Ethan Slater landing the role of Boq in 'Wicked' has an element of magic to it

You could say that Ethan Slater's yellow brick road to getting cast in the big screen adaptation of “Wicked” had an element of magic to it.

On the day he was asked to submit a tape of himself for the role of Boq, Slater was playing the part of actor Christopher Fitzgerald's identical twin in a table read for a potential musical. Fitzgerald originated the role of Boq in “Wicked” on Broadway. “I didn’t tell him about it ‘cause I didn’t want to explain when I didn’t get it,'” admitted Slater. Instead, he marked the occasion by asking Fitzgerald to take a selfie with him for seemingly no reason, which he still has.

After getting the job, Slater was determined to master the delicate dance of keeping the essence of Fitzgerald in a role that was now his.

“I look up to him so much,” Slater said of Fitzgerald. “I wanted to honor the Boq he created who’s just, like, a burst of energy. But I also wanted to make him my own because I could never be Chris Fitzgerald. He's too singular and too amazing. It would be a fool’s errand to try to be him.”

In turn, Fitzgerald, who has seen the film, gave Slater's performance a glowing review. Slater says he plans to print and frame a text message that Fitzgerald sent him afterward.

“Ethan has this perfect balance of soulfulness and funny bones as an actor,” Fitzgerald said in an email to the AP. “His Boq is earnest, daffy, and generous of heart. It was such a pleasure and a gift to watch a pal use the spirit of something that’s come before and spin it into something new and wholly original. He is Boq.”

“Wicked” is a prequel to the events of “Wizard of Oz.” It stars Ariana Grande as Glinda and Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba. Jonathan Bailey plays a prince, Fiyero, who encounters Glinda and Elphaba at school.

The story was conceived by Gregory Macguire for a novel called “Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.”

Slater says filming the big-budget movie directed by Jon M. Chu ("Crazy Rich Asians" and “In the Heights”) actually felt much smaller. At its heart, the cast is just a bunch of theater kids who love to perform.

“I keep quoting Johnny Bailey who said while we were shooting, ‘it just feels like a student film until suddenly it doesn’t,'" said Slater.

Erivo, Grande, Bailey and Slater all come from a musical theater background. In 2018, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his leading performance in “SpongeBob SquarePants" on Broadway. He was also in the revival of “Spamalot" in 2023.

“We all cared so much. We cared in the way that theater kids care and want to protect this show and want the opportunity to do it. It was really, really joyful and familial," said Slater.

Because the experience was so magical, Slater said the actors find themselves reminiscing even when they're not promoting it.

“Going to dinner last night, we were all still talking about ‘Wicked,’ and it’s like another theater kid thing, you know, hyper-fixating on this thing that we love so much," he said.

The actors sang live on set which Slater said makes for a better performance.

“You are using your voice in the same way from scene into song, into scene. And there’s no break at all. You’re not thinking about syncing. You’re not thinking about dubbing later. You’re just performing it," he said.

“Wicked,” premiering Nov. 22, will be released in two parts. The second film is scheduled for a November 2025 debut.

Slater recognizes that breaking up the film is a “controversial decision.”

"I empathize with that, but when you see this movie, I think it’s a really full movie with a beginning, middle and end. You get to know these characters and love these characters. I think the first thing you’re going to want to do is watch the movie a second time. I’m on pins and needles waiting for the second one."

On screen, Boq has an unrequited crush on Glinda. Off screen, Slater and Grande are a couple in real life.

“Her fans are going to be blown away," he said. "Anybody who’s a fan of Ariana knows how talented she is. They know that she has, you know, one of the best voices, of our generation — or ever — and can do anything with it. I think that her acting is like above and beyond. It’s incredible. Her comedy is ridiculous."

Slater also stars in the film “Lost on a Mountain in Maine," now in theaters. And he's developing “a really beautiful play about humanity” where he would star as French mime Marcel Marceau.

“The thing in theater is you can’t really celebrate it until opening night and then you really shouldn’t until it closes either. But we’re really excited about its future, and hopefully there will be more news about it soon.”

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Ethan Slater arrives at the premiere of "Wicked" on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Ethan Slater arrives at the premiere of "Wicked" on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, at Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Actor Ethan Slater poses for a portrait on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024, in Universal City, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Ágnes Keleti, a Holocaust survivor and the oldest living Olympic medal winner, has died. She was 103.

Keleti died Thursday morning in Budapest, the Hungarian state news agency reported. She was hospitalized in critical condition with pneumonia on Dec. 25.

She won a total of 10 Olympic medals in gymnastics, including five golds, for Hungary at the 1952 Helsinki Games and the 1956 Melbourne Games. She overcame the loss of her father and several relatives in the Holocaust to become one of the most successful Jewish Olympic athletes.

“These 100 years felt to me like 60,” Keleti told The Associated Press on the eve of her 100th birthday. “I live well. And I love life. It’s great that I’m still healthy.”

Born Ágnes Klein in 1921 in Budapest, her career was interrupted by World War II and the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Olympics. Forced off her gymnastics team in 1941 because of her Jewish ancestry, Keleti went into hiding in the Hungarian countryside, where she survived the Holocaust by assuming a false identity and working as a maid.

Her mother and sister survived the war with the help of famed Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, but her father and other relatives perished at Auschwitz, among the more than half a million Hungarian Jews killed in Nazi death camps and by Hungarian Nazi collaborators.

Resuming her career after the war, Keleti was set to compete at the 1948 London Olympics, but a last-minute ankle injury dashed her hopes.

Four years later, she made her Olympic debut at the 1952 Helsinki Games at the age of 31, winning a gold medal in the floor exercise as well as a silver and two bronzes. In 1956, she became the most successful athlete at the Melbourne Olympics, winning four gold and two silver medals.

While she was becoming the oldest gold medalist in gymnastics history at age 35 in Melbourne, the Soviet Union invaded Hungary following an unsuccessful anti-Soviet uprising. Keleti remained in Australia and sought political asylum. She then immigrated to Israel the following year and worked as a trainer and coached the Israeli Olympic gymnastics team until the 1990s.

FILE - Agnes Keleti, former Olympic gold medal winning gymnast, smiles at her apartment in Budapest, Hungary Wednesday Jan. 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Laszlo Balogh, File)