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Ariana Grande is on a hot streak with her acting work, and she plans to keep it going.
Grande, 32, told the Today show in an interview that aired Tuesday, Nov. 18 that she currently plans to continue acting for the screen or on stage in the immediate future over continuing her equally successful career as a pop star.
“I really am enjoying acting right now. Whether it’s movies or being on stage or a little something here and there, I think that’s currently what I’m most inspired by,” the Wicked: For Good star said, as she promotes the highly anticipated movie musical. “I’ll still sing, I promise. But yes, right now, that’s currently where I’m at.”
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Grande received nominations for her role as Glinda in last year’s Wicked at the Oscars, Critics Choice Awards, BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards and more. Although the actress and singer began her entertainment career on the Broadway stage and Nickelodeon television shows, Grande had only rarely appeared on the big screen prior to traveling to Oz with director Jon M. Chu for the two-part adaptation of Broadway’s Wicked.
“It would be a dream to find the right thing to come back to, to be on stage,” Grande told the Today show of a potential return to theater. “And we’ll see. I’m grateful to be along for the ride.”
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Following Wicked: For Good’s release, Grande’s fans will have to wait another year before they see her on the big screen again in Focker In-Law, the fourth movie in Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro’s Meet the Parents franchise. Grande joined the film’s cast in May and shared on Instagram that she had completed filming on Oct. 31.
“I mean, I have grown up adoring Ben,” she said of her new costar Stiller, 59. “Every single person in the cast I have grown up worshiping, so to be able to work with them and share a creative space with them was a dream come true.”
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Grande last studio album was released in March 2024; Eternal Sunshine marked her seventh album as a solo recording artist. This year, she also released a new single titled “Twilight Zone” from the album’s deluxe edition.
While Grande told the Today show that she plans on primarily acting for the foreseeable future, she said she won’t leave her music career behind. “I think I’ve learned that they feed one another,” she said. “And I think that balance was missing in my life for a long time, and they’ll figure out the dance as we go.”
Wicked: For Good is in theaters Nov. 21; Focker In-Law arrives in November 2026.
