Jonathan Bailey has revealed he had just four days to rehearse for his acclaimed role in the Wicked films, as he juggled two other acting roles when he landed the part.
Months before he was crowned the highest-grossing movie star of 2025, the actor was already hot property when bosses tried to cast him as Prince Fiyero, as he was starring in both Bridgerton and the film Fellow Travellers.
Bosses fought hard to cast Jonathan in the film, and the actor has revealed in a new interview that this meant he had little time to prepare for the role.
Having already become a fan favourite with his turn in the first Wicked film, Jonathan took centre stage in the sequel Wicked: For Good, concluding Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the Broadway musical.
The film saw Fiyero abandon his wedding to Glinda (Ariana Grande) in favour of declaring his love for the witch Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), who had been ostracised by the people of Oz.
As well as performing the iconic duet As Long As You’re Mine from the stage show, Fiyero reuniting with Elphaba after faking her death, with the couple leaving Oz together in the film’s final moments.Â
Jonathan Bailey has revealed he had just four days to rehearse for his acclaimed role in the Wicked films, as he juggled two other acting roles when he landed the part
The actor was already hot property when bosses tried to cast him as Prince Fiyero, as he was starring in both Bridgerton (pictured) and the film Fellow Travellers
Jonathan told The Hollywood Reporter that it was due to delay in work on his film Fellow Travellers that he was able to star in Wicked, after its star Matt Bomber contracted Covid.
Explaining he flew from Canada to meet director Jon M. Chu in London, he said: ‘I had filmed three days on Bridgerton and was due to fly back, and the Wicked date had slipped so it looked possible.Â
‘I just knew not only what Fiyero was and what the opportunity was, but I felt like I would want to go away and do the work and then turn up and offer stuff, so that I could preserve [Cynthia and Ariana’s] energy, because it was such a massive slog for them.
‘It’s crazy to think I had four days of rehearsal when everyone else had a few months, but it’s amazing what you can do when you have experts around you. You have to go on instinct.Â
‘You look at something and go, ”I know what to do with this.” So I just went and milked myself to the end, and then I was like a hollow shell. But luckily, by that point, I had incredible prosthetics to hide under.’
Wicked’s final scenes also saw Fiyero transformed into a scarecrow by Elphaba in a bid to save him from being killed by the Oz guards, with the actor spending hours under heavy prosthetics to film the closing moments.
For Good is already proving to be more successful than the first, grossing $150 million in the US alone during its opening weekend.
It now holds the largest opening ever for a Broadway musical adaptation, surpassing last year’s Wicked debut of $112.5million, and ranks as the third-largest opening of all time among musical films, behind The Lion King (2019) and Beauty And The Beast (2017).
The film saw Fiyero abandon his wedding to Glinda (pictured) in favour of declaring his love for the witch Elphaba, who had been ostracised by the people of Oz
Bosses fought hard to cast Jonathan in the film, and the actor has revealed in a new interview that this meant he had little time to prepare for the role
Much of that success was credited to Erivo and Grande’s ‘powerhouse’ performances – with extra emphasis on Grande’s Oscar buzzy portrayal of Glinda.
The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney went as far to say that Grande ‘owns’ Part Two as she so effortlessly brings Glinda to ‘luminous life’.
The release also posted the second-best opening weekend ahead of Thanksgiving and currently stands as the second-largest three-day launch of 2025, trailing A Minecraft Movie.
The film’s soundtrack features two new original songs, No Place Like Home and The Girl In The Bubble, performed as solos by Grande and Erivo.
While reception to the additions was mixed, one viewer wrote on X: ‘Finished Wicked For Good. And if I said they should have never added those new songs then what.’
Another wrote: ‘Wicked For Good just didn’t do it for me which is really disappointing and I’m really sad about it.
Despite some criticism, critical response has been largely positive. The Daily Mail’s film critic Brian Viner awarded the film a five-star rating, writing: ‘The film is just as impressive as the first one, if not better.’
He added: ‘Like last year’s film, this one is extravagantly sumptuous on the eye.
‘The sets and costumes are truly spectacular, and the animal exodus from Oz (where Morrible has stripped them of their power to speak) is superbly rendered.
‘Above all, Erivo and Grande are magnificent, worthy of all the acclaim that will doubtless be dished upon them.’
However, a viewer shared online: ‘It was slow, it didn’t flow well, the new songs were unnecessary and it just wasn’t it.’
While another remarked: ‘I don’t get it. They obv are going for best original song awards. I really thought Stephen Schwartz would go all out with the original songs.
‘My first reaction when I heard the songs in Wicked: For Good for the first time was like ‘that’s it? that’s the best he could do?”
The original stage musical was adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked: The Life And Times Of The Wicked Witch Of The West, which itself drew inspiration from L. Frank Baum’s original story and the 1939 film starring Judy Garland.Â
