Since the film’s release last week, there have been complaints about the lack of dark-skinned Afro-Latino actors in prominent roles.
Acknowledging criticism that the film adaptation of his musical “In the Heights” had failed to adequately depict the dark-skinned Afro-Latino population of Washington Heights, the Upper Manhattan neighborhood where it is set, Lin-Manuel Miranda has apologized for falling short in “trying to paint a mosaic of this community.” The movie, adapted from the Tony-winning Broadway musical about a bodega owner with dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic, was released in theaters and on HBO Max last week, earning positive reviews and high-profile celebrations. But the film also drew criticism online for the filmmakers’ choice to cast light-skinned Latino actors in leading roles, despite a prevalence of dark-skinned Latinos in the neighborhood where the movie was filmed. Miranda, who was on the movie’s creative team, said in his statement that he was listening to the feedback online, including the expressions of hurt and frustration over colorism and “feeling still unseen” in the movie. “I started writing ‘In the Heights’ because I didn’t feel seen,” Miranda wrote in a statement posted to Twitter on Monday evening. “And over the past 20 years all I wanted was for us — ALL of us — to feel seen.” “I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation,” he went on, “the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy.” “I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, of feeling still unseen in the feedback,” he said in the statement.
