Lin-Manuel Miranda is pushing back against cancel culture.
The filmmaker has faced his share of criticism of his work, most recently for his musical film "In The Heights" where he was slammed for lacking Afro-Latinx representation, and now he is addressing the backlash and sharing his thoughts on cancel culture.
Speaking with The New Yorker, Miranda said he could understand why critics would have their opinions about his movies.
"Once something has success, you’re not the underdog trying to make it happen anymore," he said. "You have to graduate past the mindset of, like, it’s a miracle I got something on the stage. Because now that is expected of me. And people go, ‘Yeah, but what about this? And what about this?’ And that’s fair! I do that with art I find lacking."
That, the "Hamilton" star said, was not cancelation. "That's having opinions. So I try to take it in that spirit," he added.
During the interview, Miranda said he would not have his creative process influenced by those who were critical of his work.
"The challenge I find myself in is, How do I stay hungry?" he said. "How do I still feel like I have something to say and not worry about what is not in the frame? I’m just trying to build the frame in the first place. Certainly, I have learned lessons from the reception of my work, good, bad, and indifferent. You try to take all of it, and whatever sticks to your gut is what you bring with you to your next project."
Miranda explained that, if you "get yourself into a place of fear, of 'What are people going to say about what I write?' you’re f**ked."
"It’s over," he explained. "And that’s a place I have to really push past now in a different way. At the end of the day, you can’t control how the world receives something."
Earlier this year Miranda offered an apology after being called out for the lack of dark-skinned actors in lead roles for "In the Heights."
"I'm seeing the discussion around Afro-Latino representation in our film this weekend and it is clear that many in our dark-skinned Afro-Latino community don't feel sufficiently represented within it, particular among the leading roles," he wrote in a lengthy statement posted on Twitter.
"I can hear the hurt and frustration over colourism, of feeling still unseen in the feedback. I hear that without sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation, the work feels extractive of the community we wanted so much to represent with pride and joy."
"In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short. I'm truly sorry. I'm learning from the feedback, I thank you for raising it, and I'm listening," Miranda added.