Interview: Marissa Bode's Journey to the Big Screen in WICKED

In 2022, Marissa Bode got a call that changed her life: the first of several callbacks for the role of Nessarose in the big-screen adaptation of Wicked.

"I sent a self-tape, and that same day I got a call from my agent while I was at work. It took a few phone rings before I actually answered it because we were short-staffed. But I got the callback and was so excited," she told BroadwayWorld during a recent interview.

She remembers her first experience with Wicked as a kid. Her friend introduced her to the musical, but, growing up in rural Wisconsin, she hadn't had a chance to see it. Even when the touring production came to town, she didn't have high hopes. 

"The tickets were a bit expensive, so I didn't think that it was going to happen," Bode explains. "And then my mom just surprised me one day! When we ended up at the Overture Center, which is a theater in Madison, Wisconsin, I kind of figured it out from there. I was so excited to see it: the costuming, the characters, the magic of the show, how it's a precursor to the Wizard of Oz. I loved it and it was really special."

Though the performer is making her big screen debut in only a month when Wicked flies into theaters, Bode is not new to the acting discipline. "I started doing local community theater when I was eight. The first role that I ever got was a little orphan in Prince and the Pauper. I had two lines because I was scared going into it. I was like, 'I don't want to take on too much'," she recalls.

Despite her initial reservations, she soon caught the acting bug and, as she continued to perform in local productions throughout middle and high school, that inevitable question was raised: "What do you want to do with the rest of your life?"

"I'm in the Midwest. Do I stay here and do the practical route or do I do what I know my heart is telling me to do, which is theater and acting and film?" she asked herself at the time. She took the jump, applying to The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She was accepted and began the acting program in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"I survived college over Zoom for a few semesters, and then I got the audition for Wicked basically a year after graduating college. It really did happen a lot faster for me than I anticipated. Obviously, you hear of actors working for years until something happens. I'm so grateful that it did, of course, and that it's Wicked."

Bode received the audition late into the process and, though excited, she was apprehensive about one particular part of the listing. "It said, 'Strong vocalist.' I can sing, but the talent that is in this film are vocalist vocalists," she remembers thinking. Still, she sent in her self-tape but, after several callbacks, she stopped getting calls. As a distraction from her disappointment, she decided to make a short film, just in time for spooky season.

"My favorite song at the time was called Witches by Alice Phoebe Lou. I wanted to incorporate that, not even thinking about Wicked and the correlation of witches." The film itself followed Bode's character conjuring a spell to turn her luck around. And, it turns out, the spell kind of worked. "I posted it to my Instagram, and I do think I accidentally created a spell because I received a callback two days later." But this callback was unlike her previous ones.

"I was talking to Jon [M. Chu] over Zoom and he stopped halfway through and was like, 'So I saw this little video that you posted on social media. You have to be careful about what you post because nobody knows that you're going up to this role.' Bode says she began "internally screaming" at herself, having not correlated her witchy film with Wicked.

Amid Bode's panicked state, Chu proceeded to answer a knock at his front door, bringing his camera along with him. "He opens the door and it's Ari and Cynthia with a sign that says, 'Welcome to Oz! Will you be our Nessa?' Jon totally surprised me, which was really thoughtful. It did not sink in until after I had hung up and immediately called my parents sobbing."

From then on, she says it's "been a whirlwind." After working through unexpected passport troubles, she was whisked away to the UK to begin filming on the major motion picture where she was quickly "doing the most dancing that I've ever done in my entire life...I really did arrive one day and then I basically started the next day jumping into everything."

As a wheelchair user- the first to ever play the role- Bode was impressed by the accessibility present on the set of the film, which opened her eyes to the possibilities of inclusive choreography.  

"I never really grew up seeing wheelchair dancers or having much training in body movement and accommodations like that. They hired an actual wheelchair choreographer, Hannah Raynor, to choreograph this big dance number. They hired somebody who's in a wheelchair to be the disability advisor, Chantel. Having somebody who knows a disabled body and how to move in a disabled body, was incredibly important. The world of Oz really is accessible," she says.

They also built and provided an accessible trailer for Bode on set, which she says is one of the first of its kind. "They consulted with Chantel for the trailer. She made suggestions, not thinking that they were going to do everything. But they did every single thing on the list to make it more accessible." Bode hopes that the trailer is a great fit for the next disabled actor who uses it, even though she admits with a laugh that she "kind of wanted to keep it."

Bode also performs her own stunts in the film which was one of her favorite parts. "I loved being in the air. They put me in the harness and started out really slow and I was like, 'Please go faster. This is so fun.'"

Despite her incredible experiences working on the two movies, there were still challenges along the way. "I am very hard on myself," she acknowledges. "I am a perfectionist. There was this day on set for the second film when I was really trying to get in the zone. I don't know if I was getting visibly frustrated with myself, but Cynthia clocked it and said, 'You're really hard on yourself. Just be present in the moment and take a few deep breaths. If you mess up, it's not the end of the world,'" she remembers.

"The thing is, that's advice that I would give to a good friend of mine. But I also love to not take my own advice," she admitted. She and Erivo, who play sisters in the film, both have siblings in real life. 

"The times that we got to speak one-on-one grew the bond a bit closer," Bode says. "Cynthia grew up with sisters and I grew up with an older sibling so I know what it's like to be the younger sister."

She hopes that the films and the inclusivity of the filming experience set a precedent in the future for other actors with disabilities. "It's more than possible to make things accessible. Point blank. Period." She is also hopeful that her portrayal of Nessarose will allow other wheelchair users to be comfortable simply existing as a disabled person. 

"I've gotten comments in public such as, 'You're so great for going to the grocery store.' The expectations for disabled people have been so incredibly low because we're not represented and because we're not seen," she explains.

"It is my hope to embolden other disabled people to be able to advocate for themselves and to speak out about inaccessibility. They can do all these things if they really want to. Even if they're not seen, they can at least try to be the first. You can get so jaded living in an inaccessible world. But do not be afraid to give people a little pushback. Never feel like you're asking for too much or that you're annoying for asking for simple accommodations and your basic human rights."

She connects her own experience back to the film: "This is honestly a major theme within Wicked itself: not being afraid to speak up for yourself and others. And it's definitely one I hold very close to me."

Photo credit: Sami Drasin