Warning: This story contains spoilers for “Wicked” and “Wicked: For Good.”
Marissa Bode first saw “Wicked” at the age of 12 after her mother surprised her with tickets to see the Broadway show.
What she didn’t know then was that merely a decade later, she’d find herself starring in the big-screen version opposite Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande in a blockbuster that smashed box office records after its release in 2024.
“I’m so grateful for this experience and โ especially my first ever experience,” Bode, 25, tells TODAY.com. “I’m definitely grateful for that … to be a part of something so big.”
โWickedโ fans will likely remember that Bodeโs character, Nessarose, is born unable to walk because her mother ate too many milk flowers during her pregnancy out of fear of having another baby with green skin like Nessarose’s maligned sister, Elphaba (Erivo).
The show has been on Broadway since 2003, but, Bode is the first actor who uses a wheelchair to be cast in the role of Nessarose.
In “Wicked” Part 1, Bode’s character is full of youthful hope and in love with Boq (Ethan Slater), the Munchkin boy she falls for while at a dance at the Ozdust Ballroom, and whom she believes returns her affection.
Fast forward to “Wicked: For Good. Set one year later, Nessarose is Munchkinland’s newest governor, a dark, controlling workaholic who learns Boq, her true love, has actually been pining for Glinda (Grande) the entire time.
It’s this betrayal that sets Nessarose up as one of the sequel’s villains โ a label Bode says is largely undeserved.
“I think Nessa is totally misunderstood. I think sometimes people can mix the bigger picture and just write her off as the villain or inherently evil,” Bode says. “But I think the point of the film is to really show that all of these characters really have so many layers.”
In “Wicked: For Good,” Nessarose transforms from a happy, young girl to an isolated, cold woman โ a metamorphosis Bode calls โdevastating.โ
โEven the whole dance scene, I think that hit close to home, because I do have other disabled friends where something similar has happened,โ Bode explains.
โWhere people are friends with them from a distance or they are asked out, but itโs only for a photo op or something to make the other person feel good type of thing, rather than really caring about them and discarding them when theyโre no longer either useful or can benefit them,โ Bode says.
Instead of being immoral, Nessarose is simply a product of her circumstances, Bode says.
“It’s her just desperately wanting to hang on to the parts that she feels are good in her life. Wanting to really, so deeply, hold onto the moment of her at the dance, which was one of the happiest nights of her life really,” she says of her character.
โThen when she finds out that all of it wasnโt true and, in addition to being abandoned by her sister โ or at least thatโs how she feels โ and really having nobody left at the end of the day, I think thereโs moments of her being like, โWell, I have nothing else to lose,โโ she says.
Nessarose and her estranged sister do briefly reunite after the ousted witch returns to Munchkinland seeking to drum up support for her campaign to restore animals’ rights.
After Nessarose confronts Elphaba for her perceived abandonment, she attempts to help Nessarose reunite with Boq. In the process, she makes Nessarose fly, restoring her child-like joy, if only for a brief moment.
The pivotal scene is symbolic in more ways than one.
โI think with a song like โDefying Gravity,โ where one of the lyrics is, โEveryone deserves a chance to fly,โ to me, thatโs not just physically flying, itโs also metaphorically and feeling like youโre on top of the world or feeling like you do finally have control of your life in some way and flying on that high,โ Bode says.
As for how that felt to film?
โI physically had fun flying in the air. What was most tricky for me was pretending like I wasnโt,โ Bode recalls. โI do laugh in it, but going from that and then bringing it back down after, I think was the trick for sure.โ
But when she shows Boq that she can fly, he tells her she no longer needs him. He asks if he can leave and profess his love for Glinda.
“When Boq sees Nessa flying, there’s a real clear connection between her and Elphaba in that way,” Slater tells TODAY.com. “I think, yes, it’s magic, but it’s also the kind of power that Elphaba has to fly. So I think that, in some ways, informs where the fear goes.”
Nessarose reacts by trying to force him to love her โ through magic. She attempts to cast a love spell using Elphaba’s Grimmerie, but it results in Boq’s heart shrinking. To save his life, Elphaba turns him into the Tin Man of “The Wizard of Oz” lore.
The physical transformation into the Tin Man took Slater up to five hours. But Slater suggests Boq remains more similar than different.
“I think it was really important to me that Boq, pre-transformation, is the same Boq, post-transformation. From his point of view, the world around him is changing, and he’s just responding to it,” Slater says.
Nessarose and Boq both meet tragic fates in “Wicked.” Boq loses his humanity, while Nessa dies after Madame Morrible brings a tornado (yes, that tornado) to Oz, resulting in a house falling on her.
But the characters’ actors are looking to the future. Slater is set to star in the play “Marcel on the Train,” which opens on Broadway Feb. 22.
Bode says she’s grateful for the opportunity she’s had to be part of something so epic, but at the same time, is ready to move on.
“I think I’m just someone that can’t have the same scenery for too long,” she explains. “I love playing around and wearing a number of different hats, so I’m looking forward to the future.”
