“Wicked” composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz revealed in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he suggested a different version of “Popular” to Ariana Grande for the film adaptation, but she immediately rejected it. The Grammy winner insisted that her Glinda shouldn’t have any traces of her own music career, which is why she’s not interested in making the “Wicked” songs feel like pop songs.

“In the spirit of being open to new things for the film, my music team and I thought: let’s freshen up the rhythm. Let’s, maybe, I don’t know, do some hip-hop,” Schwartz said of reimagining “Popular” for the film. “Ariana said, ‘Absolutely not, don’t do it. I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda.’”

Grande also had to be convincing when it came to tweaking the ending of “Popular.” The film switches a few octaves in the song’s finale to take full advantage of Grande’s impressive vocal range.

“I had this idea for a new vocal ending. Ariana was a little hesitant, but I told her if I had thought it for the original series, it would have been like this,” Schwartz added. “Once she was confident that this new piece of music was coming out of her character, she was on board.”

Grande earned recognition for her rendition of “Popular,” which remains largely faithful to the Broadway version. “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu told the Times that he initially intended to make “Popular” much larger visually, but producer Mark Platt shot him down.

“I first had a version where Glinda and Elphaba go into her closet and get lost in this pink world where she turns a corner and then another corner and another – like, how big is this closet? Chu said. “But (producer) Marc (Platt) said, ‘I don’t know if we should get so imaginative.’ Remember, Glinda has no magic, so it’s confusing.'”

“Okay, what if all those bags we’ve been seeing all this time were actually her closet and you just didn’t know it yet?” Chu continued. “Then it was a huge engineering feat to bring this closet to life – grown men in small rooms pulling open doors and opening things at just the right moment, devices unfolding from a distance using batteries and cables.” This mirror is a very heavy machine because it has to be bent backwards so that she can walk on it. That was always scary; Even during rehearsals, I was always hesitant. If she steps on those lights, she’ll cut her foot.”

“Wicked” is now in theaters nationwide from Universal. Visit the Los Angeles Times website to learn more about the making of the film “Popular.”