In the Heights, the new Jon M. Chu film adapted from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical, is the movie of the summer, largely thanks to its massive musical numbers and impressive cast. One member of that cast is Corey Hawkins; best known for theater and projects like Straight Outta Compton and 24: Legacy, Hawkins shines in this film as Benny, the friendly radio dispatcher and Washington Heights homebody.
Meant to be!
So because I went to school there, I actually lived in the Heights for a short period of time. Just off of 168th, that was my train stop. And then I moved further up town, to Inwood, and then ultimately sort of settled in Harlem. So I sort of ran the gamut from the upper west side, downtown, also in Brooklyn.
Whoa! We gotta get you to New York, Taryn!
You know, we were starting to ramp up for press, and then the pandemic just leveled us. And I think we all just took a collective breath and we were wondering—I think Warner Brothers was also wondering—how to release it, whether or not we should wait, and [director] Jon [M. Chu] and [creator] Lin[-Manuel Miranda] and [screenplay and book writer] Quiara [Alegría Hudes] were all on board to just wait. You know, the Broadway show still resonates to this day, so the movie is gonna resonate a year later. And that’s a testament to the film, too, because it’s resonating now just like it would have last year, just like it will 20 years down the line, 50 years down the line, whenever.
“Carnaval [del Barrio]” was just the craziest scene to shoot because of that energy of the New York dance community—and shout-out to our incredible choreographers, led by Chris Scott, [associate choreographers] Ebony [Williams], Emilio [Dosal], Dana [Wilson], [associate Latin choreographer] Eddie [Torres Jr.], [assistant Latin choreographer] Princess [Serrano]—they all were our rocks. Really the choreography throughout the whole film. The New York dance community, I think that’s a huge point of pride. Because they hadn’t really been seen.
