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Like Ramos, Melissa Barrera, 29,
who plays Vanessa, saw the musical
when she was a student; she had
moved to New York from Monterrey,
Mexico, to study at NYU and sat in
the audience “between 10 and 15
times,” she tells me over Skype from
her home in Los Angeles. Every time
a friend or family member would visit,
she’d drag them to the show, and
“every time that there was an open call,
I would go and sing and hope that one
day I would get a callback,” she says.
“It never happened.” She left NYU
after two years to return to Mexico for
her television debut on the musical–
reality TV show La Academia—a Big
Brother meets American Idol concoc-
tion in which contestants lived in an
isolated house and participated in
weekly singing competitions. She
didn’t win, but she did meet her hus-
band, the singer Paco Zazueta, and
after she got kicked off, she started
working on telenovelas, eventually
landing the starring role in Siempre
Tuya Acapulco, which turned her into
a household name in Latin America.
When Barrera finally got the call
to audition for the film in 2017, she
was in the middle of moving fromMexico to Los Angeles to begin film-
ing the Starz show Vida, about two
estranged Mexican-American sisters
who return home to Los Angeles after
the sudden death of their mother. On
top of that, she was trying to get her
visa sorted. “I was so unprepared,”
she tells me. “I didn’t feel my best. My
brain was all scattered.” In the midst
of the Weinstein fallout, In the Heights
was put on hold, and she took that
time to prepare, taking voice lessons
and honing her dancing skills. When,
a few months later, Warner Bros.
acquired the movie, she was called in
to audition again—initially for the role
of Nina, but she was asked to read
for Vanessa at the last minute.“Ev-
erything works out as it’s supposed
to,” she says.IN STEP
“It’s different than the salsa you learn
at family parties when you’re little,” says
Barrera of the film’s choreography.
from left: Ramos, Barrera, Leslie Grace,
and Corey Hawkins, photographed in
front of a mural by artist Angurria. In this
story: hair, Betsy Reyes, makeup, Martha
Melendez. Details, see In This Issue. CONTINUED ON PAGE 184