In The Heights Star Leslie Grace Is Living Her Sueñito

By Lucas Villa

The movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Within the Heights focuses on the sueñitos, or little desires, of a Latinx-Caribbean neighborhood in New York Metropolis’s Washington Heights neighborhood. After making it out of the Heights to attend Stanford College, Nina Rosario feels misplaced in her new setting, so she returns house to reconnect with the neighborhood that raised her. As a Dominican-American singer that was born within the Bronx, Leslie Grace resides out her personal sueñito by portraying Nina — and making her big-screen debut within the course of.

“I really feel so blessed to be a part of this film,” Grace tells MTV Information. “I really feel the way in which that these characters do — that [they] have desires, that [they] have aspirations, and that [they] are ready for that second to succeed in these issues they have been working so laborious to perform all of their life: to be seen.”

Grace’s dream is almost a decade within the making since breaking out along with her bachata cowl of The Shirelles’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” in 2012. She was found by salsa music large Sergio George, who additionally put one other singer of Dominican descent, Prince Royce, on the map. Grace earned the document for the youngest feminine artist to high Billboard‘s Latin Airplay chart, which she nonetheless holds at this time. Within the years that adopted, the 26-year-old has advanced from tropical artist to Latina pop star with current forays into reggaeton sounds and Okay-pop with Tremendous Junior. She’s auditioned for a number of years in pursuit of a movie profession, however Within the Heights marks her first alternative to make a press release.

The movie was produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who additionally wrote the musical together with Quiara Alegría Hudes; Hudes tailored it for the large display screen. As such, Within the Heights just isn’t solely an enormous second of Latinx visibility, nevertheless it additionally uplifts Latinx individuals of Caribbean descent from nations just like the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. As an Afro-Latina, Grace can be breaking down obstacles for Black Latinx illustration in movie within the lead function of Nina.

“To know that Nina is Afro-Latina, and the way in which we get to see that storyline and really feel that otherness that she feels, these hints of microaggressions, and see that within the scope of Latinidad, which we not often get to see, it brings me a lot delight and pleasure that I get to be a part of telling that story,” Grace says. “I really feel empowered by her story, too. I can not watch for little women that appear to be me to have the ability to see this.”

After scoring a success along with her reggaeton cowl of Tejana music legend Selena’s “Si Una Vez,” Grace was picked by Cuban-American icon Gloria Estefan to remake her ’80s smash “Conga” alongside Meek Mill earlier this yr. “Selena and Gloria for me have been two individuals that basically exemplified that you do not have to decide on. You may sing in English. You may sing in Spanish,” she says. “They paved the way in which for the worldwide Latina celebrity.”

With Within the Heights, Grace resides her celebrity dream within the music trade and now additionally in Hollywood. In an interview with MTV Information, Grace talked about making her movie debut and what’s subsequent.

MTV Information: Would you say that this starring function in Within the Heights is your sueñito?

Leslie Grace: It’s my sueñito! It is all of our sueñitos. In the event you discuss to anyone within the forged, everybody has a extremely particular story with this musical as a result of, in lots of methods, it is the one open door that we noticed for ourselves. For me, it was in movie. I had been auditioning for a superb couple of years nonetheless feeling like I am only a musician that folks do not see as an actress. Within the Heights was the primary musical that I learn that I felt like, oh my god! I do know her. I’m her! I can really feel my story on this. I can see my abuela on this. I can see my mother on this. It is like a sueñito for us to be part of this.

MTV Information: Did your expertise as a singer allow you to put together for this function?

Grace: Sure! I am very grateful for my expertise in music that knowledgeable a bit little bit of my confidence that I may go into this entire new world of big film magic. I’ll say that there was nothing like this that I had achieved up to now. I am glad that I used to be conversant in rehearsal and choreography, however when it will get all the way down to it, the extent of preparation that it takes to create the musical world that we dwell in on this film, it takes your entire coronary heart and soul in a means that each one of us have been challenged. All of us have been in a brand new component and that is what made it so enjoyable. We felt like we have been being challenged on daily basis and needed to present our greatest.

MTV Information: Which music from Within the Heights was your favourite to carry out?

Grace: Probably the most enjoyable ones to be part of have been the ensemble ones like “Carnaval del Barrio” as a result of there have been moments on set that you would really feel have been greater than you, that you would really feel have been historic. It was past performing. It was like, I do know that this second that we’re creating proper now, the place we’re waving all our flags within the air and Lin is on the fireplace escape watching down on us, we’re dancing and we’re singing the music and we’re crammed with a lot delight.

The world will someday see this second and they’re going to see the celebration of what it’s to be the place you are from in an enormous means on the large display screen. And the moments that we obtained to lean on one another. There have been lots of laborious ones, like dancing on the aspect of the constructing for “When the Solar Goes Down.” Corey [Hawkins] leaned on me and I leaned on him, figuratively and actually, so we did not fall off that wall.

MTV: What do you hope the viewers will get out of this film?

Grace: I hope that they really feel seen. Not solely seen, however celebrated, as a result of typically we might even see ourselves on display screen, particularly the Latinx neighborhood and communities of colour, and we see ourselves on this gentle that is so troubled or so traumatic, and we by no means get to the celebration. We by no means get to the place the wrestle is an even bigger excuse to have fun life. I really like that our film does that. I am completely satisfied that we get to try this via the scope of this stunning, cultural film and neighborhood that is such a melting pot. I can not watch for individuals to see themselves.

MTV Information: What does the long run maintain for you by way of performing?

Grace: I hope so much. I’ve positively continued to learn for different tasks and actually discover issues I really feel related to. I am persevering with to be taught. This film was like the best faculty for me. In so some ways, as an actress but additionally on the whole as a inventive, it knowledgeable a lot about how I need to return to music, how I need to return into any challenge that I do. I actually need to be personally invested in all the things I connect my title to as a result of now I’ve seen the standard of labor that occurs when there’s one thing at stake for all of the individuals concerned. Heights has set the bar actual excessive for lots of the tasks that I am studying for. However on the whole, I simply need to proceed to do tasks that really feel private to me and that I really feel like there’s one thing to be discovered from them. Heights actually taught me that I can search these tasks out and actually sit up for them.