'Hamilton's America' Q&A | NYFF54

thank you Amy and oh I understand uh and thank you to the Film Society for having us here we are especially thrilled to be debuting this film at the New York Film Festival because this film is at its heart a story about two New Yorkers one of them was an immigrant who came here and authored modern society as we know it the other is a native son who once wrote a song called the garbage pail kids are in town but he but he is the young man sitting right where is he he's right over there a young man with a very promising career in musical theater lin-manuel Miranda and the only reason this film exists is because three years ago when I asked Lena if I could tag along with him as he started writing some songs and bring the camera he said yes this film was enabled by him and it only exists because of his generosity and his openness so Thank You Lynn thank you everyone for coming and I hope you enjoy stick around because afterwards as you can tell we're gonna have some interesting people on here to talk about the film and about Hamilton thank you well when I introduced this I said almost as exuberant it's the show that's when I'll take away the almost um I just have one or two questions uh when you started making this film you had no idea where you were going with it right I knew that it would follow the life of Alexander Hamilton I didn't know where Lin was gonna go he had only just written a few songs as he told me at that time I think you were still thinking concept album musical I didn't know what it was yeah I said I don't care it doesn't matter because whatever it is it's you telling the story of Alexander Hamilton yeah so everything that came was a incredible bonus the hit of the show a trip to the White House we'll take it but edits at its core it's just the life of Alexander Hamilton um my big question I think I'd rather end this up with one question there are like so many strands in this documentary that you have to keep going you have to keep going the history strand you have to keep going the relationship to the original text to the stage performance to the development of the stage performance how long did it take you to edit this a little while we filmed we filmed for about over three years we captured nearly a hundred hours the film is about 82 minutes long so a lot left and as you pointed out there are all these different threads there is a man in the audience named Bret Mason who is an editor of the highest caliber really and I'm an editor my background is in editing and Brett and I have been in the trenches together so from the beginning we knew that there were going to be all these strands and as long as we kept Hamilton's life as that core everything else which is going to go around it the whirlwind of Linds ride on Hamilton the musical we would just take as it came and try to find those moments where it paralleled Hamilton's life good example is we won the war we made it to Broadway we've opened you know that sort of thing we should try to find those moments where we connect and throw back and forth um let's take it open for questions is there a mic out there no there isn't so talk up the mic okay so uh in the middle down here I'll make your life difficult like in the fourth row in the middle yep while we're waiting for a microphone to get to the middle of the house I wanted to just clarify for the record that Renee spits fire Renee's in the incredible freestyler leave football there's actually um there was a moment during right-hand-man where Renee and I would freestyle every night as as George Washington was going cannot be real a second for just a millisecond it's actually one of the only time we were backstage together so we would always freestyle and she's really good yeah but he is I mean so yeah I'm better than that but um but I mean I'm better than that but when they asked me you know he was kind enough to ask me Renee are you comfortable with being this thing in the movie and my first response was yes because um this is clearly you know he's clearly there's so much brilliance and this work but so much that's brilliant comes out of him just in the moment and it's never written down and so I got to I got to be close enough to hear him say the craziest mind-blowing things that no one would ever hear he would like sometimes I would try to like sneak my phone backstage I could record some of his free styles and so I'm grateful that at least one of them one of them is his lips forever in this documentary they were not appropriate for PBS most of them yeah who's got the mic okay um my question is why did you choose a white person to play the king when you chose like black and Latino people to play like all the other major roles Jonathan Groff is wait didn't want to tell you it lied to me turns out um that's a fantastic question um V the answer is Jonathan Gras and the answer is Brian D'Arcy James honestly uh it wasn't always that way in fact in a lot of our workshops uh it was it was played by person of color actually Josh Henry who is playing Aaron Burr in Chicago right now was one of our workshop burrs and uh that part has always um sort of you know floated around but um it does sort of add a kind of an interesting layer it adds it does add a bit of distance um but that being said um we're always trying to catch the best person for the part and uh and so you know the characters played by Caucasian actor now but it could change it has been uh you know it changes uh for production production great question thank you Alex this is wonderful I want to also thank Renee and your father Martin from my New York Eye thanks to Renee and her father I got the ticket to see the play and thank you because thank watching the play changed my life so then what Hamilton has been for you probably you are going to be for me amazing I read the book after that and saw this it's it's beyond amazing thank you so much you Lou to that person thank you and I'm sure there are many people like that my question is here going through this journey as an artist and now watching this and everything for you and Hamilton I chose this country I am an immigrant I came here and I decided to make this my home and everything that's going on right now I sometimes question it so what do you think where we are right now what do you think after working as you as an artist were an immigrant's journey like an immigrants America where where are we right now because I know you're also very active in about everything that's going on what's your thought as an artist's as an immigrant how do we live through it and still do something and make something out of your life it's a fantastic question thank you for asking it it's well you know one of the things that there are two things that are very recognizable in the show that I think resonate in 2016 one Lafayette and Hamilton two guys who came here from other countries slapping each other five being like look at where we are look at what we've made of a life in this new country we that's part of our American narrative is that people come here from other places and help make this country great the other thing yeah which you see in act two is Jefferson Madison and borough singing you know this immigrant isn't isn't somebody we chose this immigrants keeping us all on our toes it's almost an epithet and it's another part of our history and both things can be true there is a long tradition of using the word immigrant as an epithet of distrust of the latest group of people who have gotten here and it is a very easy thing to do for a politician and it happens every 20 years or so usually happens run an election cycle we appointed two people who got your most recent and say they're the reason you don't have a job and twas ever thus happened with the Irish at the turn of the 19th century it's happening with Mexican Americans right now and this is about as virulent a form of this virus as I've seen in my lifetime we have to survive it and if it bothers you vote I would like the historians yes oh I was just going to say I would like the historians perspective on the same question yeah you know it's interesting from the time that the show started the Public Theater back in January 2015 you know the show was so much greater sensation than any of us could possibly anticipated that reporters kept asking us what is this whole Hamilton phenomenon about and I found myself one of the answers was I said you know at the time that Barack Obama was elected in 2000 a 40% of all Americans being born in this country being born to people who identified themselves as african-american asian-american Latino or biracial that number is projected to rise to 50% by 2040 so by 2040 the minorities in this country will become the majority and when I said to their porters is I think that people come into the theater I think they see this extraordinary young multiracial cast and they see the changing face of America the show is really kind of celebrating you know this changing dynamic changing demographic then suddenly started watching the Republican debates forgive me for being partisan for the moment but I realized that everything that I was celebrating in these interviews and everything that you know lid and company had been you know celebrating in the show those same things were bothering a lot of people in the country and this is kind of I think the power of art in terms because we met in 2008 so this show was really seven years in the making and yet it anticipated in so many ways so many of the issues and you know the other thing is I think that it has a very in way complex view of the founding era that these people were so brilliant and creative and admirable on the one hand and on the other hand we see that they could be very malicious and partisan so we're seeing a period of American history that's so much greater than anything that we're seeing now but we also can see a lot of the roots for what's happening today and how dangerous it is when that kind of partisanship gets out of control well my question is what advice would you give to future play writers like me start right now yeah I have I am sorry right now I'm not right now in the theater but start today and don't stop I started writing plays in ninth grade they were pretty crummy I started writing musicals in eleventh grade they were pretty crummy but uh that being said I had the really good fortune of going to a school that that did theater the words theater was an extracurricular activity and that was sort of where I found who I was and so and there are outlets for that if you were a young writer there are outlets for your writing get started now so that by the time uh you are I don't know I don't know when but you get good um you go from bad to good and one of the things you have to do to be a good writer is be a great reader read everything you can see as much as you can we are around the corner from the New York Performing Arts Library where if you fill out a nice piece of paper you can see a lot of Broadway shows and I don't think a lot of people know about that resource but it's an incredible one and you live in New York City the world you're such an advantage so um read a lot and write a lot and when you see something you love ask yourself why and when you see something you hate don't unplug don't turn it off ask yourself why and that's how you form your taste and that's how you sort of figure out the kind of writing you want to make and that's the only way you become an artist so start thank you don't stop hi first of all thank you for Hamilton and thank you for this I didn't expect to cry during this but I did so thank you my question is you talked a lot about how the show was seven years in the making it took you so long to write it when do you know when to stop tweaking and I guess same thing to mr. chernau and Alex when do you know when you're done with your project Tommy kale tells me um seriously that's my answer oh yes gave us an airdate PBS gave him an airdate um that's the the best thing about deadlines you know people say oh now you have absolute freedom absolute freedom is terrifying to me deadlines I love restrictions I love I like sonnets I like haiku I like a forum so that I know what I'm working in and and so so the deadlines were really incredibly useful and it's always I think Tommy is probably the best person in the world at setting a deadline that's just out of reach to make you work extra hard to reach it whether it's we're doing a concert at Lincoln Center and you have two songs and you're gonna have 13 in six months that was the first deadline he set for me and to us moving from off-broadway to Broadway you know we got those crazy reviews you saw in the doc and everyone said move right now the conventional wisdom was you have the momentum if you wait no one's going to remember you in a year ride the wave of hype right now but Tommy and I knew we have a list of 20 things we didn't finish before we opened off-broadway and so we knew that we had a better version of the show in our heads than the one off Broadway and if we if we had moved that season we would have had to basically present the off-broadway opening night production on Broadway and we knew we could do better so that's an instance of Tommy Kael sort of moving the goalposts and saying we will open the summer we'll sell tickets soon so that people don't freak out and will go so so Tommy kale really gets the line show the credit for for letting me know when I'm done thank you for all of this it's incredible um my question was that why did you decide to portray bird the way you did when as you put it he's often the villain well uh I think Leslie actually speaks to that more eloquently than I possibly could you know Aaron Burr is defined by his worst act on his worst day that's all we know about him I didn't know he was brilliant I knew he was the guy who shot Hamilton before I picked up Ron's book and before I did a ton of research you know Aaron Burr was one of the earliest feminists in America he gave his daughter and education that was even greater than most men he was uh he was ahead of the curve in New York when it came to uh the rights of african-americans in this country and slaves he was part of the manumission to society that helped ban the importation of slaves in New York City and he was a brilliant lawyer and there's a lot about him he's complicated at the same time there's a ton we don't know why would I remember because unlike Hamilton he didn't like to write down his opinion a whole lot most of what we know is from his letters to his daughter and you know one of the things that that you only know if you dig deeper into Hamilton and burr his life after seeing the show is that that song dheere Theodosia where Hamilton and burr are singing to their children you're gonna you're going to be the future Hamilton and burr both survived their children Phillip died in the duel and Theodosia died at sea on her way home to her father so they both experienced that particular heartbreak as well so to me they're twins and one killed the other but at the same time we are more than you know Leslie just said it perfect we are more than our worst act and I wanted to get as much of it as possible also Aaron burrs descendent was my next-door neighbor at my last apartment in Inwood and I didn't want him to be mad at me in my building that's right I want to throw out one tidbit here the a little historical fact we can get in there on the note of Aaron Burr Mariah Reynolds of the Reynolds Hamilton affair got a divorce from James Reynolds later in life her divorce lawyer was Aaron Burr isn't that crazy boy ended up aren't you a demeanor for not fitting that in the stuff but you you have you brought up something with Aaron Burr about what we didn't know about Aaron Burr and that brings up I do to my mind I thought so much of that about the ladies in this piece Angelica Schuyler emerges from your show and just scratch the surface of it in our film as kind of forgive my language look at the biggest baddest of them all this is a woman who I think is finally getting a biography I heard so my question Renee is like what you know there isn't enough of a paper trail for a woman as extraordinary as Angelica so where do you start I I there's so much there's actually some things about Angelica in in Hamilton that aren't exactly accurate um but um but like feed the actor so richly and and that was so compelling to me and so useful for me so what I had with Ron chernow is book was this portrait of this woman who was so you know as I say comfortable in a in a parlor as she was in a stateroom I mean she could she could she was on either side of the water just a a badass basically and that was really helpful to figure out who she was but how she acted in the story and how to make that woman compelling I really loved the dramatic elements that Lynne added to the story just in terms of the timing of her marriage which is something that was strategically altered to make to make a character that could actually win a Tony basically but that's really important to know because he was you know in this wonderful conversation with Sondheim you had to talk about how to do two things how to be that I just think one testament to the choices that were made by him and this team were to keep him on and have that person that kept him you know legal and then also to allow himself to be the dramatist that he is which so helpful to the actor that's why this is such a generous piece for us to play so yeah I absolutely love that and I also think it's a testament to his wife and his mother and all the people there's I could talk forever I'm gonna be very specific and very and just pick one thing to say about women in this production and that's really just talking about Lin as a writer when I first was exposed to this piece we were at 52nd Street it's called 52nd Street project right it's right on 52nd Street it was before the off-broadway run and we were just sitting in chairs singing the music and at the time Lin was not a father clearly he's not a woman there are things that he wrote about and I think at that particular moment I was the only person in the cast that was a parent and I remember them you know him singing them Leslie and Lin singing dear Theodosia I remember the moment he's saying about the way he decided to write about the death of a son and I just couldn't believe that somebody who hadn't actually experienced something personally could find such a distilled and perfect way to talk about it and and that is um that's how I feel about his portrayal of women in this particular show it takes a lot for him to say this is this is so easily a play about men and and and on the surface you might think that but it is not and I feel that Angelica what's so special about her is that she's the only person that knows in the beginning of the show that the answer to the question that is asked throughout the piece who lives who dies who tells your story is Eliza I feel like the only person that sees her through the entire show even even you know Eliza herself doesn't know I feel like in that last moment Angelica does it and I think that's the reason why Lin is quoted as saying that Angelica is the smartest person in the show and I'll also add even though I'm talking a lot that he also says and I think Ron chernow has said to me that if a woman could have been president at that time Angelica Schuyler would have been president which is what's so exciting to me about the moment we live in and he does not shy away from that in this in this show and one of the corrections that he made when waiting to go to Broadway was that line that you added for Angelica in and take a break when you when you basically made her you know the answer to the debt crisis oh yeah oh sure yeah I mean that the reference she's making to to the thing I changed is Angelica was married by the time Hamilton met the Skyler's but that's not interesting and uh and to UM angelic an Eliza did have brothers but I am a big fan of Jane Austen and I'm a big fan of girls with no brothers who have to figure out how to make their way in the world at a time when they were not allowed to do so and so taking away the brothers allows me to talk about that allows her to talk about the roles the only roles she is allowed to play as a woman at this time in our history so I got rid of the brothers and I made her single um he let me yeah he let me have a toast at a wedding do you mean as a single woman ooh older sister as the oldest sister who is not married marrying off her younger sister to the man that she loves that she met at the exact same moment during him and made a choice in an instant I mean like what better what better food for an actor to have and it's generous that that way throughout every character in the play it's the reason why we had the most Tony nominations and competed with each other so we all didn't get to win would you donate it's a it's just the testament to a really generous yeah right and the thing she's referring to an act to is there's a song called take a break where Hamilton is at home his wife is downstairs teaching Phillip his lessons while he's writing a letter to Angelica upstairs and Angelica responds because she in real life knew Jefferson they were writing letters back and forth in Europe while they were both there together so instead of just being like love letters between the two let's show how Hamilton Angelica are the intellectual sort of like sparring partners Angelica's like I know Jefferson gotta talk to Jefferson's the only way this is going to happen and so in a way I sort of imbue her with the knowledge that's going to get Hamilton to the compromise he's going to do in room where it happens but she doesn't holding a parasol because because Sunday in the park with George ya know and also because that's really really but also we could because he's that guy but also because um because a woman would have to say that holding a parasol generally which is really you know you can say the thing that solves the equation but you say it twisting a parasol Ron you know anything I think that one of the great tramps of the show is really the portrayal of the three women all three brilliantly drawn by Lynn and brilliantly portrayed in the original Broadway cast by Renee and jasmine see Miss Jones and Philippa sue and if you look at the three women I always thought that three women in the show and three women in Hamilton's life eliza angelica and mariah Reynolds they form a kind of composite portrait of Hamilton because eliza is the purity and the goodness and the deep sense of principle that you see in Hamilton's life Angelica is the beauty the sophistication elegance I'm dating she's one of my favorites and then Mariah Reynolds is the kind of sensuality and the temptation to flirt with danger and kind of the darker side of his nature and so I think it's so powerful in the show that each of the three women brings out a completely different side in in Hamilton I think the fact and wonderfully captured by Alex I had to say Alex you know this is such a brilliant show I think that it deserved a brilliant documentary which is really what you've given it and I think especially important since this is a show you know of and about history how wonderful that we have this magnificent historical record of our historical show I feel you perform I want to get up to Joanne Freeman who is in the doc who's also here Hydro an who taught me everything I know about dueling and writing about it and who has my favorite line in the movie when she calls Hamilton an I love that when do we hear people speak that frankly about our founders it's great I want to know what you would call the other founders we have time for one more oh yeah we got we've got a mic okay we have two questions so Lynn where did your love from reading and writing come from where did my love for reading and writing come from it came from the man literally sitting in front of you Louise Miranda and the woman next to him at Luce Miranda my mother they're both here that was an easy one what's the next question um how do you think you changed from in the heights to Hamilton how do I think I've changed besides my hair um you know I think that um that's a great question um I see the bags under his eyes in the movie yeah guys under my eyes have grown considerably um I also um you know I just um I think every everything you write is an opportunity to learn something you know I in the heights was everything I knew about writing musicals and that opened when I was 28 years old the next musical I worked on was called bring it on and I wrote it with other composers and she saw it and um and I learned an enormous amount by working with other songwriters like Tom kitten Amanda green and Jeff Whitty because Broadway is like not a great investment one out of show one out of five shows on Broadway makes their money back so you can't be in it for like I'm gonna make a ton of money like you probably won't but hopefully you learn something in the process and you become a better writer over the course of making your thing and that's sort of the only thing I use to choose projects so Hamilton is everything I know about writing musicals right now I hope to learn more on the next project and and put that in the next one yes sir with the other mic um hi my name is Peter this is so cool okay um first I just want to thank you for being here and and thank you for creating something so wonderful and magical I genuinely mean that it's so inspiring it's probably one of my favorite things ever before I ask my question I have to apologize to Ron chernow because my father's a history teacher and in high school he tried to get me to read your biography I was like no and then when I started I was like dad I've listened this musical Hamilton um can I borrow your biography he's like oh well yes so my question to you is I'm 19 and 19 seems to be very pivotal age I suppose especially for Alexander Hamilton so I'm curious if you could go back in time and ask her and tell your 19 year old self something what would that what would that be this may be the best question I've ever gone thank you very much I met you when you were 19 you met me that's right we met when we were 19 18 we were both trying to be film majors you succeeded I failed right and went into theater instead and I started writing in the heights when I was 19 years old and a couple of things were happening at the same time one uh I really should have broken up with my high school girlfriend and I hadn't yet she was and she went to study abroad and um the long-distance thing was really hard and I had all this time and angst and I didn't know what to do with it and so I started writing in the heights but to fill the time um you played the dad in my first read-through of it I was I was the first Kevin of the first read we're stricter about the Latino caste now I did it I did it with a Yiddish accent then we were at 19 and um but if I could go back and tell that guy anything it would say one keep writing and two like you're going to survive this when you're 19 or when you around your age in your teens you are feeling more feelings than you will ever feel again in your life and everything is life or death and everything is the biggest deal in the world and I promise you there's another side to it you get to the other side of these waves that are crowd of emotion they're crashing and I was as giddy and as depressed as I've ever been at 19 and I channeled it all sort of into my writing but if I could go back I would tell that kid it's gonna turn out okay one day you're going to be on a stage with these incredible people there's going to be a movie about your show it's going to be on PBS and an awesome 19 year old will ask you an awesome question thank you so much for being here tonight thank you all thank you out there

Channel: Film at Lincoln Center

Views: 92,818

Rating: 4.9653177 out of 5

Keywords: Film Society of Lincoln Center, NYFF, New York Film Festival, Hamilton, Hamilton's America, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Horwitz, Renée Elise Goldsberry, documentary, Q&A, talk, interview, official, exclusive

Id: hIP7CUo46gg

Length: 32min 28sec (1948 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 11 2016