Ariana Grande is firing back at critics who have been attacking her voice in the upcoming ‘Wicked’ movie.
Grande plays Glinda the Good Witch in the movie. She has been dealing with negative comments about her lighter and breathier speaking voice during and after filming the two-part musical. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Grande explained why her voice sounds different and called out the double standard she believes exists.
“There is a part of the world that isn’t familiar with what it takes to transform your voice,” Grande said. “When it’s a male actor that does it, it’s acclaimed,” she noted. “There are definitely jokes that are made as well, but it’s always after being led with praise: ‘Oh, wow, he was so lost in the role.’ And that’s just a part of the job, really. Tale as old as time being a woman in this industry. You are treated differently, and you are under a microscope in a way that some people aren’t.”
The criticism reached its peak over the summer when a clip of Grande switching between different vocal registers during an interview on the ‘Podcrushed’ podcast went viral. Grande took to TikTok to explain that she often changes her vocal placement depending on how much she’s been singing. “I’ve always done this, BYE,” she wrote at the time. In her Vanity Fair interview, she shared that she is proud of her hard work in ‘Wicked’ and felt the need to defend it.
Grande faced public scrutiny throughout her career. “I was this approachable, funny redhead on Nickelodeon and everyone liked me,” she recalled. “And then I had one too many hit records, and everyone decided that I was an evil diva. And then other terrible things happened, and all of a sudden I was this hero and this victim.”
“The tabloids have been trying to destroy me since I was 19 years old,” she said, referring to the negative media coverage she’s dealt with. “But you know what? I’m 31 years old and I’m not a perfect person, but I am definitely deeply good, and I’m proud of who I’m becoming.”
‘Wicked’ is set to hit theaters on November 22.
