Sicker in the Head by Judd Apatow

Author:Judd Apatow [Apatow, Judd]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA

August 2020

Judd: My daughter Iris wanted you to know that she sang “A Very Good Day,” from Working: The Musical, in high school last year.

Lin-Manuel: It’s a very heartbreaking song. The songs that I wrote for that were kind of my In the Heights methadone, because I spent my twenties writing In the Heights. I started writing it when I was nineteen years old, for a college project, and then we opened on Broadway when I was twenty-eight. I’ll never make a leap that big again. I went from substitute teacher to Broadway composer. I don’t have another leap that big in me.

Judd: Is that how you were making money, as a substitute teacher?

Lin-Manuel: I started teaching seventh-grade English at my old high school. They offered me a full-time position, and I got scared of the Mr. Holland’s Opus version of my life, because I really liked it. I enjoy teaching. But I said, No, I can make rent by subbing, and then I have more time to write.

Judd: Were you going out on acting auditions and trying to have that life as well?

Lin-Manuel: I went on lots of voiceover auditions and acting auditions, and the only thing I booked was The Sopranos, as a bellboy; I say “I don’t know” twice. I’m so green you can see me look down at my mark. Watch it if you get a chance, because now people are like “Lin-Manuel’s cameo on The Sopranos!” It wasn’t a cameo. I wasn’t even in the union yet.

Judd: Who were you in the scene with?

Lin-Manuel: Gandolfini and Paulie. My one story about Gandolfini was that he stayed and did his sides even though it was the end of the night. He had no need to do that. He stayed and did the scene for the scared-shitless Puerto Rican kid in the bellhop outfit. The other thing I remember was that he sat on the steps of his trailer the whole time. He was never locked up in this trailer; he was just out, and people would talk to him.

Judd: It’s a powerful lesson as a young person. “Oh, you respect everybody, you care about the work, you’re not playing star.” It’s weirdly meaningful to observe one of the greats on a set. You’re also the leader of a giant crew when you do these shows. When I worked as a producer on The Ben Stiller Show, I didn’t know how to do it at all. I thought, I’m so young. His whole crew is older than me. They must hate my guts. I was just a terrified boss, and I would read, like, business books in my office, like [The] Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I didn’t really know how to be a leader of a hundred people. How was that, for you to realize that’s your role?

Lin-Manuel: I think the biggest gift I had is [theater director] Tommy Kail, because I’ve gone through it twice with him. With Heights, we did so

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