Amanda Seyfried says she did everything she could to play Glinda in the upcoming Wicked movie before the role was eventually given to Ariana Grande. Seyfried, who’s up for an Emmy for The Dropout, says she raced back-and-forth between filming the Hulu series and auditioning for the part of “the good witch” last summer. “I was like, ‘You know what? Yeah, I have to play the last scene of The Dropout on Tuesday. I’ll give my Sunday to you.’ I literally bent over backwards while playing the hardest role of my life,” the actress told Backstage magazine. She further revealed that she wanted the job to avenge her vocal chops. Though she was praised for her turn in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables, she wasn’t happy with her performance. “I was like, ‘I need to be better. I need to do better,’” she said. Seyfried has talked about wanting to play Glinda since at least 2013, when she told E! News, “To be honest with you, nobody would put me in that. I would have to take another two years of voice lessons before I could do that.” The first of two Wicked films comes out in December 2024.