Amanda Seyfried reveals feelings about how she lost out on Wicked role to Ariana Grande: "I like to feel appreciated"

Amanda Seyfried has opened up about how she feels about losing out on the role of Glinda in Wicked after numerous auditions.

The actress previously revealed that she tried out six times for the role in the film adaptation of the hit broadway show, which would have seen her appear alongside Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, before it ultimately went to pop icon Ariana Grande.

In a new interview with Radio Times ahead of the UK release of Seyfried’s new film The Testament of Ann Lee, the actress was asked whether she's over losing out on the role now, to which she responded: "Yeah. I’ve been making the [promo] rounds with all of them, and it’s like everything happens for a reason."

She continued: "I wasn’t sad I didn’t get it, but I guess I wish it had been communicated to me in a better way. I don’t like to be in the dark about things. I like to feel appreciated."

Seyfried might have missed out on the role of Glinda, but the Mamma Mia! and Les Miserables star is getting to showcase her singing again in The Testament of Ann Lee – a historical musical about the life of the founder of The Shakers.

The actress appears as a the titular Ann Lee, while the film's supporting cast includes Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Abbott.

Asked in the same interview about director Mona Fastvold's previous comments that she cast Seyfriend as Ann Lee because "she’s really strong, a wonderful mother and a little bit mad", the actress responded: "I think she meant it in a good way. 'Mad' can mean so many things, but for this, it meant being completely uninhibited."

She added: "The ego is a barrier for actors, and you have to be able to put that aside. As I’m getting older in my career, people seem to be able to trust me to show up in that way."

She continued: "Like the scene where Ann is speaking in tongues. How many directors are going to let me react like that? To allow me to just improv freely, in the most absurd way? It felt incredible."

Read the full interview with Amanda Seyfried in the latest issue of Radio Times out on Tuesday – subscribe here.

The Testament of Ann Lee is out in UK cinemas on 20 February 2026.

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