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Melissa Barrerais getting candid about her reaction toIn the Heights' box office performance.
Barrera, who currently stars in the newScreamreboot, toldThe Hollywood Reporterthat the box office tally affected her personally.
“It’s such a weird time that we’re living in, and what happened withIn the Heightswasn’t our fault. I’ve just learned to not have any expectations,” she said. “All I can control is my experience while making a film and feeling proud of the work that I’ve done. So I’ve stopped thinking about anything else after that.”
She continued, “I really hope that people keep showing up to theaters for all kinds of movies. I never feel good about a movie not doing well at the box office because, for some reason, that becomes the defining factor of whether a movie is good or not. I just thought that it was so unfair what happened withIn the Heights.”
Barrera recalled reading “brutal and horrible” headlines aboutIn the Heights' box office, which “felt very personal to me.”
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“It just felt like the industry was blaming us for not doing well and was blaming the fact that we were all Latinos and was blaming the fact that it was a musical that not a lot of people knew,” she explained. “So it just felt very personal, and I remember feeling very s—-y afterwards. I was in quarantine in Vancouver because I was about to shoot another show, so I was literally sitting on a couch and reading everything.”
“It was awful, and it was probably one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt. I don’t wish that on anyone,” added Barrera.
Jeff Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros., told theAssociated Presslast year aboutIn the Heights: “Even though it came in at a lighter level than we had expected, we’re proud of the movie that’s there and over time the hope is that we can get an audience to sample the movie and tell their friends to.”
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Barreraalmost didn’t play Vanessa, she told PEOPLE in 2020. “I auditioned for Vanessa, which is the role that I play, but they switched me over to Nina. So all of myIn the Heightsauditioning process, I was auditioning for another role,” she said at the time. “And then it wasn’t until the very end that they switched me back to Vanessa. It was perfect because I always saw myself as Vanessa, even when I was 17 watching it on Broadway. So it’s probably the most full-circle thing that’s ever happened in my life.”
In November, Miranda, 42,responded to backlashthatIn the Heightsgot for lacking Afro-Latino representation. He toldtheNew Yorker, “At the end of the day, you can’t control how the world receives something. All you can control is what your intentions were.”
Screamis now in theaters.In the Heightsis streaming on HBO Max.
source: people.com
