Ethan Slater is trying to get used to the attention he’s receiving for both his professional and private lives.
He’s making his big-screen acting debut as the lovesick Boq in Jon M. Chu’s “Wicked” opposite Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Baily, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum and Marissa Bode. Last year, Slater and Grande faced scrutiny as rumors about their relationship spread online, coinciding with reports of their respective divorces from previous partners.
“My therapist, for sure,” Slater says when I ask who he’s leaning on to cope with the intense spotlight. “He’s been really helpful.”
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Until now, the 32-year-old Washington D.C. native was best known and loved by Broadway fans for his Tony-nominated work in “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical.”
“Ultimately, the thing that’s so important in so many facets of life, whether it’s fame or career or whatever, is just to have a good group of people around you,” Slater says on the latest episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast. “I am really lucky to have amazing friends and wonderful family that are grounding and helpful and loving and caring. This is a kind of a crazy ride that’s sort of just beginning. ‘Wicked’ doesn’t come out for another two whole days, three days. So it’s all sort of just starting, this whirlwind. But I’ve been really grateful to have good people that I can lean on and hopefully that can lean on me.”
He did ask Goldblum, who plays the Wizard, for advice. “I was just like, ‘Hey, what do I expect? What’s coming?’ And his response was really funny to me. He was just like, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never done anything this big before,’” Slater recalls. “That can’t be true, first of all. And he was like, ‘Well, I think everything always feels like this, it always feels bigger. Find the ways.’ … There was something, actually, really, a big relief about him not really having advice to offer, beyond the normal sort of, ‘Take it day by day,’ because there is something that is outrageous about promoting a movie and being a part of something that so many people care about, and I don’t think it will ever feel totally normal… But it certainly is a thrilling roller-coaster ride.”
The following Q&A has been edited and condensed for clarity. Listen to the full interview on “Just for Variety” above or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Are you going to do a “Glicked” double feature?
I hope so. I’m trying to work it into the schedule so I can block off seven hours, go to IMAX just to get the full experience. I would really love to.
This is your first big movie. Are you the type who wants to go to a theater and sit in the back with your hat pulled down so you can see audience reaction?
I’m of two minds. I feel like on the one hand, I have loved being at these premieres and getting to watch the movie with people. I’m so proud to be a part of this movie, and I’m so proud of everyone’s work in it that it’s just really nice to see it shared with people. And I love going to the movies, and I think going to the theater that I go to see everything in, I think that’s potentially a really special thing. On the other side of it, I’m a little embarrassed.
It’s not like you and Ariana could go on a date night and just sneak in and no one’s going to see you.
We’ll wear hats and masks. There’s a buddy of mine [Danny Skinner] who I did “SpongeBob” with, and we’ve gone to see every “SpongeBob” movie, and we went to see ours when it was filmed. We couldn’t be more conspicuously shaped. We really look like SpongeBob and Patrick Star next to each other. It’s just the craziest silhouette. We went to see the tour in Philadelphia and tried to go incognito, and everyone was like, “Oh, hey, Ethan. Hey, Danny.” We’re like, “What do you mean?”
Tell me about the first time you saw “Wicked” on stage? How old were you?
I was in sixth grade, so I was 11 years old. It was the original Broadway company, spring of 2004. I think it was May, so it was before the Tony’s, and I went with my school. We took a field trip, a day trip up to see “Wicked.” And look, I don’t have the clearest memories from my childhood, generally, but I remember how it felt, and I remember the bus ride back. I think the cast album must have been out, and we were just singing the entire way. And I think that, honestly, it’s kind of crazy to say when you’re working on the film of “Wicked” 21 years, 20 years later, to be like, “This is one of the things that made me fall in love with theater and made me fall in love with music is Stephen Schwartz’s music in this and “The Prince of Egypt.” But it’s true. It really changed my life in little ways and, now, big.
What was it like walking onto the “Wicked” set for the first time?
The first day that I arrived in London, Jon — and he did this with everyone because he’s amazing — we sat and talked for two-and-a-half hours, and we talked about what it means to be a Munchkin, what is the culture of Munchkin Land. He had some ideas, but he wanted me to bring what I thought based on my research and just really respecting the most actorly impulses that actors sometimes have. That can sometimes be embarrassing and vulnerable to admit, but he was just like, “No, I love it. Tell me more. What have you been thinking?” So we talked a lot, and it was really beautiful.
What was your audition like?
I really wanted to do a good job, but I didn’t have anyone to read with me, and it was a self-tape. I recorded myself doing all of Glinda’s lines, and I recorded myself singing Nessa’s lines, and then I read with myself, off-camera. It’s a lot of Ethan on one tape… It was so dumb. It was such a dumb choice. And I remember looking back at it and being like, “I can’t believe I’m sending this in, but this is the deadline, and I think I do a good enough job and whatever.” I sent it in, [but] I was like, “Well, there’s no chance.”
Did you personally know Cynthia and Ari before you got the part?
No, not really at all. I’d rubbed shoulders with Cynthia, but we hadn’t really met or gotten to speak at all so much until then.
What was it like seeing yourself for the first time in full Boq hair and makeup?
Boq has a lot of hair that’s similar to mine, but in order to make it architectural and have that look, I did have hundreds and hundreds of extensions in.
It wasn’t a wig?
No, my hair plus extensions. Yeah. So I think that living with that, I often had it up in a top knot all year, but if I didn’t, then I had to really style it, or else it would flop down and look absolutely ridiculous. It was a crazy way to live, but it was really fun.
You kept the extensions in when you weren’t filming?
Every six weeks, we had to remove them and then put them back in, and that was a three-day process. You had to remove it, let my scalp readjust, do a little haircut, and then two days of putting it back in. It would be seven hours the first day, and then the next day would be another three hours of putting it in, plus we had to do another haircut. We had to do a haircut once they were all in.
When are you going back to Broadway?
I don’t know yet. No plans. Hopefully, soon. I love doing Broadway, and I love the Broadway community, so we’ll see.
What’s your dream musical?
I’ve got a little pitch, which is that I think…Tevye the Dairy Man would probably be around 38 years old, maybe nearing 40. So I think in my late 30s leading to 40, I want to play Tevye [in “Fiddler on the Roof”].
That doesn’t have to be Broadway. You could do a movie, Jon Chu’s “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Jon Chu’s “Fiddler on the Roof” — that’s a stunning idea.
I want 10 percent.
You know what? If we can put this thing together, 10 percent is yours.
Watch my interiew with Slater at the “Wicked” premiere in Los Angeles below. Find out what he has to say about childhood bullies who teased him for having red hair.
