Lin-Manuel Miranda Apologizes For 'Colorism' In 'In The Heights'

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — In the hours after the release of "In The Heights" on Thursday reactions to the film were already dominating social media.

Many of those reactions were filled with joy and pride from the Latinx community in seeing a rare level of representation on the screen with the story of one of the most well-known Spanish-speaking communities in the nation.

Those unequivocally positive reactions, though, were countered by another major talking point emerging.

Criticism about the lack of Afro-Latinos in the film's main roles.

"'In The Heights' should DEFINITELY have had more darker-skinned Latinos in the film, especially in the lead roles," one Upper Manhattan community member wrote on Facebook. "I will watch because it represents my community but they missed the mark and the mark was so easy to attain."

On Monday, Miranda took to Twitter to address the criticism.

"I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy," Miranda wrote on Twitter. "In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short. I'm truly sorry."

-LMM pic.twitter.com/CHfdLgFUz3
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) June 14, 2021

On Tuesday, actress Rita Moreno stood by her friend Miranda in an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

"It's like you can never do right it seems," Moreno said. "This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn't do it. I mean, I would love to say I did, but I couldn't. Lin-Manuel has done that, really single-handedly, and I'm thrilled to pieces, and I'm proud that he produced my documentary."

Moreno has a new documentary out directed by Miranda named "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It."