Chu jokes that Miranda made sure he knew how important the movie was. “He wrote on my script,‘Don’t F it up’ so that was tattooed in my brain and in my heart,” he says.
Melissa Barrera in In The Heights.Credit:Warner Bros
Chu also discovered how much it mattered to Ramos,who grew up with a single mother in Brooklyn and left home at 12 to escape alcohol and drugs,at a meeting during casting.
“It changed the whole movie for me because he talked about his struggle,he talked about self-worth and thinking he wasn’t worthy of being an actor,and the people who left the breadcrumbs for him to follow to get there,” Chu says. “It moved me. We wept at a coffee shop in West Hollywood.”
Ramos has toldThe Hollywood Reporter the Latino community had never had its ownBlack Panther orCrazy Rich Asians – hit Hollywood movies that showcased under-represented communities.
Lin-Manuel Miranda,left,and Chris Jackson in In the Heights.Credit:Warner Bros
He would start shooting days with a version of the rallying cry “For the culture!“,and that helped keep everyone focused when they shot a spectacular dance scene at a swimming pool during what was supposed to be a heat wave but was actually rainy and overcast.
“Everybody was in that water freezing and it was like,‘Yo,remember,it’s for the culture’,” Ramos says. “We’re yelling out,‘This is for the motherf---ing culture?’
“You could feel the ancestors,years of people who feel like they have not had this chance,understanding that this moment is our chance. That’s what I kept in my heart every single day when I went on set.”
Chu remembers that as a logistically difficult day,with more than 500 extras,aged from five to their eighties,and the challenge of having electricity around water. He ended up getting in the pool to direct.
“It was so cold,” he says. “That day they were going to either walk or I was going to get in,and so I chose the latter.“
Shooting in Washington Heights was the best decision they made,Chu says. Instead of traditional film catering,they decided “we’re going to give people cash,and they’re going to go to local restaurants to prepare[food] for us”.
“And it was a community affair. They were hanging outside the windows,cheering us on every time we did a dance number.”
But being on location rather than in a studio was not exactly easy.
Corey Hawkins,left,and Leslie Grace.Credit:Warner Bros
“Shooting in New York is a filmmaker’s dream;shooting amusical in New York is a filmmaker’s dream until you realise how hard it is to shut down a street and that New Yorkers don’t care,” Chu says. “If you’re shooting,they’re going to walk through your shot and[you realise] how hard dancing on concrete actually is on the dancers.
“But you can move the camera anywhere. There’s beauty every inch of that place and if you listen close enough,it’s guiding you every step of the way about what to shoot. You’re constantly drawn to images,to people,to colours.”
Chu realised just how much seeing someone’s little-seen culture represented on screen matters whenCrazy Rich Asians became a hit in 2018. “I actually signed up for both movies at the same time,” he says. “Because I’d doneCrazy Rich Asians first,I came into this movie with a little bit more power since I’d made them some money,so I could ask for more stuff.
“But,more importantly,I understood how important details were. Four friends driving at night in Singapore moved people more than I ever thought.
“I knew that those normal moments that showed extraordinary beauty between people could go a long way. At the opening ofIn The Heights,we go to this close-up of a Dominican breakfast. Someone told me,‘You’ve got to get that close-up because that’s never been in a movie before’.
“I shot it,we put it in – very simple – but the amount of people who’ve brought it up is insane. That’s how you know that these details are very important.”
Corey Hawkins (left),Gregory Diaz and Anthony Ramos in In the Heights.Credit:Warner Bros
Like so many immigrant neighbourhoods in major cities,Washington Heights has changed since Miranda started writing the musical as a 19-year-old college student. He still lives there at 41 and still feels it’s a special place. “When I’m in Times Square,people stop and ask me for a selfie,” he says. “When I walk around here with headphones on,people go,‘Lin’s writing’.”
Singer Leslie Grace plays Nina,who has escaped the Heights to study at university but returns to reluctantly tell her father,Kevin (Jimmy Smits),she has dropped out.
“It was just beautiful to know that we were shooting on the block where this story was created by Lin and where he still lives,” she says. “And also to know that the people that were witnessing this big movie being shot were like,‘they’re here telling our stories,they’re celebrating our neighbourhood,and they came to do it right here’.”
Grace says it was a treat watching Miranda act in the movie.
“He was such a proud dad and also like a little kid,” Grace says. “It was just so cool to see someone that you hold in such high regard,just be a regular human being,walking from his apartment – his home with his kids – down to this set that was on the block where he grew up. We got to see him be so excited about his baby.“
Unknown in Sydney but now a star
Melissa Barrera could hardly have been more unknown when she shot Carmen,a contemporary movie based on the famous opera,in Sydney earlier this year.
The paparazzi and gossip pages were much more interested in her co-stars – Paul Mescal fromNormal People and Elsa Pataky,Chris Hemsworth’s wife – than the young Mexican who played the title role in a film directed byBlack Swan choreographer-dancer Benjamin Millepied.
Melissa Barrera (centre) with (from left) Stephanie Beatriz,Olga Merediz,Dascha Polanco,Jimmy Smits and Daphne Rubin-Vega.Credit:Warner Bros
ButIn the Heightshas become a breakout movie for Barrera,playing budding fashion designer Vanessa.
“Oh my God,I miss Australia so much,” she says via Zoom. “I would move there if it weren’t so far away from my family and the rest of the world – honestly – because it did feel like I was on another planet,especially because there was no COVID-19 there.
“It was magical,I loved it there,I loved the people,the warmth,I felt so welcome,and Sydney is gorgeous.”
Barrera identified with how Vanessa wants to leave her neighbourhood to chase her dream.
“I left Mexico to pursue mine,to be an actor,” she says. “I left to go to school because I thought that that was where I was going to get more opportunities and where I was going to be able to reach my full potential.
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“So I know what it feels like to want to go somewhere else to make your dreams come true,and feeling stuck,feeling like wherever you’re from is too small for your dreams.”
Since shootingIn The Heights,Barrera has acted in a newScream movie and has the lead role in the seriesBreathe,playing a woman who is stranded in the Canadian wilderness.She believes having Latin American characters in movies is a step towards a more diverse Hollywood.
“It’s one of the most important things to be able to look to your favourite TV shows,or to your favourite movies,and see people that look like you,” Barrera says. “It immediately lets the younger generations know that they belong,that their stories matter,that their voices matter.”