Bowen Yang Describes the ‘Wicked’ Scene That Gave Him a Panic Attack

While fighting off a heat-induced panic on the set of Hot Ones, Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang explained that one particular scene in Wicked made him similarly break down.

In the latest episode of the long-running interview series, Yang — who portrays Pfannee in the movie musical out Friday (Nov. 22) — explained that one big dance number sent him into a spiral while on the set of the movie. “I had a full-on panic attack during one of the scenes, in ‘Dancing Through Life,’” he told host Sean Evans. “I learned the choreography in November and then they were like, ‘You’re not going to shoot this until, like, March or April.’”

He continued, saying that at the end of a long shoot day, he was brought to set and asked to recall the choreography he’d learned months prior. “I was like, ‘What?!’ I forgot all of it,” he recalled, laughing. “I did as much as I could and everyone on set was so supportive and encouraging. They could’ve had the response of being like, ‘Oh this is unacceptable, we cannot use this,’ but it ended up being this really wonderful moment of being buttressed by all these beautiful people.”

Elsewhere in his interview, Yang was asked to pick out his “Mount Rushmore” of pop albums from 2024. Listing out beloved albums such as Cowboy Carter, Hit Me Hard and Soft and The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (“We’ll grandfather it in,” Yang said, noting the album was released in 2023), the SNL star became briefly stuck between Sabrina Carpenter’s Short ‘n Sweet and his Wicked co-star Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine.

“Short n’ Sweet and Eternal Sunshine are fulfilling the same thing for me where [there are] no skips, and it’s so sonically streamlined. Well, there goes my friendship with Ariana Grande,” he said with a sigh, before changing his mind. “No, she gets a spot, of course … I’m gonna say she edges out Sabrina, I’m so sorry, Sabrina. I gotta go with Ari.”

Check out Bowen Yang’s full Hot Ones interview above.