The star, director Jon M. Chu, and lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz break down the pivotal Elphaba moment.

Cynthia Erivo reveals the Wicked: For Good song that made her feel ‘really powerful’ (exclusive)

The star, director Jon M. Chu, and lyricist and composer Stephen Schwartz break down the pivotal Elphaba moment.

By Patrick Gomez

Patrick Gomez is an Executive Editor at . Formerly at People magazine and The A.V. Club, the Critics Choice and Television Critics Association member has appeared on 'Today,' 'Extra!,' 'Access Hollywood,' 'E! News,' 'CNN,' and 'Nightline,' and can be seen frequently on 'Good Morning America.' Follow the Texas Native at @PatrickGomezLA wherever your media is social for all things 'For All Mankind' 'Top Chef,' and puppy related.

EW's editorial guidelines

December 11, 2025 12:15 p.m. ET

Leave a Comment

Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) in 'Wicked: For Good'. Credit:

Over the course of the *Wicked* films, Cynthia Erivo's Elphaba defies gravity, gets Fiyero seeing through different eyes, and learns that no good deed goes unpunished. They are all moments of great empowerment for the viridescent heroine. But what song made the actress feel "really" powerful?

"'No place like home' is originally said by Dorothy [in *The Wizard of Oz*], and so to take those words and put them into the Wicked Witch of the West's mouth, it's a really big responsibility," Erivo says in a featurette video exclusive to **, referring to the new song composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz wrote for Elphaba to sing in *Wicked: For Good*.

The song, "No Place Like Home," which earned a Best Original Song Golden Globe nomination, comes as Elphaba finds the animals of Oz are escaping to the Land Beyond Oz after years of persecution and (no pun intended) scapegoating by the Wizard and the government of Oz.

In an attempt to get the animals to stay, "She tries to express what she feels about the place that she's in and what she wants for those she's fighting for," Erivo says in the video (above). "It almost becomes the mission statement for her."

"This connection to the place where we live and where we're born, I think that's a universal feeling," adds Schwartz.

How the most challenging 'Wicked: For Good' scene, 'The Girl in the Bubble,' turned into the most impactful

How 'Wicked: For Good' changed after first movie's success: 'We don't need any of that s---'

*Wicked: For Good* director Jon M. Chu believes "It's a very lonely place to be, when you stand up for moral courage," and says "No Place Like Home" explores "what happens when it's maybe better just to leave, and *What are you fighting for?* I think those questions are really important, and so Stephen Schwartz wrote this amazing original song."

"I think it really becomes a beautiful song of resistance," concludes Erivo. "I loved singing it and when we did it on the Yellow Brick Road, which is really iconic and special, it felt really powerful. That home that she's known and loved this entire time might not want her but it doesn't mean that it makes it any less like home."

***Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.***

In a recent interview with EW regarding the special effects of the scene, Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman agreed the seven-minute sequence is "a very special scene. It is not only a new song, but we're seeing inside Elphaba's soul there."

Before and after comparison of the visual effects in "No Place Like Home" from 'Wicked: For Good'.

Universal Pictures

Helman also revealed that, while all the animals seen in the final film were of course CGI, "We had a team — an animal crew — it's about 15 people that acted like animals. They knew the lines, they knew the song, they reacted and interacted with Elphaba, with Cynthia. A tennis ball is a lot less emotive, it turns out, than a person that is taking the place of an animal."**

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Movies”