Rita Moreno and Lin-Manuel Miranda.Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney
Rita Morenois addressing the criticism aboutLin-Manuel Miranda’s film adaptation ofIn the Heights— specifically, discussions centered on colorism.
On Tuesday’s episode ofThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the EGOT winner said that negative feedback toward Miranda about race in the film’s casting “really upsets me.”
“You can never do right, it seems,” Moreno, 89, told hostStephen Colbert. “This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn’t do it. I would love to say I did, but I couldn’t. Lin-Manuel has done that really singlehandedly and I’m thrilled to pieces, and I’m proud that heproduced my documentary[Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It].”
“There’s a lot of people who are Puertorriqueño, who are also from Guatemala, who are dark and who are also fair. We are all colors in Puerto Rico,” she added. “This is how it is, and it would be so nice if they hadn’t come up with that and left it alone, just for now. I mean, they’rereally attacking the wrong person.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.
Rita Moreno and Lin-Manuel Miranda.Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney
Miranda, who produced and stars in the film which is based on his smash Broadway hit, posted an apology Monday after the film’s directorJon M. Chuand cast membersMelissa BarreraandLeslie Gracewere asked about the colorism and casting choices within the film in an interview.
“I started writingIn The Heightsbecause I didn’t feel seen. And over the past 20 years all I wanted was for us — ALL of us — to feel seen,” he wrotein a statement on Twitter. “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 continued, “I can hear the hurt and frustration over colorism, of feeling unseen in the feedback. I hear thatwithout sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy.”
The writer and composer added that “in trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short.”
“I’m truly sorry,” he wrote. “I’m learning from the feedback, I thank you for raising it, and I’m listening. I’m trying to hold space for boththe incredible pride in the movie we madeand be accountable for our shortcomings. Thanks for your honest feedback. I promise to do better in my future projects, and I’m dedicated to the learning and evolving we all have to do to make sure we are honoring our diverse and vibrant community.”
In the Heights.Macall Polay. inset: getty
RELATED VIDEO:Lin-Manuel MirandaApologizes for Colorism inIn The Heights: “I Promise to Do Better”
Chu and actresses Barrera, 30, and Grace, 26, were asked about the lack of Afro-Latino actors in leading roles within the musical film in aninterview withThe Root’sFelice Léon.
León — who described herself as a “Black woman of Cuban descent” — asked Chu, Barrera and Grace about “the lack of Black Latinx people represented” in the film considering the movie’s main cast “were light-skinned or white-passing Latinx people.”
“Yeah, I mean I think that that was something we talked about and I needed to be educated about, of course,” responded Chu, 41. “In the end, when we were looking at the cast, we were trying to get the people who were best for those roles and that specifically, and we saw a lot of people, people like Daphne [Rubin-Vega], orDascha [Polanco].”
“But I hear you on trying to fill those cast members with darker-skinned [actors]. I think that’s a really good conversation to have, something that we should all be talking about,” he added.
In The Heightsis now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
source: people.com
