Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande say they appreciated the way Wicked: For Good, in theaters Friday, questions what good and evil really mean. The film encompasses Act 2 of the stage musical Wicked, based on the Gregory Maguire novel.

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Erivo, 38, returns to play Elphaba, a student at Oz's Shiz University who discovered at the end of last year's Wicked: Part 1 that she can cast spells and fly. Elphaba refuses to go along with the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible's (Michelle Yeoh) plan to turn Oz against animals, leading her to become an outcast.

In a recent Zoom press conference, Erivo said Wicked: For Good shows how people in power can manipulate what others view as good and evil. For example, the Wizard and Morrible brand Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West.

"Perception is everything," Erivo said. "What we see as good, and what we see as evil can be warped and shifted, depending on who we are looking at, and through what eyes, through what lens we're looking through."

Erivo added that Morrible and the Wizard shift the blame onto the animals of Oz and Elphaba. The Wizard has no magic but uses tricks and sleight of hand to maintain his power.

"Who we can actually lay the blame on, and how easy it is to push it on someone else, that is what was demystified for me," Erivo said. "That perception really is the thing that shifts the way we see good or evil."

After the events of Wicked, Elphaba's Shiz roommate Glinda (Grande) joined with Morrible and the Wizard to lead the people of Oz. Perceived as the Good Witch of the North, Glinda helps justify Morrible and the Wizard's policies.

"I love that it invites people to consider why those labels are projected so easily," Grande, 32, said. "People are the accumulation of all of their experiences, of their hurt and of their things."

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For Grande, Wicked: For Good shows how reducing people to simple labels of good and evil removes the complexity of their humanity.

"We live in a time where everything is erased of context and humanness, and things are boiled down to a quick soundbite or a quick headline," Grande said. "While people can do good things, and people can do wicked things, it's an interesting theme in the story to ask people to look for the humanness, or what might be on the other side."

Wicked: For Good includes a flashback to Glinda's childhood. Grande said she also created backstory to explain why her character was so desperate to be adored.

"I wondered if her parents ever drove her to school, or if someone else did that for her," Grande said. "I used a color coding system. I had sticky tabs, and I would have a tab for each little insecurity or emotional thing that was peeking through. When she feels safe was a different color than when she feels not chosen."

Wicked: For Good is still a musical, so both Elphaba and Glinda express those feelings in song. Erivo said she begins with the lyrics but then finds physical moments to demonstrate the song's intention.

Erivo cited "I'm Not That Girl" as an example, a song where Elphaba sings, "Hands touch, eyes meet, sudden silence, sudden heat." In the film, she pauses before each phrase.

"There's loads of silence before she even says the first word," Erivo said. "So there's a trepidation and now it's not so much about just saying the words. It's now about understanding what actually happened in this moment. Our hands touched, our eyes meet, there was silence, and then there was heat."

Grande said she's known the songs from Wicked "since I was ten," but performing them for the films required modification. Glinda sings in an operatic coloratura soprano, which Grande said is even higher than her existing range.

Grande, therefore, began vocal training three months before even auditioning for the role.

"I needed to spend a lot of time retraining the muscles of my voice to know how to do that, and to create a rounder, fuller, warmer vibrato," Grande said.

Songs from Act 2 that appear in Wicked: For Good reflect the pasts of both characters, Erivo said. "No Good Deed" is an Elphaba solo, further enhanced in the film by visual effects.

"I'm shooting against, really, a blue screen and a plinth and fire and rocks," Erivo said. "So the dynamism with which we had to shoot it, the looking back and the memories, looking back at things that had gone past, none of that was there to look at. It's all in the mind."

"For Good" is the final duet between Elphaba and Glinda. Erivo said she was proud to show Elphaba's vulnerability through that song.

"Elphaba has often been thought of as a really strong character, who knows their self and is very, very confident," Erivo said. "I think that we've been able to crack open her vulnerability, crack open a softer side of her that hasn't necessarily been on show before."

Stephen Schwartz wrote two new songs for Wicked: For Good, including "The Girl in the Bubble." The title refers to Glinda's floating bubble contraption but also represents her acknowledging the bubble she's lived in.

"I'm so glad that we get to see her experience that moment of change, that to make that choice to begin the chapter of being truly good," Grande said. "After she looks down the closet and sees all of her memories from easier, purer times, she really opens up and sings vocally in a way that sounds like her guard is down."

Elphaba, meanwhile, sings "No Place Like Home," which refers to Dorothy's line in the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie, "There's no place like home." For Elphaba, her home of Oz is rejecting her and she's encouraging her fellow outcasts to fight for it.

"To work on the new song in Wicked with Stephen Schwartz was one, an honor to work with him," Erivo said, adding "And two, just really, really fascinating to discover and mine it for the story that was true to Elphaba."