Ariana Grande is getting tons of offers for new movie roles after her Wicked success, but she’s being incredibly picky, per a source, who exclusively tells Life & Style she’s got her eyes firmly set on winning an Oscar one day and cash-grab paydays don’t interest her in the slightest.
“Arianna doesn’t need praise or her face on billboards all over town constantly,” says a source with ties to Arianna’s business team. “It’s not about ego for her, and everybody knows she’s not dipping her toe into movies because she needs the money.”
After working with director Jon M. Chu on the big screen adaption of the broadway classic, the former Nickelodeon star is reveling in the praise being heaped on her performance and her team is looking forward to selecting an ideal next role for her. “She’s being extremely picky about filmmakers and she’s quality-controlling everything she can when she commits to a project,” the insider explains.
Some actors very obviously enjoy working and enjoy the paychecks that come along with pumping out popcorn films for fans, but according to the source, when it comes to the “Thank U, Next” singer, “You’re not going to see her making three or four movies a year just because she can.”
Instead, “She wants every film she agrees to make to be special and singular, and that can mean saying ‘no’ to a lot of pretty tempting offers.”
Ariana is no stranger to the industry and she’s been able to wrangle a hugely successful pop career coming from a singing/acting background on television. Her business savvy has made her “wary of overexposure and she knows when to put her head down, duck out of sight and focus on the work.”
“This gives her a key advantage over other stars in her age bracket,” the source argues, “but Ariana also knows she’s in a class by herself and she’s very motivated to get another Oscar nomination under her belt for Wicked: For Good, not because she needs the validation, but because it will be good for the movie as a whole.”
The 31-year-old pop star scooped up one Oscar nod for the first half of the planned two-part adaptation. The second half is already finished and awaiting release, meaning a lot of the good will will likely carry forward to that year’s awards season, as well.
“Her intentions around this project are genuine, and you can’t fake the kind of enthusiasm she has shown for promoting these two films and lifting up her costars in the process.”
Early in her career, Ariana acted on Broadway before starring alongside some of the iCarly-era stars with Victorious and in a spin-off titled Sam & Cat, opposite Janette McCurdy, but signed with a record label right after the production ended its run in 2014. Now back to her roots, the source says, “People in the film industry are incredibly impressed with how she’s conducted herself over the last year, and every studio in town is trying to find a new film project she’ll say yes to.”
