For Good’ Director Reveals Why He Chose Low-key Approach With ‘As Long As You’re Mine

Jon M. Chu, the director of the Wicked movies, revealed why the famous song, As long as you’re mine in Wicked: For good it is not familiar from the beginning.

For those who don’t know, As long as you’re mine is a duet song between Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba and Jonathan Bailey’s Prince Fiyero in his recently released second installment. Bad.

In the romantic and emotional song, both characters show their deep love for each other and wish to stay together even though their road to love is full of thorns.

Notably, in the stage musical, Elphaba and Prince Fiyero knelt, hugged and cried together for 3 minutes and 46 seconds, but Chu was aware of the fact that this performance would not sit well with big-screen audiences and convinced Bailey and Erivo to take a more graceful approach.

The 46-year-old American film director opened up Entertainment Weekly about why he chose a more humble approach.

She said, “I just felt, ‘Is this the kind of movie where you just sit around and look at each other and sing?’

Chu shared that he had a long conversation with Bailey after this particular thought crossed his mind. “It was about, ‘What do you see that’s beautiful about her?’ He opened your mind in the first movie, and you were living that lie. You watched her have this beautiful confidence that you don’t have. What happens when you go to her lair?”

THE In the Heights director went on to add that he and the Bridgerton The star speculated that Prince Fiyero “would look at her nest and see what a beautiful place she made. That’s something Cynthia brought to this character that none of us thought about: dignity. She’s like, ‘I’d have a house, I’d make it smell nice.’ I’d put my hair in.” She’s not just a caricature that we’re making fun of learning the story. She’s not fan fiction. This is a real character for her.”

During rehearsals, Bailey made some changes to the moment even before the song started and just as Prince Fiyero takes off Elphaba’s cape.

“She was like, ‘I want to take her cape off so she can feel what it’s like to let go.’ And this moment was much bigger than what they did in the movie. I mean, it was 20 minutes. They were just looking at each other,” Jon M. Chu reported.