Warning: The following content contains sensitive topics surrounding disordered eating habits. Reader discretion is advised.
Recently, the movie Wicked: For Good was released in theaters, almost exactly one year after the first movie, Wicked. With the press tours and event advertising for the movie, many people are noticing weird trends with many of the cast members.
During the filming of The Wizard of Oz in 1939, there were many accidents on set. This could be credited to the fact that there were far less protections for actors than there are now, so producers could get away with a lot more than they can now.
The original actor of the Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, was poisoned by the makeup used, which was made of aluminum dust. After filming for a week and a half, Ebsen was hospitalized and put into an oxygen tent. After he was not recovering quickly enough, the directors hired Jack Haley to replace him and mixed the powder into a paste so that the same fate wouldn’t happen to him.
Throughout the filming process, studio executives gave 16-year-old Judy Garland “uppers” and sleeping pills so she could keep up with the pace of filming. By the time she turned 17, she was already addicted to barbiturates and amphetamines, which would end her life. Garland was also forced to bind her breasts down to look more childlike and wear a corset to flatten her curves, which caused great pain and discomfort over the seven months of filming.
64 years later, a musical adaptation was created to follow the backstory of the Wicked Witch of the West. On the second-to-last day of Idina Menzel’s time performing, there was a mishap with a trap door that caused Menzel to break a lower rib. This occurred when Elphaba (Menzel) was being melted by Dorothy, where she would have gone safely into the room below, but instead fell many feet.
When Wicked: For Good premiered, fans noticed that many of the lead women were starting to get really skinny, to the point where people thought they were suffering from eating disorders. This has caused attention and enthusiasm in corners of the internet that promote eating disorders. Pictures of the Wicked leads at the premieres that showcase their frame have been spread as motivation for people to restrict their eating or starve themselves.
Both of the lead actors, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo claim that they are the healthiest they have ever been. In 2013, Ariana Grande was allegedly posting “body checks” and her meals on Tumblr, showing her restricted eating habits.
Another controversy is the alleged affair between main cast members Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater. When filming began in 2022, both people were actively in relationships, and Slater and his wife were even expecting a child. By July 2023, it had been announced that Grande and Slater were in a relationship, which caused many fans to assume that they had been having an affair during filming.
Although productions of every form of media are almost always messy, with these incidents, it seems like there is a curse on everything related to Dorthy, the Wicked Witch, and the Wizard. Could it be from a magical elixir drunk by L. Frank Baum, or just a streak of bad luck?
