Marissa Bode Slams 'Aggressive' Comments About HerWickedCharacter's Disability as 'Gross and Harmful'

Mar. 15, 2025

Ethan Slater and Marissa Bode in ‘Wicked’.Photo:Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

The 24-year-old actress — who plays Nessarose, sister toCynthia Erivo’s Elphaba, in thebox-office hit movie musical— condemned the insensitive and hateful remarks that have been directed toward her character in a new video shared a week afterWickedhit theaters on Nov. 22.

“It is absolutely okay to not like a fictional character,” Bode said. “I am going to be admitting my bias in the way that I have a lot of different feelings on Nessa than a lot of you do, and that’s totally fine. I think Nessa is complex, but that’s the beauty of art.Wickedand these characters — and the movie — wouldn’t be what it was if there weren’t different opinions on the characters and who’s truly wicked or not.”

Marissa Bode at the ‘Wicked’ premiere.Marleen Moise/WireImage

Marleen Moise/WireImage

Noting that she was “shaking a bit” as she spoke, the actress explained that the “most frustrating” part of the situation is actually “how scared” she was to speak out — “which is also the bigger reason as to why I’m making this video in the first place,” she said.

Marissa Bode is Nessarose and Cynthia Erivo is Elphaba in ‘Wicked’.Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

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The actress is also “scared,” she explained, because she has “seen firsthand what has happened to my disabled peers who are outspoken online” about ableism: “they’re told to just take a joke and that they’re asking for too much and to stop complaining.”

Instead of treating people who speak about ableism like this, she said, “Listen to the people or to the person that it is affecting and how it makes them feel.”

“Lastly,” she concluded the video, “I want to say one of the major themes withinWickedis having the ability to listen and to understand one another — and I truly hope that is something a lot of you can practice more and take with you.”

source: people.com