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The Broadway adaptation of Lin-Manuel Mirandas’ musical In the Heights premiered in theaters last weekend and became the talk of the weekend following an interview that went viral after pointing out the lack of darker skinned characters in the film.
Webby-winning host Felice Len went viral on Twitter after her June 9 interview with the film’s director Jon M. Chu, as well as cast members Leslie Grace, Corey Hawkins and Melissa Barrera. She called the project a great musical before moving on to the real question, which is what do you think about the lack of Black Latinx people portrayed in your film.
Screenshot of the “In the Heights” trailer. (Photo: YouTube)
Chu, who is also the director of Crazy Rich Asians, was the first to tackle the issue. He replied, I think it was something we talked about, and I needed to be educated. At the end of the day, when we were watching the cast, we tried to find the people who were best for these roles. The 41 year old ended his first reply with, I think it’s a really good conversation to have something we should all be talking about.
Some viewers of the interview and the film did not consider Chus’ response to be an acceptable response, mainly because it is not the first time that he has faced this criticism. In the 2018 romantic comedy film Crazy Rich Asians, some claimed he missed the mark for portrayal and let the darkest Asians play the extras.
A Twitter user responded, Jon Chu did the same with Crazy Rich Asians where darker-skinned Southeast Asians were relegated to extras for a story in a country where there is a certain number of dark-skinned Southeast Asians. So you know, there’s a pattern here that I see.
Jon Chu did the same with Crazy Rich Asians where darker-skinned Southeast Asians were relegated to extras for a story in a country where there are a number of South Asians. Is dark skinned. So you know, there’s a pattern here that I see.
– Indra (@IAmWhoIAmIndra) June 13, 2021
They are just happy to be there and to be light because the answers were TRASH. That “a lot of black people showed up but the best people for the job got hired” was the most racist and colorist thing I have heard in a while. Take advantage of your modest opening weeks. That is why. You don’t represent us
– Harlem Hafla (@AsmaraArts) June 14, 2021
Someone else tweeted, “They’re just happy to be there and to be light because the responses were TRASH. That “a lot of black people came forward but the best people for the job got hired” was the most racist and colorist thing I have heard in a while. Take advantage of your modest opening weeks. That is why. You don’t represent us.
Len even took a moment at Chu School when he asked her if she hadn’t seen the dark-skinned background dancers in the movie. These are roles that we have historically been able to film, she said. We were able to be the dancers and we were able to be in the hair salons. But like a lead, you know it’s the breakthrough. We want to see Blacks in the Heights, we want to see Afro-Panamanians, Black Cubans, Black Dominicans. You know this is what we want to see and this is what we longed for and hoped for.
When asked what he had to say about viewers criticizing the film for favoring passing Latinxes, his response contained statements such as We Weren’t Going to Do Everything Right in a Movie, and We Did our best on all fronts.
Barrera was another whose response did not please viewers. She said, I think it’s important to note though, that in the audition process which was a long audition process, there were a lot of Afro-Latinos there, a lot of skinny people. darker. Similar to Chus’ response, Barrera said that she thinks the main goal is to fill roles with one person who fully embodies each character and I think we all look a lot like our character.
Again, like Chu, Barrera tried to explain that the directors tried to make up for the erasure of the Black Latinx tracks by filling a few of the backstory dancers with black characters. A Twitter brought up actress Lupita Nyongo, who is a darker-skinned actress of Kenyan descent who was born in Mexico and lived there until the age of one before returning for several months to the adolescence to learn Spanish.
The problem is, Melissa Barrera is Mexican, as is Lupita Nyongo, the fan said at the start of her tweet. Some might consider Lupita a better actress, but if they were both in Mexico right now, who would have more opportunities ?? What ppl pointed out YEARS ago. So why she wants to act densely is beyond.
The problem is, Melissa Barrera is Mexican, just like Lupita Nyongo. Some might consider Lupita a better actress, but if they were both in Mexico right now, who would have more opportunities ?? What ppl pointed out YEARS ago. So why she wants to act in a dense way is beyond …
– Lizzie McCrier (@trollunnadabrdg) June 13, 2021
Someone else added, how is Melissa Barrera going to sit there and basically say yes, a lot of black people auditioned, but we were better for the role like the decision was totally even-handed. for a film about a historically Afrolatinx neighborhood.
how is Melissa Barrera going to sit there and basically say yes, a lot of black people auditioned, but we were better for the part like the decision was totally even-handed. for a film about a historically Afrolatinx neighborhood. really https://t.co/mpH40yC0Jr
– empty head (@sellllliiii) June 13, 2021
Diversity and inclusion aren’t the only things that failed in the film. It was reported that after waiting around $ 20 million in revenue for the opening weekend, they only received $ 11.4 million. Several ideas have been thrown around as to why In the Heights failed to generate the expected income in theaters.
Some believe it is because people are cautious when going to the movies due to the pandemic. The movie premiered on HBO Max as well, so there’s also the idea that people chose to stay home and watch the movie on the streaming platform. On the other hand, he received a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
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