LOS ANGELES — The cast of “Wicked” is stacked with well-known names: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey, Peter Dinklage, Bowen Yang.
But one actor you likely don’t know is making “Wicked” history: Marissa Bode. The first actor who authentically uses a wheelchair to play Nessarose, the “tragically beautiful” younger sister of Wicked Witch-in-the-making Elphaba (Erivo) — Bode not only leads one of the movie’s most romantic scenes, but also creates what she hopes will be a watershed moment for disability representation in Hollywood.
“I love seeing disabled characters be played authentically by real disabled people, because no one knows us better than us,” Bode told The Times.
“Representation for authentically disabled people is already quite minimal, so to have the opportunity and make a point of it, especially in a huge project that’s beloved by so many people, that’s incredibly important, especially in terms of sending a message to other projects that it’s possible to include disabled people in your casts.”
Making her feature film debut, Bode came to play the character, who’s used a wheelchair since birth, via an open call. “It was a big, intense search,” said the film’s director Jon M. Chu, who received Bode’s submission late in the casting process.
“You have to find someone who’s young, who can sing, who can act, who’s a wheelchair user and who has both the sweetness and the darkness of what happens in our story. And there was no compromising on any part of that.”
Bode, who began using a wheelchair at age 11 after a car accident, saw “Wicked” onstage as a preteen when her mom surprised her with tickets to a touring production near her hometown of Mazomanie, Wisconsin.
Like Nessa, Bode also moved away for college — a decision that initially worried her parents and older brother — and graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in Los Angeles in 2021.
“I see a lot of myself in her, especially as somebody who’s disabled, going off to college and finally feeling like you have that freedom for the first time,” said Bode, now 24 years old. “I had that same eagerness she has, of wanting to be independent, make new friends and find your place in the world.”
Nessa occasionally asserts that autonomy in “Wicked.” In one early scene, she voices her preference for maneuvering around Shiz University, where she’s just enrolled, without help — a desire wholly understood by her sister, if not their overbearing father or the campus staff.
It’s a change from the “Wizard of Oz”-inspired stage show, which has never cast an authentic wheelchair user in the role in its blockbuster 21-plus year run on Broadway or elsewhere. And it’s a result of the creative team’s frank conversations with real-life wheelchair users, including Tony-winning actress Ali Stroker.
“We really looked at that whole setup and worked hard to get it right,” said Winnie Holzman, who created the stage show with composer Stephen Schwartz and co-wrote the film’s script. “We knew how much it would mean to not just people who use wheelchairs, but for anyone who’s differently abled, to see this.”
According to Chu, “Marissa transformed how we present Nessa in so many ways,” beginning with her suggestion to model Nessa’s wheelchair design off the actor’s real-life wheelchair, in order to express the character’s physical self-sufficiency with ease.
“I needed to move as swiftly and naturally as possible, because if I didn’t feel comfortable, it would probably transfer to the camera,” said Bode, who offered her input on facets like making the seat recline slightly and placing her backpack on the back of her chair. “If there was something they didn’t think of, they would just ask me, which I loved. I was more than happy to fill those blanks in.”
Costume designer Paul Tazewell then “added in the Munchkinland sensibility” to the wheelchair via detailed Art Nouveau carvings and a velvet trim in dark red — a color integrated into many of Nessa’s looks in reference to her late mother’s dress. (Also from her mother: Nessa’s silver slippers, with tornado-like swirls around the heels.)
“Marissa is absolutely beautiful, so the priority for me was to make sure the fit always looked as pristine as possible and that everything lay just right when she’s seated,” said Tazewell, who outfitted Nessa in corseted Victorian silhouettes and highly crafted textures throughout the film. “I wanted her to look almost like a cherished doll, with cream or white bases to underscore her innocence.”
That’s most evident during the song “Dancing Through Life,” when Nessa arrives at the Ozdust Ballroom in a knitted, red-trimmed dress alongside her adorable Munchkin classmate, Boq (Ethan Slater). At first, the two remain wallflowers.
“When he tells her she’s so beautiful, I wanted her to look like the biggest movie star of all time,” said cinematographer Alice Brooks. “Suddenly, instead of being an awkward teenager, she just looks incredibly, magnificently gorgeous.”
Nessa and Boq then join hands for a brief but jubilant dance break that ends up being one of the movie’s most romantic scenes. “Jon made it very clear early on: this moment is about her feeling like she’s flying,” said choreographer Christopher Scott. “This is the happiest moment of her life, and she needs to feel all the things that she carries with her throughout her life, that we all do, just disappear.”
Scott collaborated with wheelchair choreographer and dancer Hannah Raynor to create the sequence, which sees Boq swinging Nessa around the floor and dancing on his knees while looking her in the eye. “We treated it like any other duet, and duets are always about connection, either face-to-face or touch or feeling each other’s energy,” said Scott.
Bode and Slater then learned the moves over a few weeks of rehearsal, making changes as needed. “Hannah taught me that every wheelchair user’s range of motion is different, so we would just go move by move and feel it out, like we do with any dancer.”
For Bode, the dance sequence is both a pivotal character development moment for Nessa and a celebration of disabled performers in general.
“Unfortunately, a lot of us don’t grow up with education about disabled people and what they’re capable of,” she said. “It’s great to show that we’re out here and not only can we act and sing, but we can also dance and move and train. Of course, all disabilities are different, so I can’t speak for every disability, but a lot of disabled people can still do a lot.”
But it wasn’t enough for the fictional world of “Wicked” to be wheelchair-accessible, as devised by production designer Nathan Crowley. The film’s access coordinator Chantelle Nassari also equipped Bode with a fully accessible trailer, double-checked the day’s pathways and ensured the actor had what she needed to be able to perform. Admittedly, there was a learning curve for Chu and others in the production.
“I asked Marissa, you need to give us a little grace, because we learned off a system that doesn’t accommodate [disability] and, in trying to figure it out, we may make mistakes along the way,” said the director. “But we kept an open conversation. I learned a lot from her, like when they’re doing microphones, people would come up to her and grab her chair. It’s like, ‘That’s my body. Ask me if you want to touch my chair.’ “
Bode, who is biracial and queer, hopes to follow her feature film debut with coming-of-age stories, horror projects and “more gay stuff,” she said with a laugh. “And I would love to work with more disabled creatives in the future.”
Chu shared the latter sentiment, and offered advice for other productions seeking to do the same. “You’re going to spend more money and time on casting and dig harder around the world to find the right people, because not everybody’s represented, and they don’t know these roles exist and yet are so talented,” he said.
“On set, you have to think about things that you don’t usually think about, ask questions and design accordingly. And you’re probably going to make mistakes, because there are things you just don’t know yet. It just takes you making it a priority to make it happen.”
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