Washington [US]: Singer Ariana Grande has decided to use her birth name in the credits of her upcoming film ‘Wicked’, which is an adaptation of the Broadway musical, reported People.
Sharing the reason on why she is called Ariana Grande-Butera in the credits, she explains, “Technically, it’s my little girl name. It’s technically little Ari’s name.”
Grande is her mother Joan’s last name; Butera is her father Ed’s. The two divorced when their daughter was 8 years old.
‘Wicked’ is a movie adaptation of Winnie Holzman’s 2003 Tony Award-winning musical, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively. The film chronicles the narrative of an odd relationship between the soon-to-be Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch of the South, and how their lives alter once they meet the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.
“I just feel like this experience was such a homecoming for me. I feel like I came home to myself in a lot of ways through what I learned from Glinda, from Elphaba,” she added, referring to the characters she and Erivo play in the film.
“That was my name when I went to see the show when I was 10 years old, and it felt like a really lovely way of honoring that. It felt really full-circle,” she added, as per People.
The much-awaited movie adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Wicked is set to hit theaters on November 22. The story, based on Gregory Maguire’s bestselling novel, follows the journey of Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Grande) before they become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch.
The film’s star-studded cast also includes Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater, Bowen Yang, and Peter Dinklage.