Wicked director Jon M. Chu has finally explained why Dorothy’s face is never shown in Wicked: For Good, even though they actually filmed scenes where you could see it.
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Speaking to Business Insider about the second half of his two-part adaptation of the broadway musical, Chu said Dorothy was intentionally kept out of focus to keep the story centered on Glinda and Elphaba. During casting, Chu revealed they literally used a sheet to hide actors’ faces while looking at their silhouettes.
“I was looking at how she could walk, but also, could I guide her in that way?” he said. “The person had to have youthful energy, so we ultimately chose a dancer.”
That dancer turned out to be Bethany Weaver, who plays Dorothy on screen, just… not her face.
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Chu admitted there were moments where Dorothy’s face was visible in early cuts of the film: “We shot some things where you could see her face, but every time, it was a distraction.”
The rule behind the choice came straight from the stage show. Chu revealed what the creators of the musical told him: “The thing we went by the whole time was something from the show. They told us it’s always about the girls! Whatever is happening, it’s about the girls. So every time it drew us to, ‘What does Dorothy think?’ we reminded ourselves of that.”
For Good wraps up the witches’ stories by pulling them directly into the events of The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy still appears throughout the film, from her house dropping into Munchkinland to the iconic water-throwing moment (which, in this version, we learn Elphaba orchestrated herself).
Credit: Universal
There are also glimpses of Dorothy being carried by flying monkeys, and shots of her with Toto and her companions inside the Wizard’s chamber as he sends them after Elphaba. But when it comes to her interactions with Glinda, the Good Witch has zero time for her. Glinda even rolls her eyes when Dorothy won’t get into the Wizard’s hot air balloon, muttering, “It’s always something with her.”
Other Oz favourites also show up, including a grown-up wowardly lion voiced by Colman Domingo, and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero’s scarecrow.
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Featured image credit: Universal, Instagram/@bethanyweavesx
