Mazomanie woman stars in Wicked

The film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked” is expected to be one of the biggest openings this year with estimated sales of about $100 million, and one of the stars in the film has a tie to southern Wisconsin. The actress playing Nessarose, the Wicked Witch of the West’s, or Elphaba’s sister in the Wicked film adaptation, is from Mazomanie. Marissa Bode is the first actress living with a disability to portray the character in the musical, ever. A car crash paralyzed Bode from the waist down when she was 11 years old. Bode spoke many times during the movie’s press tour about how much it means to her to be the wheelchair user who plays Nessa. Bode explains that she didn’t see almost any onscreen representation of herself as a physically disabled person, and she’s thrilled at the opportunity to provide that representation for young people.