NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n
Cynthia Erivo<\/a> learned the power of collaboration with her Wicked costar Ariana Grande<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n In her new book<\/a> Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They\u2019re Too Much<\/a>, now available for purchase, the British actress, 38, shares the life lessons learned on and off screen and stage. In a chapter titled \u201cMake a Pact,\u201d she recalls embarking on director Jon M. Chu<\/a>\u2019s movie adaptations of Broadway hit Wicked alongside Grande, 32.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n \u201cBefore Wicked really started rolling, Ariana and I made a pact with each other,\u201d writes Erivo. \u201cWe committed to protecting and caring for each other through this process. We hear often how female costars \u2014\u00ad or really, any costars \u2014\u00ad can sometimes let their egos get in the way until they battle each other, destroying the creative process for everyone involved. We were determined to do the opposite.\u201d\n<\/p>\n ‘Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been Told They’re Too Much’ by Cynthia Erivo.<\/p>\n Flatiron Books\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Erivo recalls the dinner that Chu, 46, organized for the core team involved in bringing Wicked from the stage to the screen: screenwriters Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz<\/a>, music director and arranger Stephen Oremus, producer Marc Platt<\/a> and Grande. It marked the first time that Erivo and Grande met and began developing their portrayals of Oz\u2019s witches Elphaba and Glinda, respectively.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n The two actresses \u201chad not sung\u2026 together before, and we were about to do it with others present to hear us,\u201d Erivo recalls of the moment they sang \u201cFor Good\u201d with Schwartz, 77, accompanying on the piano. \u201cIt was astonishing. Our two very distinct voices somehow found each other and became one.\u201d\n<\/p>\n She continues, \u201cIf we could sing like that without having done it before, if we could make magic with absolutely no practice, if we could combine our voices this powerfully in front of a room of people \u2014\u00ad with nothing, no makeup, no costumes \u2014 then we could really do this.\u201d\n<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Erivo made a pact with Grande, she explains further in Simply More: \u201cWe were always looking out for each other. Our partnership was important. We shared a strong synergy, a commitment to authenticity, and that, combined with the natural connection we fostered both on and off set, allowed us to support each other emotionally and professionally.\u201d\n<\/p>\n That went for \u201cgood moments\u201d and \u201cfor those that were a little more complicated, a little tough,\u201d she writes. \u201cThe fact that we were consistently there for the other, over time, built deep trust. And that trust and togetherness created a level of honesty and intimacy that allowed us to actually make a film as special as this one.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in ‘Wicked: For Good’.<\/p>\n Giles Keyte\/Universal Pictures<\/p>\n The Oscar nominee concludes, \u201cJust as part of Wicked is a story about two women learning how to love each other, so we practiced the same in our own lives, on camera and off. We made each other family.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Simply More is available wherever books are sold via Flatiron Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers. \u201cMaking the decision to be fully who you are, whilst staying open to the vast possibilities of growth and expansion within oneself is sometimes a scary thing to do,\u201d Erivo told PEOPLE of writing the book earlier this month. \u201cSo with this book, I was hoping to provide a little encouragement to anyone who is asking themselves and challenging themselves to be simply more.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Wicked: For Good<\/a>, the second of Chu\u2019s two-part movie adaptation, is now in theaters. Go behind the scenes of the sequel with PEOPLE\u2019s new special issue, available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Cynthia Erivo is the author of Simply More: A Book for Anyone Who Has Been…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":395725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-395724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}