Kristin Chenoweth Defends ‘Wicked’ Against One Million Moms’ “Hate”

As Wicked continues to cast a spell on the box office, Kristin Chenoweth is calling out an attempted witch hunt on the movie.

After hate group One Million Moms started a petition against the movie for “pushing the LGBTQ agenda on families, particularly children,” the Tony winner came to the defense of the Jon M. Chu-helmed adaptation of the Broadway musical.

“Everyone knows the ‘one million Moms’ are a mere few hundred. Maybe,” wrote Chenoweth in an Instagram comment with an eye-roll emoji. “It’s called entertainment. Artistry. I am a Christian woman [and] originated the role of Glinda and all the silliness that these women spew out of hate. No no no. I can’t help it: I try to love em anyways. For they don’t get it. For anyone who wants to see girl power, then go so WICKED. Onstage or in a movie theater.”

As fan discourse continues to grow around the chemistry between Ariana Grande‘s Glinda and Cynthia Erivo‘s Elphaba, author Gregory Maguire recently explained that chemistry was intentional in his 1995 book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which inspired the 2003 Broadway musical and its current movie musical adaptation.

“That was intentional, and it was modest and restrained and refined in such a way that one could imagine that one of those two young women had felt more than the other and had not wanted to say it,” the author told Them this week. “Or perhaps because a novelist can’t write every scene, perhaps when the lights were out and the novelist was out having a smoke in the back alley, the girls had sex in the bed on the way to the Emerald City. I wanted to propose this possibility, but I did not want to make a declarative statement about.”

Grande also responded to fans who think the Good Witch is queer-coded, as well as those who “ship” her and Elphaba. “Whether it’s romantic or platonic, Glinda might be a little in the closet,” she told Gay Times last month.

“You never know. Give it a little time. I mean, it is just a true love, and I think that transcends sexuality,” added Grande. “It’s just kind of a deep safety within each other. And that’s why they probably ship it.”

Chenoweth, who originated the role alongside Idina Menzel‘s Elphaba in the Tony-winning stage musical, shared her successor’s view on Glinda. “I thought so too way back when….” she commented on an Instagram post featuring Grande’s quote.

Erivo also commented on the “true love” her character shares with Glinda. “I think Elphie is… She goes wherever the wind goes,” she explained to Gay Times. “I think she loves Glinda, I think she loves love. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with celebrating the deep connection the both of them have. They do have a real relationship. It is true love.”

While Erivo is openly bisexual, and Grande has long been an outspoken LGBTQ ally, the latter has received some online flack accusing her of queerbaiting.