Ethan Slater shares coping mechanism after Ariana Grande romance backlash

Ethan Slater is new to immense attention and scrutiny around his personal and private lives.

Slater stars in Wicked alongside his girlfriend Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, and Jeff Goldblum.

The actor faced intense backlash online when he and Ariana began dating. He opened up about how he deals with the attention during his appearance on the Just for Variety podcast.

“My therapist, for sure. He’s been really helpful,” Slater said of how he copes with scrutiny.

“Ultimately, the thing that’s so important in so many facets of life, whether it’s fame or career or whatever, is just to have a good group of people around you,” he added.

He shared: “I am really lucky to have amazing friends and wonderful family that are grounding and helpful and loving and caring. This is a kind of a crazy ride that’s sort of just beginning. ‘Wicked’ doesn’t come out for another two whole days, three days. So it’s all sort of just starting, this whirlwind. But I’ve been really grateful to have good people that I can lean on and hopefully that can lean on me.”

Slater also shared that he turned to his co-star Goldblum for advice on fame when he onboarded the movie to make his big screen debut.

“I was just like, ‘Hey, what do I expect? What’s coming?’ And his response was really funny to me. He was just like, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never done anything this big before,’” Slater recounted.

He continued: “That can’t be true, first of all. And he was like, ‘Well, I think everything always feels like this, it always feels bigger. Find the ways.’ … There was something, actually, really, a big relief about him not really having advice to offer, beyond the normal sort of, ‘Take it day by day,’ because there is something that is outrageous about promoting a movie and being a part of something that so many people care about, and I don’t think it will ever feel totally normal… But it certainly is a thrilling roller-coaster ride.”

Ethan Slater and Ariana Grande met and began dating while filming Wicked in 2023.