“I auditioned like six times”: Amanda Seyfried opens up about losing ‘Wicked’ role

Golden Globe and Emmy winner Amanda Seyfried recently spoke out about a challenging casting experience in Hollywood.

Seyfried admitted on the June 19 episode of In the Envelope podcast by Backstage that she had auditioned for the role of Glinda in the musical Wicked six times. The role ultimately went to pop sensation Ariana Grande.

Seyfried also noted that she hired a private coach to help her get Glinda’s high soprano runs just right.

Amanda Seyfried opens up about her audition for the role in Wicked

Amanda Seyfried described the six-stage audition for the role of Glinda in Wicked. Despite not landing the role, she says it was a good learning experience as an actor. Seyfried noted that there were several months of callbacks for the musical during the tough schedule of Hulu’s The Dropout in 2021.

She worked hard and made sure she went to every audition, even though she had many sequences to film as Elizabeth Holmes and a lot of voice training to do every day. Amanda Seyfried was happy to talk about how “exhausted but exhilarated” she felt after going to the Los Angeles studios for singing sessions over the weekend. In the end, she never received a formal offer.

The Express Tribune mentioned that Seyfried had called the event “grueling and transformative.” Although she didn’t get the role, she still thinks that performing Popular back-to-back with fellow finalist Cynthia Erivo for producers was one of her best vocal performances.

Amanda Seyfried has participated in multi-round auditions previously. Samantha Barks was cast as Cosette in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables in 2012 after Amanda went through six rounds of callbacks. Seyfried subsequently said that the event was a hard test of her singing talents.

Her 2008 role as Sophie in Mamma Mia! demonstrated her singing abilities, but Wicked required a different vocal range and comic timing.

Ariana Grande (as Glinda) and Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) had previously gone through a lot of table readings to make sure they could handle the film’s high-energy musical moments and deep emotional themes. The scales tipped in Grande’s favor since she was famous and had shown off her singing talents throughout her pop era.

When Amanda Seyfried says she auditioned for Wicked six times, it gives us a look at how competitive Hollywood casting can be.

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