“It was a really heavy day. There was actually a conversation about… certain people wanted to cut that shot,” Grande said. “Jon was like, ‘This is the movie. There is no question about it.’ I was so grateful for how fiercely he advocated for those honest moments. It’s one of the most beautiful and connected moments in both of the movies. I’m so grateful that it’s there. It’s tough. It was very hard emotionally.”

Related Stories

Elton John Is Still Standing: The Legend on Performing Plans, Loving Chappell Roan and His Legacy of Raising $650 Million for HIV/AIDS

Chu previouslytold Variety that the door scene was not in the original script for the movie and was added after he spotted Erivo and Grande improvising a goodbye between their characters during the film’s rehearsal process. The two actors placed their hands against an imaginary door and Chu said he “started to weep.”

“It was in rehearsals that we found it,” Chu said. “Cynthia grabs her and says, ‘Come here.’ And I’m like, where are they going? And they go to this corner, and she puts her in a box or a closet.”

The shot of the door splitting the characters comes right after Glinda tells Elphaba she loves them, which Chu also had to fight to keep in the movie since there is apparently a rule in the Oz franchise that characters do not express such a thought.