Ariana Grande sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to reflect on her "Hollywood Firsts," from the first time she felt starstruck to the first time she heard her song on the radio. Plus, she dishes on her 'Wicked' audition and how she "sobbed" after finding out she was nominated for an Oscar.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00I didn't ever think that I would be seen as a singer.
00:04I didn't, I hoped, you know,
00:06I hoped that people would let me do both
00:08or that I would be able to do both with my life.
00:11And at that time, it was just such an unfathomable thought.
00:16So it was really cool to hear like,
00:18oh my God, they're playing my song on the radio.
00:21Maybe I'll get to do both.
00:22Hi, I'm Ariana Grande,
00:24and we are here at my Hollywood Reporter cover shoot.
00:27And here are some of my Hollywood firsts.
00:31The first movie that made me want to make movies,
00:37I would say The Wizard of Oz is one of them
00:41because I just remember studying Judy Garland
00:44and being so in love with her performance.
00:46And then I fell totally in love with Jim Carrey.
00:50So I think about like The Truman Show and The Mask.
00:55He's just like this masterful comedian.
00:59He's one of one,
01:00but everything has so much depth
01:02and humanness beneath the surface.
01:04It's like hilarious,
01:05but also heartbreaking at the same time.
01:07And then I think about Best in Show.
01:09Those are my three.
01:11I think might've been for Annie
01:13at the Little Palm Family Theater.
01:16I was eight years old and I was very sick.
01:19I had bronchitis, but I really wanted to go.
01:22And I booked the role of Annie.
01:25And I remember I was so young.
01:27They had like a rule at the family theater
01:30that like parents had to drop everyone off
01:32and then pick them up after rehearsals.
01:33But my mom did not want to leave me at rehearsals.
01:36And so she actually auditioned as well
01:38and got a role in Annie.
01:40And she played the guy who sells the apples
01:43and one of Daddy Warbucks' housekeepers.
01:46And so she was able to stay at rehearsals with me
01:48because she auditioned to be in the show.
01:51My first red carpet was for Fantastic Mr. Fox,
01:54which I was not in at all.
01:56I had nothing to do with it, but they invited me
01:58and I was on Nickelodeon at the time and I had my red hair
02:01and I had my little green mini dress.
02:02And I remember I felt really cute.
02:04I associate that specific shade of red
02:06with that character so much.
02:08So I love it.
02:10I love it for that.
02:12I started writing songs when I was really young,
02:14but the first one I wrote and recorded
02:16and was able to like actually have a copy of
02:19was called Let It Rain.
02:22And I was really young when I wrote it.
02:22I think I was 11 or 12 when I wrote it
02:25and then I recorded it the next year.
02:27I don't know, man.
02:28Let it rain.
02:29Just what it will be, it will be.
02:31Those were the lyrics.
02:32What was I thinking?
02:34I was so young and so wise.
02:36I thought I was like Natasha Bedingfield
02:38slash Mary J. Blige.
02:39And I was 12.
02:43The first person that truly left me starstruck
02:45was Imogen Heap.
02:46I grew up worshiping her.
02:48She's the reason why I produce.
02:50She's the reason why I literally downloaded
02:52all the music softwares on my computer when I was 12
02:55to start learning how to do things myself,
02:57how to comp vocals, my looping machine.
02:59Like everything I know about music production
03:01was because I idolized her.
03:03I thought I was being catfished
03:05the first time that I went to go meet her.
03:07And at some point I was like,
03:08hey mom, I think it's a prank.
03:11And I think it's, you know, we watch a lot of true crime.
03:14I think we know what's coming and this is the end.
03:17And then it wasn't.
03:18And she ends and she's like,
03:19hello.
03:20And she answered the door and she was like,
03:20hello, come on in.
03:21These are the Mimu gloves.
03:22And it was perfectly wonderful.
03:25My first time hearing myself on the radio,
03:27I was actually driving to Nick on Sunset
03:30to film Sam and Cat.
03:31And I heard the way and I almost crashed my car.
03:36It was really exciting and totally terrifying
03:41because I almost drove off the road.
03:42It was really an insane moment for me
03:46because A, I was getting ready to go to set
03:48for my real job at the time.
03:50And, you know, I didn't ever think
03:53that I would be seen as a singer.
03:56I didn't, I hoped, you know,
03:58I hoped that people would let me do both
04:00or that I would be able to do both with my life.
04:02And at that time, it was just such an unfathomable thought.
04:07So it was really cool to hear like,
04:10oh my God, they're playing my song on the radio.
04:12Maybe I'll get to do both.
04:15My first Wicked audition was August 13th, 2021.
04:19I like remember I had my little pink thermos.
04:23Just remember leaving it all in the room.
04:26I sang No One Mourns the Wicked and I sang Popular.
04:29I sang both of them twice.
04:31And then I strangely sang,
04:33even though it was very clear that I was going in for Linda,
04:36I also sang The Wizard and I in Defying Gravity twice.
04:38So I was there for quite a while and I did a lot of singing.
04:41And even though I wasn't all pink,
04:43they had me sing both vocal tracks, which was really fun.
04:46And yeah, I just remember leaving buzzing.
04:53I sobbed.
04:54I, it's, I absolutely sobbed.
04:58I had my face in my hands.
05:01I was just absolutely sobbing.
05:04It was really emotional.
05:06It's emotional to even talk about it.
05:08It's very unfathomable
05:11because the greatest gift of my life
05:13was being able to do this work.
05:15Every single day playing Galinda was more than a dream
05:21and more than enough.
05:23It's just the thing that I'm most grateful for
05:26in my life so far.
05:27So to have the work be celebrated
05:29and acknowledged in this way
05:30is not something you even think about when you're making it.
05:32You know, you don't even think about it at all.
05:34And then afterwards you don't think about it either.
05:36I didn't know where I'd be right now.
05:37I thought I would be, I don't know.
05:39It's just, it's a once in a lifetime thing.
05:45And I don't think if I ever,
05:47I don't think I even let myself dream that far,
05:50to be honest.
05:51So yeah, it's incredibly moving
05:54and extraordinary and insane.
05:56Oh, and then my therapist called
05:58and then my gynecologist called
06:00and I was like, oh my God, thank you.
06:03Can we celebrate over my next breast exam?
06:05Like, is everything okay?
06:07First of all, is everything good?
06:08And she was like, congratulations.
06:10And I was like, wow, that's it, right?
06:14There's a tonal shift when you go from being like
06:18on a kid's show as a character
06:20that people love and find approachable
06:23and silly and whatever to pop stardom.
06:26There's a very different thing that happens
06:28and I can't explain what's behind it or why, whatever.
06:33People sort of, it just becomes a little bit different.
06:37But I just remember feeling all of a sudden like,
06:40oh my goodness, artists maybe are not like meant to deal,
06:46like the same people who are destined to make art
06:50are the opposite kind of people
06:52who are meant to deal with what comes with it sometimes.
06:55Sometimes it can just be really a bit of a whirlwind
06:59and the music you're making, whatever you're doing
07:03can come secondary to what they try to turn you into.
07:06So I think probably when I was 19 or something or 20,
07:09I remember kind of having to stand up for myself
07:13quite often back then,
07:15or at least stand up for my art too,
07:16to just be like, hey, I'm here to sing.
07:18Like, what are these rumors about?
07:21Why is this happening?
07:22I'm just here to sing.
07:24And that was something I was experiencing
07:25at such a young age that it was so weird
07:29for me to adjust to it.
07:30I'm 31 and I'm still, it's still really hard
07:33when that feeling arises.
07:35I'm still learning and I'm still growing,
07:36but I feel like I'm really proud
07:39of kind of how I've been able to navigate it
07:42and heal through it.
07:44I've been holding space since I was born, I would say.
07:48I think I've always been an empath and a cancer
07:51and I have been consistently holding space
07:55since my first breath.
07:57I want to take this moment to clarify something.
08:00There were many articles written about
08:02what it means to hold space,
08:03but it wasn't the holding space that was perplexing
08:07because I think holding space is something that,
08:11you know, I've actually been saying that phrase
08:12for quite a long time.
08:14It was the with.
08:15Thank you for letting me clear that up.
08:18Probably the same thing that my mom said to me,
08:20which was just like, you've got this.
08:24You know, you can do absolutely anything.
08:26Be kind, work hard and tune out the noise.