I actually enjoy musicals and musical theater, but I’ve never been a Wizard of Oz person, nor do I care at all about Wicked. My theory is that the two-part Wicked movies are going to massively bomb. Or worse yet, they’ll be remembered for the project that united Ariana Grande and Ethan Slater. Ari is Ari, we know who she is and what she’s all about. But Ethan Slater has remained a mystery ever since he blew up his marriage to Lilly Jay to be with Ariana last year. Ari and Ethan are still together, even though she usually cycles her men out by now. Well, Ethan covers the latest issue of GQ Hype, and now I know a little bit more about him. For instance, I know that the studio gave him talking points for how to discuss Ariana and the situation with his ex-wife. Some highlights:

He thinks Ariana is a great comedienne: He’d seen Cynthia Erivo onstage as Celie in The Color Purple, he adds, “and of course Ari’s Ari, and she’s amazing. She’s a comedian who’s also got this crazy voice that can do anything. My unbiased opinion is that she’s one of the best comedians that’s been in a movie in a long time. She’s a genius.”

Falling in love with Ariana on ‘Wicked’: “Obviously, it was a really super big year and I think there was something that was really difficult about things in your private life being commented on and looked at by the public. There were a lot of big changes in private lives that were really happening, so it’s really hard to see people who don’t know anything about what’s happening commenting on it and speculating, and then getting things wrong about the people you love. So just to address that part of it, that feels really hard. But, of course, it was an amazing year and a really beautiful thing, and I’m just really excited. I’m just really, really proud of Ari and the work she’s done on this. She’s poured herself into it. I’m really proud that I got to be there for that part of it, and I’m really excited to be there for this next step of it when the world gets to see the amazing thing that she did.”

On Ariana writing songs about him: “She’s such an amazing performer, and I think everyone knows how good she is [as] a recording artist and all that—but I’m just really blown away by the songwriting. I love that song.”

How he’s dealing with sudden fame: “I do a lot of writing. It’s obviously a different kind of writing. I do songwriting—that’s mostly for me, that’s my hobby at this point. And Marshall and I write a lot together. I write a lot on my own, and I think that has been my outlet in a lot of ways. I’ve got an amazing support system of family and friends who I talk to and confide in”—something he’s thankful for “in an industry that can be a little tough, that I’m just starting to get a taste of both sides of. But also, again, some of the hard parts that you’re talking about are the personal-life stuff that everybody in the world goes through. And so I am really focused on the real people in my life, who those things affect, and doing right by every real person and not the Twitter people who comment on it.”

His 2-year-old son: Being a dad, he says gently, “is the best thing in the world. It’s been an interesting thing to navigate as a new parent. There’s nothing I want to do more than just show you pictures and talk about him because he’s the best and the light of my life. But I also want to give him the opportunity to meet the world on his own terms…to meet the world in an analog way and not through my words.”

[From GQ Hype]

His one job was to not make news with this interview and I think he mostly did that. The news is that he spoke at all, the news is that he’s still dating Ariana and he speaks of her adoringly. If and when she’s done with him, he will not bad-mouth her in the press, how could he? And he’s trying to do the right thing by the studio too – a little controversy helps the film, but he also wants to look like a professional who can handle this situation, however messy. I’m thinking again of how Lilly Jay was shocked by his affair and how mad she was at Ariana. I hope she’s having a good day.

Cover courtesy of GQ, additional photos courtesy of Cover Images.