Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo 'crying' despite 'Wicked' Oscar nods

Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh, all cast of the 2024 musical, Wicked, reacted to their director, Jon M. Chu’s Oscar snub.

Despite the film earning a whopping 10 Academy Awards nods, with The Outsider star and the 7 Rings crooner, both scoring nods in the categories of Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, respectively.

Michelle Yeoh, also one of the Wicked cast members who made her appearance on The View to promote her new film, Star Trek: Section 31, just after the nominations were announced, she revealed how the entire Wicked cast wished their director was recognized.

"We are all crying with joy, but we must say we are also crying because Jon M. Chu and Alice Brooks, our [director of photography], were not nominated," Yeoh said.

She continued, "But the rest of us are celebrating — Best Picture, costume, hair. It is major."

Over this, the co-host for The View, Ana Navarro mentioned, "This is the second time they've passed over Jon Chu. He should have been nominated for In the Heights," to which Yeoh agreed and said, "Yes, I agree with you!"

When Ariana Grande was asked of her stance over Jon M. Chu not receiving an Oscar nomination, she told Variety, "He is incredibly brilliant, and all of the other nominations stems from Jon. I know he feels like seeing Wicked be celebrated is a celebration of him as well. We just got off Facetime, and I told him how much I love him, and the truth, which is that absolutely none of this could have happened without his leadership, brilliance, empathy and thoughtfulness."

Additionally, Cynthia Erivo took the chance to not only celebrate her nomination, that would make her an EGOT honouree if she wins, but also appreciate her director.

She wrote on her official Instagram, "Thank you @jonmchu, our fearless leader whose kindness provided us with the room to play, you are deserving of all good things and I’m lucky to call you my brother.”

It is pertinent to mention that Jon M. Chu missed out on an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Director for his work on the film, Wicked.

The five contenders for the aforementioned category are: Sean Baker for Anora, Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, James Mangold for A Complete Unknown, Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance.