Bethany Weaver, the British actress briefly glimpsed as Dorothy in Wicked: For Good, has shared behind-the-scenes photos that fully reveal her in costume for the first time.
Wicked: For Good goes to great lengths to keep Weaver's face obscured and her character off-screen for all but a few seconds of its more than two-hour runtime. As in the original musical, Dorothy's biggest moment — where she douses Elphaba with water, seemingly killing her — is shown just in silhouette form.
But, of course, Wicked: For Good needed to cast someone to portray the character, and she was recently revealed as 30-year-old unknown actress and pilates teacher Bethany Weaver, who has also been kept squarely out of the limelight — until now.
In a fresh post on Instagram, Weaver finally acknowledged her role as Dorothy and thanked some of her fellow co-stars, including Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Omari Bernard and Oscar, the dog who plays Toto.
"What an honour it has been to walk on the yellow brick road with my fellow Witch Hunters," Weaver wrote. "A huge thank you to the best film maker of all time Jon M Chu for choosing me to be your Dorothy in this wonderfully wicked universe called Oz.
"This has been a life changing experience, it's changed me in so many ways and most importantly, for good. It's been an honor to carry the legacy of the brilliant women before me who have stepped into these shoes, and embarked on the yellow brick road. I hope I have made them proud."
Accompanying the post are a series of photos that finally show Weaver's face while portraying Dorothy. Curiously, there's also a short video clip that appears to show a scene from the film on a video monitor, where Weaver's face was fully included. Was this cut? Or was it filmed without the intention of never being included?
Speaking about the deliberate decision to keep Dorothy as anonymous as possible, Wicked director Jon M Chu previously said that it had been a conscious effort to not distract audiences from the movie's main plot with the introduction of the Wizard of Oz's star, who only acts as a background character to Wicked's central story of Elphaba and Glinda. Additionally, Chu had not wanted the movie to replace other instances of the character's portrayal — such as the legendary 1939 performance of Judy Garland.
So drastic was the decision to keep Dorothy anonmous, The Sun reported that Weaver was stopped from attending major premieres, while other cast and crew were banned from following or interacting with her on social media.
Not that Dorothy's lack of presence appears to have hurt Wicked: For Good's success. Far from it, the concluding half of Wicked's two-part story has landed as firmly as a Kansas house in Munchkinland, and already brought in $226 million globally, making it the fourth biggest opening weekend for a movie this year. That's bigger than Superman and The Fantastic Four, and behind only Lilo & Stitch, Jurassic World Rebirth, and A Minecraft Movie.
"Wicked: For Good has all of the great parts of the first movie — opulent sets, heart-wrenching songs, the perfect lead cast — and all of its problems, too," we wrote in IGN's Wicked: For Good review, awarding the film a 6/10 score.
Image credit: bethweavesx.
Why Ukraine's nuclear sector is at the heart of Zelensky's biggest corruption scandal