “I waited forever to fill up this hand. And I thought, ‘I’m gonna wait for the right thing to come along,’ and yeah, that felt very right.”
Grande has many other tattoos, including a moon and sun illustration, as well as the name of her dog, Toulouse, inked on the back of her left hand. Just about all of the fingers on both her hands are adorned with designs, too, with a cloud, a heart, olive leaves, dots, a reference to the first song on her debut album — “Honeymoon” — and a thick coverup blocking out the word “Pete,” the name of her ex-fiancé Pete Davidson, which used to preside on her ring finger.
Filming for Wicked came to a halt as a result of the writers’ strike, just a few days before the project was expected to wrap. “We were only a few days away from being done, so we were SO close,” Chu told fans on Instagram. “It’s been very painful to put a halt to it all but we will be back! And we will finish properly strong when the time is right.”
Shot just outside of London, Wicked will be take place over two films, the first of which is slated for a November 2024 theatrical release. As Glinda, Grande will star opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, with Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater and more fleshing out the rest of the cast.
The project certainly hasn’t gone without its share of headlines. In July, Grande and Slater were reported to be dating shortly after the “Positions” singer’s split from husband Dalton Gomez went public. Neither of the actors have confirmed their romance.
