Elphaba isn’t green because she’s “Wicked.” And it's not because of a curse either. The so-called Wicked Witch of the West in "Wicked: Part I," now out in theaters everywhere, is green because her mother drank a green elixir before her birth.

But Erivo wanted to actually be green, not have the color superimposed onto her skin in post. So, the film’s makeup designer Frances Hannon — who was thrilled by the actor’s insistence — took on the challenge of finding the right verdant hue.

A pair of best friends have told how being cast in the new blockbuster movie version of Wicked was "like a fairytale". Young stars Harriet Ryan, nine, and Karis Musongole, 10, worked closely with the likes of Arianna Grande and Cynthia Erivo on the set of the highly anticipated film,