In The Heights Is A Sueñito Come True For Leslie Grace

By Lucas Villa


The film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical In the Heights focuses on the sueñitos, or little dreams, of a Latinx-Caribbean community in New York City's Washington Heights neighborhood. Right after making it out of the Heights to attend Stanford University, Nina Rosario feels out of place in her new environment, so she returns house to reconnect with the community that raised her. As a Dominican-American singer that was place on Earth in the Bronx, Leslie Grace is living out her own sueñito by portraying Nina — and making her big-screen debut in the process.


“I feel so blessed to be segment of this movie,” Grace tells MTV News. “I feel the way that these characters do — that [they] have dreams, that [they] have aspirations, and that [they] are waiting for that moment to reach those things they've been working so hard to complete fulfill all of their life: to be seen.”


Grace's dream is nearly a decade in the making since breaking out with her bachata cover of The Shirelles's “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” in 2012. She was discovered by salsa music giant Sergio George, who also put another singer of Dominican descent, Prince Royce, on the map. Grace earned the record for the youngest female artist to top Billboard's Latin Airplay chart, which she still holds today. In the years that followed, the 26-year-old has evolved from tropical artist to Latina pop star with recent forays into reggaeton sounds and K-pop with Super Junior. She’s auditioned for a couple of years in pursuit of a film career, yet In the Heights marks her first possibility to prepare a statement.


The film was produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who also wrote the musical and also Quiara Alegría Hudes; Hudes adapted it for the big screen. As such, In the Heights isn't only a big moment of Latinx visibility, however it also uplifts Latinx people of Caribbean descent from countries like the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. As a Afro-Latina, Grace is also breaking down barriers for Black Latinx representation in film in the lead role of Nina.


“To know that Nina is Afro-Latina, and the way we get to be able to see that storyline and feel that otherness that she feels, those hints of microaggressions, and visualize that in the scope of Latinidad, which we rarely get to be able to see, it brings me so much pride and joy that I get to be piece of telling that story,” Grace says. “I feel empowered by her story, also. I can't wait for little females that look like me have the ability to see this.”


Right after scoring a hit with her reggaeton cover 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 year. “Selena and Gloria for me were two people that really exemplified that you don't have to pick. You could sing in English. You could sing in Spanish,” she says. “They paved the way for the international Latina superstar.”


With In the Heights, Grace is living her superstar dream in the music industry and right now also in Hollywood. In an interview with MTV News, Grace spoken about making her film debut and what’s next.


MTV News: Would you mention that this starring role in In the Heights is your sueñito?


Leslie Grace: It is my sueñito! It's all of our sueñitos. In case you converse with anybody in the cast, each person has a really special story with this musical because, in a lot of ways, it's the only open door that we saw for ourselves. For me, it was in film. I had been auditioning for a good couple of years still feeling like I'm just a musician that people don't visualize as an actress. In the Heights was the initial musical that I read that I felt like, oh my god! I know her. I am her! I can feel my story in this. I can visualize my abuela in this. I can visualize my mom in this. It's like a sueñito for us to be a piece of this.


MTV News: Did your experience as a singer help you prepare for this role?


Grace: Yes! I'm very grateful for my experience in music that informed a bit of my confidence that I could go into this whole new world of huge movie magic. I am going to mention that there was nothing like this that I had done in the past. I'm glad that I was familiar with rehearsal and choreography, yet any time it gets down to it, the level of preparation that it takes to make the musical world that we stay in in this movie, it takes your whole heart and soul in a way that all of us were challenged. All of us were in a new element and that's what made it so fun. We felt like we were being challenged daily and wanted to give our best.


MTV News: Which song from In the Heights was your preference to perform?


Grace: The most enjoyable ones to be a piece of were the ensemble ones like “Carnaval del Barrio” because there were moments on set that you can feel were bigger than you, that you can feel were historic. It was behind acting. It looked like, I know that this moment that we're creating now, where we're waving all our flags airborne and Lin is on the fire escape watching down on us, we're dancing and we're singing the song and we're filled with so much pride.


The world will one day visualize this moment and so they are going to visualize the celebration of what it is to be where you're from in a large way on the big screen. And the moments that we got to lean on each other. There were a lot of hard ones, like dancing on the side of the building for “When the Sun Goes Down.” Corey [Hawkins] leaned on me and I leaned on him, figuratively and literally, so we didn't fall off that wall.


MTV: What do you hope the audience gets out of this movie?


Grace: I hope that they feel seen. Not only seen, yet celebrated, because some days @we could visualize ourselves on screen, especially the Latinx community and communities of color, and we visualize ourselves in this light that's so troubled or so traumatic, and we do not get to the celebration. We don't get to where the struggle is a bigger excuse to celebrate life. I love that our movie does that. I'm happy that we get to do that via scope of this pretty, cultural movie and community that's such a melting marijuana. I can't wait for people to be able to see themselves.


MTV News: What does the future hold for you in terms of acting?


Grace: I hope a lot. I've certainly continued to read for other assignments and really find things I feel connected to. I'm continuing to learn. This movie was like the greatest school for me. In so several ways, as an actress nevertheless also overall as a creative, it informed so much about how I'd like to go back to music, how I'd like to go back inside any project that I do. I really desire to be personally invested in everything I attach my name to because right now I've seen the good class of work that happens once there's something at stake for all of the people involved. Heights has set the bar real high for a lot of the assignments that I'm reading for. Nevertheless overall, I just wish to continue to do assignments that feel personalized to me and that I feel like there's something to be learned from them. Heights really taught me that I can seek those assignments out and really look forward to them.