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Hudes Explains How She Took the Story of IN THE HEIGHTS from Stage to Screen!
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Oct 26, 2022
It won't be long now! In the Heights hits the big screen in a matter of hours, and when it does, the world will get to celebrate the joy of Lin-Manuel's first big musical. But Broadway fans remember that long before the film, In the Heights took the New York theatre scene by storm. Quiara Alegría Hudes was a part of that original team as the musical's book writer, and she returned this time to adapt the screenplay.
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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Before Hamilton, there was the groundbreaking, Tony Award-winning best musical, In the Heights
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which put both Lin-Manuel Miranda and the northern tip of Manhattan on the Broadway map
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Well, now the eye-popping, heartwarming, and dazzling film version, which is directed by John M. Chu
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is coming to screens everywhere. And I caught up with the cast and creative team
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including Lin-Manuel Miranda. You know, between the lockdown and everything else, This is such a love song to New York City, to Washington Heights, to people in general
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There's so much heart in this film. And I was going to ask you, how proud are you of this film
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It's probably uncool to say that I am deeply proud of the film
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I love all of the joy and exuberance in it. I love the different takes on what a strong woman looks like and the different models there
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of those paths that we walk I love how intergenerational it is so we even added a
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new generation below Sunny of like the true youngins um I even down to like the body diversity
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you know when we were selecting the dancers I was like I want to see elders dance in this movie
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because that is a reflection of how we dance in the community. I want to see large and small
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bodies dance because that's who we are. And those are, you know, and now it's here and I'm proud
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that we made those decisions. Because I was going to ask you, what were some of the changes, you
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know, so much has changed since you originally wrote it with Lynn. What were the big changes
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you wanted to make? Because it's so current. It's so beautifully done. You know, it's the convention
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in musicals is just you kind of know what it is going in. So it feels very natural in musicals to
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go from scene to song. That convention can still be a little awkward and bumpy on screen, you know
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because screen captures a reality, for instance, actual blocks out here out my window in Washington
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Heights to go into them singing and dancing. So I think just creating a convention where that felt
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really alive and exciting as opposed to like, you know, always one of those like awkward on ramps on
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the highway. So what we went with was that this is why I made Usnavi a storyteller and why he's
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telling his story at the beginning, you know, once upon a time, because then we know he's taking
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creative license. We're seeing the story through his lenses. And when he says the streets were made
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of music, we know that's how he saw things. So it feels more natural, but in a playful way
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to go into 96 to go into Carnaval you know because it how he telling his story Okay Talk about collaborating with Lynn again And of course your brilliant director I mean John Chu I mean what was it like going
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back with Lynn and then working with John? Well, you know, Lynn was doing Hamilton while I was
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writing this screenplay. And so in some ways I was like, Lynn, can I take this and run? I had some
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ideas. And they were big ideas. And I was worried that if I just like pitched them to him in
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conversation, they'd be weird. So I was like, I'm just going to write a draft and try to let the
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writing do the do the convincing. And he was like, yes, please. I'm so busy with Hamilton
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like, take it, go, go, go. And so he was excited about some of the directions I was going in
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including like, I remember the first time he came over here to my writing studio
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and I sat him down at the little table. I was so nervous. We're reading through and then he gets
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to the part where like Camila's not there anymore. And that was a hard decision. You know, I made that
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decision because I wanted to give Nina even more of an emotional and intense family bubble of
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pressure on her. Um, really like all her pops hopes and dreams are on her. There's no relation
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marriage buffer there, you know, and, but I didn't know how Lynn would feel about that. And we got
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there and he was like, no, no Kiara, you know, and I'm like, okay, let's just keep reading. Let's
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just keep reading. When, when I lost Camila, I was like, I don't want to lose a married couple
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that's at the core of this, you know, of this family community. And so I transitioned that
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married couple to be Daniela and Carla as the, you know, the, the committed life partners who
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also have built a business together. So when he got there, he was like, Chiara, Chiara, you know
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so it was really fun. Like it was, it was like a little scratch off lotto ticket, where it was like
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one surprise revealing itself at a time as we went through. And that was, of course, years ago
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And then he folded in a lot more new stuff as we developed it together from after that point
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And then there's your director. I mean, how magical was adding him into the mix
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It was incredible. And I have to say, like, it's hard for me to praise John Chu just as an artist
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because who he is as a human, they're really closely connected and they're so impressive
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As an artist, the thing that I was so excited about is like, first of all, he connected with it because his family story is an immigration story too. His own personal story is a first generation story too. So he connected on a really personal level, which I thought was great
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But the thing that super excited me was like the combination of his very unafraid and bold
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visual style with a humanity that is really unpretentious and really interested in everyday
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life And I was like if we can get this right the combination of those two things is perfect for In the Heights So you can have really like hip hop synchronized swimming You can have underwater hip hop synchronized swimming in 96 And it done in a really innovative way
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and you can also pull off a scene with abuela claudia and nina over a bubbling pot that is so
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quiet and has a lot of breath and space to have both of those abilities in a director i think that
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just elevated the whole endeavor and then to see him work as a person i mean he has a very strong
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vision as a leader um but he does not have all the answers and really trusts the instincts and
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authority of people in their own specific fields around him so it was just a master class in
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leadership too um you know he'd be like let me see the costumes and then he would ask me he'd be like
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here are you he's like I don't know how the women want to dress themselves actually he's like can you
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critique the costumes and pull the ones that feel best to you or or look for any red flags and I did
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I took that assignment seriously you know he elevated my position as screenwriter to have a
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lot of input in, in the cultural elements also. What was the most emotional day for you on the
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set? Do you remember? Oh my gosh. Um, there was the time behind the scenes. There was the time
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when John said, Oh, Kiara. And I came and I sat next to him. We were filming the dinner scene
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and he said um with your blessing i would like to name my baby heights that was pretty emotional
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okay um in terms of the actual artistry and the filming of it um
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being on the beach and having really having all of the cast of characters stand on the beach
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singing goodbye to Usnavi that was whoo it was so emotional and Lynn as as the Piraguero was part
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of that and you know it's like we were we were just kids when we started writing it and so to
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to be that the kind of a close that arc of our lives was beautiful we cried we cried like babies
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i love all the cameos i call them the easter eggs in this i mean christopher jackson everybody
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people who were in the in the in the broadway show and then you have lynn's parents in there
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i was like i was sitting there and my husband's like why are you screaming i'm like oh my god i
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know all these people they're all doing these cameos i mean that must have made you feel so
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great oh yeah you know i missed one day on set i wouldn't call it a cameo um but um
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the day of oh my gosh I having a total brain fart here But anyway yeah you know I missed one day and I missed some cameos But yeah having them and you know it cool Like there were actually like people I knew
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from the neighborhood who ended up in the movie. And those were like the very B-side cameos
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Like Lynn and I had gone to see a local production, high school production of In the Heights a few months back
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And then all of a sudden I saw some of the kid actors as extras when we were filming
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When You're Home in the park. and I was like, wait, you were Usnabi. You were Nina
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And they're like, yeah, yeah, we're extras now in the film. And to like, to get to give them a hug, that was cool
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It was like the local cameos too, you know? Love it. Finally, when you saw the film finished
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for the first time, do you remember how you felt? Oh, it was emotional
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And oddly, the tears really started coming at Nome Diga. And you think of that as a comic scene
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like why would I be crying during that scene? But really the nature of those tears was because that represented for me, I wanted to take back and reclaim this very tired trope and stereotype of like the gorgeous bombshell Latina
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And for me, that was about women who, beauty is more personal, it's more fun, it's more political, it's more daring and bold and more everyday and grounded
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And so to see that spin on Latina beauty, that just, that touched me
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Let me just listen to my block. Early July. And these blocks, you can't walk two steps without bumping into someone's big plans
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No people. You made all of this? You are an artist. Start small, dream big
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Because you can see a future that I can't I just want to see the whole world through her eyes
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Tell the world we are not invisible Let's go
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There's something on your shirt. We are not powerless
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We are powerful. Go show them who we are. From Puerto Rico to Santo Domingo
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Wherever we go, we rap our people Let's be yo In the Heights, rated PG-13
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In theaters and on HBO Max June 11th
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