Hamilton star and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda told the Huffington Post the name of the actor he’d like to see in the upcoming film adaptation of his 2008 musical In the Heights.
“I think Jordan Fisher would be a pretty good Benny. He’s playing Laurens [in Hamilton] for me on Broadway and he’s a super-talented young man.”
Fisher appeared in the TV special Grease: Live!, and can be heard on the Moana soundtrack, for which Miranda is Oscar nominated.
Miranda said he’d like to see a cast full of Latino actors playing the role in the show, which is set in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. “There’s certainly some incredible young Latino talent that were still babies when we were opening Off-Broadway,” he said.
As with Hamilton, Miranda played the lead in the stage version of In the Heights. As for recreating his Broadway role as Usnavi, Miranda said, “I don’t want to play the role if it feels like it’s not age-appropriate with the rest of the cast. But Chris Jackson [who originated the role of Benny in the show, and who played George Washington in Hamilton] and I can be in the background playing dominoes during ‘When You’re Home’ and that would be fucking great.”
Produced by the Weinstein Co. (with Broadway regular Scott Sanders) and directed by Jon M. Chu, the film had been announced to start shooting this spring, but no timetable has been specified.
(Updated February 9, 2017)
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