Just weeks before Wicked: For Good’s US opening (on Nov. 21), Nessarose actress Marissa Bode’s life came full circle. Bode found herself in the exact location she was in when she got the life-changing call informing her she’d been cast in Wicked, the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Monica (JAMS Clubhouse).
Marissa returned to the place where she previously served as an after-school art teacher and mentor to have a fireside chat with teens and tweens from the club. The event was in conjunction with an ongoing partnership between Fandango and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, inviting moviegoers to round up their ticket purchase at the box office to support Boys & Girls Clubs of America and its mission to serve more than 4 million young people nationwide. So far this year, Fandango’s round up campaign has raised more than $2 million for Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
“It was really nice to be able to go back and see the kids, even though a lot of them, of course, weren’t the kids that I originally was with when I first started the job and was at the job,” Bode told me shortly after the outing. “It was still great to be back in that environment and the same space that I had worked in, but in a very different way, of course. … It was really cool, really nice to be back there.”
After a sensational breakout performance in Wicked, the actress is now about to help make a longer-lasting and more profound impact on the lives of the children she helps.
“It’s cool starting out, working with kids, of course, at the Boys and Girls Club, and then being in a film that reaches a wider audience of kids, really across the globe and making an impact in that way,” Marissa said. “Then, having an audience now outside of that too, just on socials or whatever else and using my voice not just for young adults, but also just people in communities that I really care about in general.
“So it’s been great. Ultimately, at the end of the day, human connection is incredibly important to me, and I found that at the Boys and Girls Club. And of course, I’ll continue that wherever I go. The kids really did, I’m naturally an introvert, but the kids (at the event) really did pull me out of my shell in a number of ways.”
Bode encourages Wicked fans to purchase their Wicked for Good tickets using the Fandango and Boys & Girls Clubs of America round up to make a difference in a child’s life.
“I think it’s great and important to give to our young adult communities, and just kid communities in general, because I think people don’t give kids as much credit as they deserve,” Marissa said. “In my opinion, kids are incredibly smart and especially when they are given the tools, that’s where they really thrive. And I think raising money to support kids in that way and support programs for kids in that way is incredibly important. And I’m really proud and happy with the work that Fandango and Boys and Girls Clubs collaborated on to do so.”
Bode is experiencing both excitement and nerves as Wicked: For Good’s theatrical release nears.
“Definitely a little bit of everything. Definitely, definitely nerves. I’m always hypercritical of myself and I just hope audiences love it and see the work that was put into it, not just for me, but for my peers. I definitely don’t doubt my peers. That’s a given,” Marissa said. “But, yeah, definitely anxious, but that’s also a given, because I’m an anxious person. I’m also really excited for audiences to see it overall.”
The Wisconsin native will enjoy a “low-key” celebration with friends for the film’s opening day.
“Me and my friends are celebrating on (opening) day, of course. My friend was so kind to literally rent out a theater,” Bode said. “Of course, like having people send them money to make sure that they can still pay rent, but like, still so gracious enough to take the initiative to do that and then also they’re planning a release day party for me.
“… So I’m really looking forward to that. I think that’ll be chill and a lot of fun. It’ll be like very low key. We’re probably going to do some arts and crafts and have like a little potluck thing. So I’m looking forward to that. That’ll also be just like a nice, chill, celebratory come down off of a very quick and fast-paced tour.”
Wicked fans were interested to learn Marissa did a lot of her own stunts in the first installment. So what was the most challenging?
“I would say maybe flying in the air, although, it’s hard to say if that was challenging, because the team there really did a good job of making sure that everything was safe and ready to go,” Bode said. “And I also had so much fun doing it. So it’s hard to necessarily call it challenging, but it was definitely a stunt and definitely very, very fun for me.”
In the first film, the stunt Marissa mentioned involved soaring through the air in her wheelchair. In a trailer for the second film, her character Nessarose flies without the wheelchair.
So did flying in the second installment feel different?
“See, the answer from that of the first film and the second film is different, because my character in the first film is a little bit more full of hope and still very young and happy-go-lucky,” Bode stated. “So it wasn’t too hard to go from being in the air and panicking back to my regular self, whereas my character in the second film is a lot more sullen and a lot more cold in a lot of ways and detached from the world around her.
“So, it took a lot of concentration for me to really get in the headspace of that character. So being in the air for the second film, it was a lot harder to contain my excitement because I did really like being in the air, but I, for my own self-navigating my character overall when we were filming, I definitely had to not act excited, if that makes any sense.”
