Ariana Grande Says 'Wicked' Role Helped Her 'Come Home' to Herself After Being in the 'Crazy' Music Industry

Ariana Grande's life has come full circle with her role as Glinda in Wicked.

The pop sensation, 31, got emotional when asked about adding her father's last name, "Butera," in the credits of the highly anticipated movie adaptation of the Broadway musical and why the project fulfilled a childhood dream.

"That was my name when I first saw Wicked," Grande said through tears in a recent interview. "I do feel like this role and this project sort of helped me come home to little Ari. Maybe little pieces of her got lost along the way in this crazy industry. I'm so grateful for the ways in which this experience led me back."

The Grammy winner's big-screen debut has been a long time coming. Grande made her Broadway debut in the musical 13 in 2008 before she shot to fame on the Nickelodeon show Victorious, ultimately leading to her huge music career.

While discussing how seriously she and her costar, Cynthia Erivo, took their respective roles as Glinda and Elphaba, The Outsider actress, 37, said, "Both of us realized we had a huge responsibility to make sure that these characters were taken care of and that we told the truthful nature of who these people really are."

"Both of us then set to work on our various training journeys to make sure we could bring it to you [the audience] the way we needed to," Erivo continued. "I think neither one of us took it very lightly at all. We were mad women trying to make sure that this was right."

The "Positions" artist previously admitted how desperately she wanted to play the beloved character. "If it hadn’t happened, I might have ended up in an insane asylum," Grande explained in a Q&A session before a recent screening of the film, which will be released on November 22.

“Vocally, it’s very different for me than what I usually sing, so I started training every single day with my vocal coach for two-and-a-half, three months before my first audition, and my acting coach. I just wanted to be prepared to use any tool needed whatever was asked, I wanted to be able to drop in and do it and really become her,” she explained. “I gave my everything to it and paused everything else.”

Before meeting her on-screen best friend, the singer revealed she was very anxious to interact with Erivo. "I almost s--- in my pants. But she’s just the warmest human being. We were just so open immediately with each other. I think that that promise that we made to each other and how we kept it and how it strengthened along the way is one of the things that we’re proudest of," Grande noted.

Entertainment Tonight conducted the interview with Grande and Erivo.