Meet “Wicked” Breakout Marissa Bode, the Actress Who Plays Elphaba's Sister Nessarose (Exclusive)

Marissa Bode, 24, is the first actor who uses a wheelchair to portray Nessarose, a character who uses a wheelchair, in 'Wicked: Part One'

Wicked is not just all Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo!

Filmmaker Jon M. Chu's new movie musical adaptation of the iconic Broadway production also features a cast that includes Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Ethan Slater, Michelle Yeoh — and Marissa Bode, a newcomer who portrays Elphaba's younger sister, Nessarose. While Nessarose uses a wheelchair, the character had never been portrayed by an actor who uses one in real-life too until Bode, who recalls first seeing Wicked onstage when she was 11 or 12 years old.

"I had never seen a character ever in a wheelchair on a theatrical stage like that," Bode, now 24, tells PEOPLE. "So that was really cool for me to see at that age."

Bode tells PEOPLE she auditioned for the role "over the span of a few weeks" but worried she did not perform her best. Eventually, Chu offered her a callback. "I go into said callback and we're talking about the character as we had before and then Jon stops me and was like, 'Actually there's someone at the door. I really gotta get this. It's really important,' " she recalls. To her surprise, Grande and Erivo were at the door, "with a sign that says 'Welcome to Oz. Will you be our Nessarose?' "

"And that was like, I was for sure a deer in headlights because I was not expecting that," she says. "I really did think it was another callback, but it was actually them just telling me that I got the part."

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Bode credits the movie's disability advisor, who she says also uses a wheelchair, as well as the movie's choreographers — including another wheelchair user in "the incredible talented wheelchair dancer" Hannah Rainer — with helping her develop the dance movements for Nessarose's parts in numbers, like "Ozdust Duet." The production also developed a trailer that could accommodate Bode on set, as it touted in a video shared to the movie's official YouTube account.

"I think it would've been a lot different had somebody non-disabled and [who] maybe didn't fully understand movement within the chair or a wheelchair in general of how to choreograph a number in a wheelchair," she says. "So I'm really glad that she was there to help choreograph the dance. She was incredible and I learned a lot."

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While Bode considers her role in Wicked on the big screen "an incredible accomplishment" for representation in the disabled community, she hopes people will continue to take opportunities to continue to educate themselves and children in their lives about creating accessible spaces for everyone.

"I think when you don't understand something, it makes it more scary or it's something to, I don't know, just make judgment of because you don't know much about it," she says. "So I think representation, obviously in the conversation of representation being on this has definitely been very front and center as it should be. . . I would love if [people] haven't already, to put in the work to make sure that they're being as inclusive and thoughtful of the disabled community as well."

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At the movie's Los Angeles premiere on Nov. 9, Bode told PEOPLE that her first day on set was among her most memorable experiences filming the new movie.

"Just being there with my mom, and she was there to help me get settled in in the UK, and just. . . I think Ethan was the first cast member that I had met, and him being there and learning the dance." she said. "Or attempting to learn the dance on the first . . . literally my first day there in rehearsals. I think that was very much a pinch me moment, for sure."

Wicked: Part One is in theaters now; Part Two is set for release on Nov. 21, 2025.