If you, like me, are in queer media, you will surely be aware of the recent meme explosion that is the infamous “holding space for the lyrics of Defying Gravity” video from the Wicked press tour.

But if not, allow me to explain (if that were possible): in an interview with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, journalist Tracy Gilchrist told them that people were “taking the lyrics of Defying Gravity and really holding space with that,” to which Erivo responded, seemingly touched, “I didn’t know that was happening. That’s … really powerful.” Grande, in a move which has become characteristic of this press tour, reached out to take Erivo’s hand, but was only able to clutch her index finger.

“If Barbie is marketing done right, and It Ends With Us is marketing gone wrong, Wicked is marketing gone … sad?”

With that, a viral moment was born. Everybody had questions: what does holding space mean? Why was Cynthia Erivo so surprised that people were listening to a hit song? And, most confusingly, why was Ariana Grande just holding her pointer finger?

In the hotly-anticipated conclusion of what has been a truly baffling story, Grande revealed to Variety that she “didn’t know what any part of it meant”, and reassured us all that we’re not crazy, they are.

Although this journey is now complete, there are still questions about the impact that Wicked has had on movie press tours for years to come, the answers of which remain to be seen. Most of the junkets have at some point moved the leading actors to tears, leaving people online wondering, “why the fuck are they always crying”?

Whatever the reason, this represents an interesting turn in the role that the press tour plays in the promotion of a new film. In summer 2023, we saw how the accidental genius of Barbenheimer took the world by storm, and how Margot Robbie has effectively changed the red carpet game by paying homage to Barbie in all of her looks. For these hit films, press was a way to make money, of course, but it was underpinned by a desire to make movies fun again, and to promote a complete immersion with the universe that cinema seemed to have lost sight of in the years previous.

So if summer 2023 was a lesson in how to do marketing right, then summer 2024 was a lesson in how to do marketing so very wrong, taught by none other than Blake Lively. Attempting to emulate what worked so well for Barbie, Lively encouraged fans of Colleen Hoover’s It Ends With Us to grab their girlies and don their florals for the long-awaited movie adaptation, which she starred in and produced (and allegedly pretty much re-wrote). The only problem? The plot is an incredibly serious one, with themes of domestic violence present throughout.

“Must I know every detail about how playing Galinda has been Ariana Grande’s dream for decades to believe her?”

Wicked had more success in following in Robbie’s footsteps, with Erivo and Grande’s stylists frequently dressing them in clear tribute to either The Wizard of Oz (1939), upon which Wicked is based, or to the original Broadway costumes. But if Barbie is marketing done right, and It Ends With Us is marketing gone wrong, Wicked is marketing gone … sad? The interviews force you to engage emotionally with the actors’ personal journeys on set and beyond in a way that hasn’t been seen before on such a scale. We have seen it to a lesser extent, with audiences’ constant infatuation with actors’ weight loss journeys (see: Joaquin Phoenix in Joker) or the ways in which actors disappear completely into a role (Jared Leto in Suicide Squad … I’m sensing a theme here). But with Wicked, one almost feels emotionally blackmailed into watching the film, and liking it too, by the cast’s frequent references to their real-life connection to the story.

It seemed, to someone who has looked forward to this film for a long time and followed the press tour closely, that journalists attempted to capitalise on Grande and Erivo’s natural teariness by attempting to deliberately make them cry. Surface-level questions like, “How has playing Elphaba made you embrace what makes you [Cynthia] different?” which she has already answered countless times can be seen as nothing other than a cheap punt at a viral moment. It was as if journalists thought that if Grande and Erivo were still dry-eyed by the end of the interview, they had somehow failed.

And this is a fact that has worked enormously well for the film, staged or not. I would be lying if I said that I was not reminded of the pair’s real-life friendship as I watched them sing ‘Defying Gravity’ while gazing lovingly and sadly into each other’s eyes, but shouldn’t their performances have been convincing enough on their own? Must I know every detail about how playing Galinda has been Ariana Grande’s dream for decades to believe her interpretation of the role?

Perhaps I’m being too harsh; I really did enjoy the film, and Grande’s portrayal was actually the standout for me. I just wonder what precedent this might set for similar upcoming blockbusters — or, God forbid, what it might tell us about what we can expect from the Wicked Part 2 press tour. More tears, I am sure.