Wicked: For Good Screenwriter Talks Elphaba and Fiyero’s ‘Sexy’ Reunion

Wicked: For Good screenwriter Winnie Holzman wanted to give Elphaba and Fiyero a sexier cinematic reunion than what fans have come to expect from the Broadway version.

“What’s sexy to me is anticipation, to quote Carly Simon,” Holzman, 71, said in an interview with Variety published on Wednesday, November 26. “And that’s what that is, that’s the build up. It’s really going to happen.”

In the stage adaptation, which serves as inspiration for the film, Elphaba and Fiyero declare their love for one another in their musical duet “As Long As You’re Mine.” In the number, the pair are intertwined as they sing.

Holzman — who wrote the script for both the Broadway and movie adaptations — wanted to do something a little different for the big screen. In the film version, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) have a slow build up before their intimate scene, which takes place in Elphaba’s hideaway. Fiyero is shirtless while Elphaba wears a chunky gray sweater, which the internet has dubbed the “sex cardigan.”

“That’s Paul Tazewell’s cardigan,” Holzer explained. “I did think it was really sexy, the idea that he, Fiyero, comes to see her lair, where she has been hiding, living and keeping herself. It’s so sexy that she brings him into her secret world. I did write that he’s looking at her things. He plays it so beautifully.”

Holzman continued, “You’re seeing him fall more in love with her as he’s walking through her world and realizing how she lives. He’s thrown off by her and the depth of his feelings that are being evoked — he’s not the player anymore. It’s almost like he doesn’t know how to do it. I pictured this character as someone who’s seduced a lot of women.”

After reconnecting, the duo sing their romantic duet before Elphaba and Fiyero act on their feelings with a passionate evening.

“She starts to make it sexual. Then he starts to realize he’s really there, and he’s really turned on. He’s never been in a situation like that before. Neither has she, for real,” Holzman said. “What I think is really sexy about the way they’re playing it is how subtle it is, because they’re two such incredible actors. The way Cynthia plays that, I think, is so beautiful because she’s so guarded. She knows what’s going to happen, and she wants it to happen. She takes her time, and that’s a sexy thing too, that build up, ‘This is really going to happen. We don’t have to rush.’”

While Wicked: For Good does include the intimate scene, the movie is rated PG (parental guidance) for action, violence, suggestive material and thematic material. Some fans appreciated Elphaba and Fiyero’s love scene, while others have argued it’s not appropriate. Influencer Sara Burnett declared on social media that she and her children walked out of the movie.

“Now hear me out — we LOVE theatre & musicals. We love appreciating the talents and God given gifts that people have. Seeing the acting, the arts and all the creativity,” Burnett wrote via Instagram on Sunday, November 23. “But gosh, I am not sitting in a movie that is casting legit spells over me and my family and allowing my children (5yr old included) to watch scenes where men are sexually taking off women’s clothing and music that is talking about them laying in bed together.”