After telling the Wicked audition story, Menzel reveals what happened next. Years later, the director Joe Mantello told her he knew she was right for the part not when she hit the note — but in the moments after she missed it. Her grit won him over, and "that other four-letter word" sealed the deal. The point isn't that failure doesn't matter — it's that how you respond to failure reveals who you are. Perfection is something you chase but never catch. Humanity — the messy, raw, profane, determined realness of being a person — is what actually carries you forward.