The film highlights “Latino resilience and joy and values and carino,” Hudes says.
But, she tells EW, “Lin and I didn’t have any of those skills.
We had that in common.
Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hdes on the set of ‘In the Heights’.Warner Bros. Pictures
So it’s like, all right, let’s build, baby!”
Their own kind of political act.
QUIARA ALEGRIA HUDES:I just didn’t want it to come off like a corny musical.
Olga Merediz as Abuela Claudia with the rest of the cast of ‘In the Heights’.Warner Bros. Pictures
I feel kind of bad saying that, but I think we all know what that means.
Therefore it doesn’t seem like it’s how we’re trying to portray reality.
It’s how Usnavi is trying to portray reality, and he paints with bright colors.
Leslie Grace as Nina Rosario and Olga Merediz as Abuela Claudia in ‘In the Heights’.Macall Polay/Warner Bros.
It’s more of a cinematic storytelling machine.
So we know that was his experience.
That’s how he lived on the block.
Did you get to develop the characters with the actors at all in the way a playwright would?
Yeah, that’s why I wanted to come on board as a producer too.
It’s not what dance is to us."
They’re the ones who start the party.
And they school us.
They’re like, “No, that’s not how it’s done.”
And so that’s just one little example, but I was on set every day.
Were Nina [Leslie Grace] and Sonny [Gregory Diaz IV] always the characters you gravitated toward?
I love both of those characters so much.
It just wasn’t realistic.
But [they] had to get to work.
I rewrote her specifically to be Afro-Latina.
We’re giving up everything you’ve worked forfor this?
I don’t know about that."
So I think it makes her decisions a little bit more spiritual and emotional.
It’s not just pragmatic.
I want to stay here.
New York is my island.
This is my spot.
I have none of this nostalgia that you have."
He would improve infrastructure in the neighborhood, he would get a better Wi-Fi signal.
These things where he’s talking about he’d invest in the community.
So really what I’m creating is this character who in some ways is the most American.
He feels most passionate, like, “This is my home.
I’m not torn.”
We come to find that the rest of the nation might not feel that way.
And whether or not they allow him to actually become a citizen here is left an open question.
All we know is that his lawyer says, “The odds are against you.”
And I left that as an open question.
I think it’s up to us, the audience, to decide how Sonny’s journey ends.
Well, the demographic reality of Washington Heights is that it is predominantly Dominican.
So it is really present as an urgent issue in the community.
We are not immigrants in terms of legality.
Again, writing this screenplay is an act of condensing as much as expanding.
What were the hardest parts of the stage musical to condense or cut from the screenplay?
Oh, it was hard to choose at all because I really love the stage musical.
It stops being yours and it becomes the audience’s.
And so I watched other people love and root for [Nina’s mother] Camila.
So to cut those things, it’s not easy.
But things hit differently on a screen than they do on a stage.
It’s like, I get it.
The close-up makes the song not do the work the song does on stage anymore.
With Camila, I just wanted to be able to focus on Nina’s story a little bit more.
And so I was like, oh, Daniela and Carla.
And so that just felt very easy.
How has it been seeing an early glowing critical response to the film?
Is it akin to the reaction the stage musical received after opening on Broadway, or something bigger?
And I was like, okay, she really picked up on that.
We spent so much we storyboarded Nina’s hair throughout the movie.
That’s the level of perception and detail.
It was really gratifying when I read that.
So yeah, that’s been wonderful.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
