'Wicked' star Ethan Slater reveals painful early career misstep

Wicked: For Good star Ethan Slater opened up about the audition that affected his confidence as a young actor.

Speaking at his alma mater, Vassar College, where he received the Young Alum Achievement Award December 10, Slater recalled being “20 years too young” for a role he desperately wanted early in his career.

“I left that room and I was like, ‘I’m never going to work.’ That is the worst thing,” Slater said of the experience.

He remembered overhearing the director question why he had even been brought in.

At the time, the comment stung deeply, but Ariana Grande's beau later realized the rejection wasn’t about his talent.

It was simply that he didn’t fit the role.

Now 32, Slater has a different perspective.

“Having the experience of getting to be on the other side of it, which has only happened professionally for me more recently, has been pretty great,” he explained.

“Now I’m like, ‘Oh, first of all, inappropriate. That was on them, but also they probably didn’t even mean anything by it.’”

Slater broke out in 2017 with his Broadway debut in The SpongeBob Musical, earning a Tony nomination.

He has since starred in the Wicked films as Boq, the munchkin-turned-Tin Man, and appeared in TV hits including Elsbeth, Gen V, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.