During her recent appearance on the Las Culturistas podcast, amongst a ton of yapping about everything from her love of all things horror, the joyous experience of shooting Wicked, her open-mouth kiss with Bowen Yang on SNL, and more, Ariana Grande revealed her desire to spend the next decade of her life more focused on acting, with her pop music career taking a backseat.
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Answering Matt Rogers’ led-up main question of the pod, “What was the culture that made you say, culture was for you?” Meaning — (for those non-Las Culturistas listeners who are confused) — if she could look back and pinpoint what influenced Ariana Granda to become Ariana Grande, what would it be?
“I mean I think musical theater, like I think Sherry Rene Scott is my answer… I saw her in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and I remember being like ‘That’s life-changing to see.’ She’s the best in the world… her and Kristin (Chenoweth), and Sutton Foster… who I grew up, just listening on repeat, my musical theater goddesses.”
Roger’s also noted that watching Ariana’s performance in the film, made him feel “well she needs to act more,” importantly accounting for the loss that would mean for the pop music scene if she did. Before going on to ask the star, “Does Broadway fit into that? Is it something that would make sense for you, and it is in your heart to actually go to the stage and do it?
“It is my heart,” Ari answered, going on to share that her love of musical theater and experience making the film adaptation of the famed Broadway musical has in fact rekindled her love of acting.
“I’m going to say something so scary, it’s going to scare the absolute s*** out of my fans and everyone,” Grande warned. “I love them, and they will deal, and we will be here forever. I’m always going to make music. I’m always going to go on stage. I’m always going to do pop stuff, I pinky promise, but I don’t think doing it at the rate that I’ve been doing for the past 10 years is where I see the next 10 years.”
She continued, “I love acting, I love musical theater. I think reconnecting with this part of myself, who started in musical theater and who loves comedy, and it heals me to do that. Noting that “finding roles to use these parts of myself… and put them in little homes, and characters, and bits,” feeds her, “in a different way than songwriting.”
As for what type of roles Ariana might be looking for in the future, she said, “Whatever makes sense, or whatever roles we see fit, or where I could really do a good job or honor the material, I would really love to.” Adding, “I think it’s a lot better for me.”
Prior to her music career, Grande began with musical theater in 2008 when she was cast in the musical 13. In 2012, she got her second gig starring as Snow White in a production of A Snow White Christmas at the Pasadena Playhouse. Shen then went on to star in two Nickelodeon series, Victorious and Sam & Cat.
However, since the 2013 release of her debut LP Yours Truly, the trajectory of Ariana’s career went the way of music, with a successful run of six albums over a seven-year span, and some touring in between. During that time, Grande only had one feature-film role, playing herself in the apocalypse comedy Don’t Look Up. Now, (drumroll please) the world will next see her as Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba in the movie adaptations of Broadway's beloved musical Wicked, with part one hitting cinemas worldwide on November 22, 2024.
Elsewhere in the Las Culturistas episode, Grande also opened up about the Wicked audition process, the vulnerable time around the release of her 2020 album positions, and more. To catch it all, listen to the entire episode — HERE and watch it below.