Leslie Grace, Who Plays Nina, Auditioned For This Other Role in 'In The Heights' Too!

Leslie Grace is opening up about her audition process for In The Heights.

The 26-year-old singer and actress plays Nina in the new movie, however, it’s not the only role she went out for.

Click inside to see what Leslie shared about her “In The Heights” audition…

Speaking with Collider about the flick, Leslie revealed that she also went out for the role of Vanessa, which is played by Melissa Barrera.

“So I definitely felt [like I] most identified with Nina and was going for Nina and I had read originally for Nina,” Leslie explained, before adding that “a year and a half later, that second time around once I read in front of Jon [M. Chu] again and Lin [Manuel Miranda] and Quiara [Alegría Hudes], they had asked that I learn the part of Vanessa, and the same for Mel.”

She continued that the “last audition in front of Lin, we read and chemistry read both parts on that day, and we switched around a bunch of times, for a little bit, for a couple of hours. I was ready. I just wanted to be a part of this thing.”

Leslie said that “it turned out that all of us really ended up playing the people that we really knew and that we truly didn’t really have to act. I really identity myself with Nina and the struggles of her being a first generation Latina Americana that’s trying to push forward but also feels fragmented in her identity a little bit. And I know that Mel feels really reflected in the role of Vanessa, feeling like, ‘I’ve gotta make it out and get to my dream,’ and falling back in love with her hometown, finding the beauty of everything that she is because of where she came from.”

Lucky for them both, it seems that everyone else saw that too.

In the same interview, Leslie opened up about having imposter syndrome even being in the film because she was more known as a singer.

“I went into doing this movie obviously feeling imposter syndrome like, ‘I’ve never done this before! I hope that I don’t make a stupid mistake while everyone is watching.’ But everyone was so generous and told me so many stories of first times and they just really made me feel welcome,” she says.

“It allowed me to learn how many similarities there are between singing and acting, and one of them is being able to feel the pace of a moment,” Leslie shared.

In The Heights is out in theaters and on HBO Max now.

Hooked on the soundtrack? Stream it here!