Albeit controversial, Jon M. Chu and Lin-Manuel Miranda have done a superb job in delivering In the Heights from a Broadway play to a cinematic experience. Released in June this year, In the Height follows the story of a Dominican community pursuing a dream for a better life in New York City.
However, as mentioned, In the Heights has met with a rather negative backlash regarding colorism. Are the cast members, producer, and director happy about the movie's outcome? Let's find out here in what the cast of In the Heights has said about the movie.
10 Lin-Manuel Miranda
Addressing the colorism accusation, producer Lin-Manuel Miranda quickly apologized on social media as soon as the movie hit premieres.
"I hear that, without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the world feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy. In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short. I'm truly sorry," he said.
9 Jon M Chu
For Jon M Chu, directing In the Heights after Crazy Rich Asians must have been a crazy shift. In fact, in an interview with NPR, he mentioned that he experienced a vast challenge to bring a Broadway piece into a cinematic experience.
"They were all in the streets yelling at us in all the good ways. And to have even photographers yell at us to take pictures, to promote a movie and then to be in the Palace Theatre," he said, "it was everything I hoped for what going back to the movies would feel like."
8 Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits finds his voice as Kevin Rosario in In the Heights. In fact, he's also a big fan of the original Broadway version. Before that, he rose to stardom as an attorney in legal drama L.A Law.
"I had been a fan of the show; I had seen the show off-Broadway; I saw iterations of it on Broadway. I saw it lauded and got to know Lin while I was working in New York," he said.
7 Gregory Diaz IV
Thanks to In the Heights, 16-year-old newcomer Gregory Diaz IV has just made his big Hollywood breakthrough. Prior to the film, he was Quentin in Netflix's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
"Seeing kids my age on the stage gave me the feeling of just wanting to do that and believing that I could," the young star said. "That was really the first goal that I had set for myself in my young career, to be a part of that, and fortunately enough I was able to do that."
6 Daphne Rubin-Vega
Daphne Rubin-Vega portrays the salon owner Daniela in In the Height. According to the actress, what makes her character so special is how she relates to her in every way.
"I love her, because there is a Daniela in all of our lives," Rubin-Vega says. "You go to her when you need a pep talk, when you need counsel, when you need to hear the truth. She’s very New York."
5 Olga Merediz
In In the Heights, Olga Merediz is "Abuela," an all-time wise matriarch of the barrio who raised Usnavi after the death of his parents.
"I tried to just bring all those matriarchal figures from my past — friends' mothers, my aunts, what they've gone through — and I've tried to just piece her together into this quintessential matriarch that we all want to be or have," she said about her character.
4 Melissa Barrera
Melissa Barrera was only a high school student in her home country of Mexico when she witnessed In the Heights on Broadway for the first time. Years later, she's Vanessa Morales in the movie adaptation of the play.
"I am her. I am this girl that wants to go somewhere else where there are more opportunities, where I can start over, where people are not gonna judge me because they know me for my entire life and they know everything about me," she said about how she relates to her character so much.
3 Leslie Grace
Although Leslie Grace is not a very "big Broadway person," she's immediately fallen in love with the soundtrack. She plays Nina in the film, and thanks to that, she's made her first breakthrough performance.
"When word got out that they were casting the movie, I was like, 'I need to be a part of this.' I was really new and really green, so this was my first in-person audition for a movie in L.A.," she said.
2 Corey Hawkins
Before In the Heights, Corey Hawkins kicked off his acting career on Broadway. He made his Broadway debut in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet back in 2013 before joining The Walking Dead's star-studded cast members as Heath in 2015.
"I grew up in a theater. That’s kind of where I cut my teeth. On Broadway, off-Broadway, off-off-off Broadway, workshops, grinding in New York," he recalled.
1 Anthony Ramos
For Anthony Ramos, portraying the character reminisces him of his hometown of Bushwick, Brooklyn, where he grew up with his mother and two siblings in the rough barrio.
"There were moments of trauma and stuff like that," he said. "But at the end of the day, there was so much good, too. ... I'm grateful that we have a movie about a neighborhood like Washington Heights where we see."
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