IT SEEMS THAT MAGIC IS SOMETHING FICTITIOUS. A KIND OF FORCE THAT ONLY EXISTS IN MOVIES AND MOST FANTASTIC STORIES. AND THAT IS NOT TRUE, MAGIC EXISTS AND IS WITHIN OUR REACH. BUT MAGIC IS NOT LIGHTNING OR COLOURED SMOKE, IT IS A STAGE WHERE THE DEDICATED ACTORS, EITHER ON A HUGE SCREEN OR LIVE, JOIN THEIR ENERGY TO TRANSPORT US TO OTHER UNIVERSES. FOR SEVERAL HOURS, IN TOTAL DARKNESS, WE CAN STEP AWAY FROM OUR OWN REALITY TO FACE A FRENETIC ADVENTURE, A HUMAN DRAMA OR A HORROR STORY. ETHAN SLATER IS ONE OF THOSE MAGICIANS WHO HAS BEEN ENCHANTING US FOR YEARS WITH HIS WORK IN FILM, TELEVISION AND THEATRE, WHICH HAS LED HIM TO BE ONE OF THE MOST RELEVANT NAMES ON BROADWAY TODAY, HAVING WON A DRAMA DESK AWARD AND RECEIVING SEVERAL TONY NOMINATIONS. NOW, SLATER HAS IMMERSED HIMSELF IN THE FABULOUS WORLD OF OZ THANKS TO JON M. CHU'S ADAPTATION OF WICKED, A WORLDWIDE PHENOMENON RACKING UP MILLIONS AT THE BOX OFFICE. ETHAN IS LIVING THE SWEET DREAM OF PLAYING THE CUTE AND CUDDLY BOQ WOODSMAN, AN INSTANT FAN-FAVOURITE. NOW, AS WE IMPATIENTLY AWAIT THE SEQUEL, WE TALK TO ETHAN ABOUT HOPE AND THE POWER OF DREAMING OF A BETTER WORLD.

Left Blazer **Dolce & Gabbana**, shirt **Todd Snyder**
Right Full look **Valentino**

Ethan, it's a pleasure to talk to you. I like this time of the year, the award season, because it makes us talk about films and go to the cinema to enjoy the big premieres. Tell me, how are these months for you?

Thank you, Juan! It’s so great to speak with you too. Awards season has never really stuck out to me in the past as a moment other than watching and following along casually to see how the films I loved were doing. But what’s been really exciting this year about being so near to (and involved with) the award season with Wicked is that I have had an excuse to watch and rewatch so many great movies, just so I can know what’s up for “work”. And then to have the opportunity to meet some of the filmmakers who made these incredible things! It’s really cool, it’s really special.

You ended last year with great success, as Wicked has become one of the highest-grossing musical adaptations of all time. Where would you say the magic of Wicked lies?

Wicked has magic all over it, it’s hard to pinpoint one place where it comes from. But I think it all comes back to the two women at the centre of it, the story of friendship, love, acceptance, and growth. It’s a big reason Wicked has been such a huge part of the culture for so long already. And then to have those roles inhabited by Ariana and Cynthia with such power, grace and skill takes it from great to… indescribable. They are magic. So, I guess the magic lies with them.

Left Coat and tank top **Todd Snyder**, gloves **Miu Miu**
Right Shirt **Miu Miu**, pants **Todd Snyder**, shoes **Loro Piana**

You are one of the biggest names on Broadway at the moment and so I would like to know what your relationship with Wicked was before you took part in the film.

I don’t know about “one of the biggest names”! Not even close! I have always loved Broadway and Wicked has always been a huge part of that. I saw the show with my 6th grade class, we took a day trip from DC to NYC to see the original company of Wicked, and all I remember is singing the songs from the OBC the entire 5-hour bus ride home. Then, I took my niece to see Wicked as her first Broadway show when she turned 9, and it really hit home how special the show is. To be able to watch it through her eyes, to see how it moved her (in the same ways, and different ways, that it moved me). So my relationship with Wicked before the movie was mainly as a fan (though I did audition once for Boq back in 2013, but I didn’t get the role).

Now you play him in the films! I was very surprised by his style because it is absolutely current – even in cities like New York or Madrid we can see people who seem to follow his style faithfully. What was your characterisation process to become Boq like?

Do you mean his fashion sense or his style of moving through the world? Because for the clothes, I have to say Paul Tazewell is just unbelievable. The way he created a modern, current, off-kilter but still uniform look for Shiz (and for the whole of Oz) was so transformative. On set, it was such a huge help, honestly! I don’t believe that “the clothes make the man,” or whatever; but I do believe there’s something to be said for “dressing for the job you want.” Paul made every single person on set feel exactly themselves (in character) before we even left our trailers. And I think, for me, after the steps of doing script work and creating a backstory or whatever, the next most helpful things are the tangibles: the set, the props, the wardrobe.

Left Shirt **Miu Miu**, pants **Todd Snyder**
Right Shirt **Dolce&Gabbana**

I love films that take place in a student environment, in this case at Shiz University, but I would like you to go back a bit further and tell me what you were like in high school.

Oh god. I don’t know how I would describe myself in high school exactly. I loved theatre, and I loved wrestling. Those were the two biggest things that I devoted myself to in high school. I would make the wrestling team sing during workouts (which, in retrospect, was equal parts funny and really obnoxious of me), and then run from the gym to the theatre to start rehearsal (probably a little too sweaty for everyone else's comfort). In some ways, I think I was a lot like Boq (part 1) in high school, though. I had friends, for sure, but I also always felt a little on the outside of the friend group. Some of that had to do with strict parents, but probably most had to do with my insecurities. And because I felt a little out of place, I was looking for places to fit in. Hence throwing myself so fully into wrestling and theatre.

I love fantasy and science fiction. I wish I could live in one of those universes, I would love to wake up in the world of Blade Runner, for example. What about you? Which fantasy universe do you wish you could move to?

I know it’s a cop-out, but Oz! Truly! Especially Jon Chu’s Oz. If some of the political and social turmoil could be, you know, worked on, it’s a universe I would love to live in.

I know you like to write songs. What are the themes that you are drawn to exploring with your music?

I don’t know if I have specific themes that I like more than others. I love to write, and I think songwriting can be a wonderful way to explore all the different sides of yourself! Whether the song is actually about yourself, or a character you create. Most of the songwriting I do is just for fun, mostly I write plays and screenplays, but occasionally I do write music for musicals I’m working on. One in particular, called Edge of the World, I guess contains some of the themes that I often find myself writing about.

We live in strange days in which the world often seems terrible, and sometimes beautiful. Do you think that musicals are an escape from these crazy times?

I think musicals (and theatre and film in general) can be an escape or a reflection. Some are more one than the other, but the best (for my money) are both. And I think Wicked, for one, is a really great balance of the two.

Left Shirt **Miu Miu**
Right Coat, tank top and pants **Todd Snyder**, gloves **Miu Miu**

I'm very curious about the way Broadway has changed in New York since you started working there. How has it evolved?

I don’t know exactly how to answer that, to be honest! Certainly, Covid changed Broadway (and the theatre community) quite a lot. So it’s constantly in flux. Both in terms of the audience and the art that is being made. Which is sometimes a scary thing, and sometimes a beautiful thing.

When was the last time you felt excitement sitting in front of a stage or screen?

I have felt so much excitement even in the last few months going to the movie theatre to see Wicked, and Conclave, and A Real Pain, and on and on. Of course, I love watching movies at home, but to be in a theatre full of people experiencing a movie (or a play or a musical) together? It’s always exciting.

And (maybe this is what you were getting at too) watching Wicked with an audience for the first time at our world premiere was thrilling. In a way that’s hard to describe.

Left Full look **Valentino**
Right Shirt **Miu Miu**

Do you think you are born with a love for theatre or do you grow to love it?

I think we are all born with a love of stories, but everything needs to be tended to in order to grow. Which is why arts education, and teachers, are so important. I am unendingly grateful to my theatre teachers growing up, and in high school, Laura Rosberg and Jim Mahady, in particular. But it’s not just important for the kids who might become artists or actors or writers or whatever; arts education is important for everyone. It helps teach us empathy, it helps teach us media literacy, how to engage with the world, how to engage with the people in our lives, with the stories we tell each other and the stories we tell ourselves. Which is to say: yes.