In a Twitter post last night, Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator, and writer of the Broadway musical “In The Heights,” on which the Jon M. Chu-directed film of the same name is based, posted an apology in response to discussions of the film’s colorism from audiences and critics.
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“I started writing In The Heights because I didn’t feel seen. And over the past 20 years all I wanted was for us – ALL of us – to feel seen. I’m seeing the discussion around Afro-Latino representation in our film this weekend, and it is clear that many in our dark-skinned Afro-Latino community don’t feel sufficiently represented within it, particularly among the leading roles”, Miranda wrote.
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The apology follows a weekend of discussion bolstered by a much-viewed interview by The Root, in which interviewer Felice León asks director Chu about the film’s erasure of dark-skinned Afro-Latinx people and performers – during which the classic response that they were looking for “the right people for the roles” appears alongside Chu asking “did you not see the dancers?” in what makes for some pretty uncomfortable if predictable viewing.
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“I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, of feeling still unseen in the feedback,” Miranda continued in his post. “I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy. In trying to paint a mosaic of the community, we fell short. I’m truly sorry.” Below the response, Twitter user @chris_notcapn points out that the same criticisms were present when In The Heights was a Broadway show, which makes Miranda’s promise to “do better in my future projects” immediately feel a little bit hollow.
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The film is having something of a rocky release, between the colorism discourse and its fairly lackluster opening weekend in theaters and on HBO Max. That said, musicals are a frequently tougher sell, so how the film does, in the long run, could still change – though its shortcomings in on-screen representation likely won’t help it.