Ariana Grande denounces double standards after being criticized for changing her voice

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Ariana Grande is once again talking about how her speaking voice has changed in recent months. This time she points out that male actors rarely face the same criticism as she did for her role as Glinda in the upcoming Evil Movies.

As a guest in the Tuesday episode (July 9) of Evan Ross Katz’ Shut up, Evan Podcast, the pop star spoke in June about her decision to explain why the sound of her voice sometimes changes. After a clip in which she abruptly changes the pitch of Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed went viral last month, she had commented on TikTok that she had “been talking like this for two years” on the set of the upcoming Evil films and found that using a higher register was better for her vocal health.

And on Katz’s show, Grande went into even more detail. “I just spent a lot of time playing a character every day and training my voice for different things,” she said of her role as Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba. “The voice is in the body, it’s an instrument and muscle memory is a real thing. That’s a normal thing for people whose job it is to transform.”

The “Yes, And?” singer went on to marvel at how men in Hollywood are often praised when their characters transition into their real-life roles, while she is mocked online for doing the same. “You see male actors – sure, people make jokes here and there about anyone who goes through that – but always afterward they think, ‘Oh, wow, how dedicated he is to his craft. What an incredible transformation! He’s a brilliant performer!'” she said. “And God save me from sneezing like Glinda.”

“I had a job to do,” Grande added. “People change and habits evolve. It’s weird to be under that microscope.”

The criticism she faced for her speaking habits was just one of many topics the Grammy winner addressed with Katz, who also asked Grande why she deactivated her X account, as well as her decision to gently denounce body shaming with a vulnerable TikTok last year (something she called “impulsive” but doesn’t regret). At one point, the two discussed the reasons why the star decided to stay public during the recent backlash to her romance with Evil co-star Ethan Slater, which they alluded to without mentioning it directly.

“There’s still a lot of misconceptions out there about everything,” Grande told Katz. “I’ve sent you so many drafts saying, ‘I really want to say this!’ I always sleep on it and I always come back to the conclusion that I shouldn’t take the bait because I’ve found that protecting my peace and my privacy and the actual details… sometimes when you address something, you actually reveal more of your real life.”

Listen to Grandes Shut up, Evan Interview below.