Ariana Grande counts Hermione Granger on her growing list of spot-on impersonations.
Asked to deliver her take on the Harry Potter character played by Emma Watson on the big screen, Grande, 31, had Las Culturistas podcast hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers in stitches during the episode posted Wednesday, Nov. 6.
“Can you do your Hermione impression? Do you know the one I’m talking about?” asked Yang, 34.
“Ron’s been splinched!” the singer-actress immediately responded, summoning the fictional witch’s distress in 2010’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. In the film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s seventh novel, Ron (played by Rupert Grint) is at one point splinched, or injured by teleportation magic.
“I love the vocal fray so much,” added Grande of Watson’s line delivery.
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Grande and Yang star together in Wicked: Part One, the first in a two-part screen adaptation of Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman’s Broadway musical directed by Jon M. Chu. During her recent appearance as host on Saturday Night Live, where Yang is a regular cast member, Grande reminded audiences of some of her convincing celebrity impressions: Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Jennifer Coolidge and more.
During a sketch called “Charades with Mom” on Grande’s Oct. 12 episode of SNL, the two costars played a combative mom and her son’s new boyfriend.
“I really have to apologize to you in person,” Yang told Grande of the sketch, which ended with him smooching her. “I opened up my mouth too much when we kissed.”
“You absolutely did. I was shaking after,” she replied. “Not in a bad way, just in a disarming way.”
Things turned emotional later in the Las Culturistas interview when Rogers, 34, thanked Grande for being “such a good sister to my sister,” referring to Yang. Of her work in Wicked, he added, “It’s just so amazing to see someone do something they were born to do.”
Grande plays Glinda the Good Witch in the movie musical opposite Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, who becomes Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West. Yang plays their schoolmate Pfannee alongside Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, Jeff Goldblum as the Wizard, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, Keala Settle as Miss Coddle, Ethan Slater as Boq, Peter Dinklage as the voice of Dr. Dillamond and Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible.
Wicked: Part One is in theaters Nov. 22. Wicked: Part Two is slated for Nov. 26, 2025.
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