-The one and only Lin-Manuel Miranda is here!
[ Cheers and applause ]
We are talking about your new movie,
"Tick, Tick... Boom!", which I just loved.
-Thank you. -I loved it so much.
I loved every detail in this thing.
And I love that story of struggle.
And also, are we doing what
we're doing with our time on Earth?
Are we spending it how we should?
And are we doing, you know -- It's all that stuff
and all these dreams.
And for the most part,
you don't know if it's going to work or not.
The heartbreaking thing about this is Jonathan Larson died
before the off-Broadway performance.
He never got to see it.
-Yeah, he died before the first preview of "Rent" off-Broadway.
-It's an insane, powerful story, but you did it so well.
And I feel like only you can do this, in a weird way.
I feel like, this is -- I'm watching it.
I'm going like, "Oh, that must have been you."
I feel like when I saw Andrew Garfield sleeping with
his Casio keyboard, that you've done that.
-Yeah, well, the first time I had a rough cut of the movie,
I called my -- one of my best friends, collaborator,
Quiara, who wrote "In the Heights" with me.
And she lives on my block in Washington Heights.
And I called her and I said, "I have a rough cut,"
and I will love her forever for this.
She said, "I'm on my way!" -Yep.
-And, like, ran over to watch it.
And in the first shot of Jonathan's apartment --
and again, I'm making every decision through the filter
of "What would Jonathan Larson do?"
It's a really faithful re-creation of his apartment,
his life, his world, you know, New York in 1990.
But they cut to John's apartment,
and Quiara turns to me and goes,
"Lin, that's your bedroom, dude.
Like, the futon on the floor and the Casio next to it.
That's exactly the hovel you lived in when we met
and you were 24 years old."
-And you're writing songs, and you're like on the keyboard,
and you go, "I'm not getting anything,
and I'm figuring this out,"
and who knows if anyone's even going to hear it.
"But I'm writing 'Hamilton' right now.
Who knows what it's going to be?"
But until -- Andrew Garfield is un--
-Is outrageous.
-Unbelievable in this. -Yeah.
-And I go -- I just --
Did you know that Andrew Garfield was your guy?
-I knew he was my guy.
I didn't know if he could sing. -He can.
-Which is kind of, you know, a big thing in a musical.
[ Laughter ]
-Yeah, you kind of want to research that before you do it.
-Yeah, but I saw him in "Angels in America."
I knew I needed a theater beast to play Jonathan
'cause Jonathan Larson lived and breathed the theater.
And it needed to be someone who could sort of act
all the small, heartbreaking moments in Jonathan's life
and someone who could, like, play a one-man show
single-handedly and play to the rafters.
And I watched Andrew in "Angels in America."
It's an eight-hour play, in two parts.
You eat dinner at the theater. -Yeah.
-And his, like, rib cage was cracked open.
He was so incredible. I just left being like,
"Well, that guy can do anything. Like, he can just do anything."
And so he was my guy. -He crushed it, man.
He crushed it. And then I'm watching the movie.
I'm loving it, and then who do I see but my best buddy,
Tariq Trotter, in the movie.
-Yeah. -As a cameo.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-And I go, "oh, my --"
And you shot it so well. -Thank you.
-The video camera thing -- -That's my happy place.
1990 is like when I was running around New York with a camcorder
wanting to make movies. -Yeah.
-And so, to set this up, the conceit of the movie is
any time John starts singing,
we go into the world according to Jonathan Larson.
And Jonathan Larson wrote this rap song called "Play Game"
in 1990, and it was all about
how much he didn't like what was on Broadway.
It was just, like, he was deeply ambivalent about it.
He thought it was really crass and all really commercial.
And he was also like, "And why do I care so much
about making stuff for it?"
And when you watch Jonathan do it, it's pretty lame.
He's got a sideways pink hat.
It's very like Garfield rapping.
It's very like 1990.
And so I was like, "Well, in his mind,
he's the greatest rapper alive,"
so I cast one of the greatest rappers alive to do the song.
-Wow. [ Cheers and applause ]
-And I got to shoot, like, a 1990 music video.
-Oh, dude, it's so good. -Yeah.
-It made me laugh. I was like, it's so, so fun.
But I will say congrats on this, your directorial debut.
-Thank you. -You hit a home run, buddy.
-Thank you. -I want to show a clip.
Here is Tariq Trotter in "Tick, Tick... Boom!" Take a look.
-♪ Walk through Times Square and what do you see? ♪
♪ Ugliness where architecture used to be ♪
♪ The glamour and style have been replaced by gaud ♪
♪ Like the $60,000 spectacle, it's all a fraud ♪
♪ That's the play game ♪
♪ -That's the play game ♪
♪ -So why do I want to play the play game? ♪
♪ That's the play game ♪
♪ -That's the play game ♪
♪ -I must be insane to play the play game ♪
♪ Even off-Broadway it's no guarantee ♪
♪ That some MBA won't decide what you see ♪
♪ Just like America lacking innovation ♪
♪ Just getting by on glitz and reputation ♪
♪ Just like America on the decline ♪
♪ Unconcerned with the product, just the bottom line ♪
-That's exactly -- [ Cheers and applause ]
That is how you do it right there.
That is how you do it, buddy.
I love you. Lin-Manuel Miranda.
"Tick, Tick... Boom!" is in theaters now
and on Netflix this Friday.