Rita Moreno Weighs In On 'In The Heights' Colorism Controversy

Rita Moreno is weighing in on the controversy of colorism in In The Heights.

If you didn’t see, both creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jon M. Chu addressed the criticism that the new film didn’t feature more dark-skinned Afro-Latinx performers.

Click inside to see what Rita Moreno said about the controversy…

So, on Tuesday’s (June 15) episode of The Late Show, Rita opened up about her opinion of the situation with host Stephen Colbert.

“It’s like you can never do right, it seems,” she shared. “This is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America. I couldn’t do it. I mean, I would love to say I did, but I couldn’t.”

Rita added, “Lin-Manuel has done that, really single-handedly, and I’m thrilled to pieces, and I’m proud that he produced my documentary.”

As for her official position on the matter, Rita says that she’s “simply saying, can’t you just wait a while and leave it alone? There’s a lot of people who are puertorriqueño, who are also from Guatemala, who are dark and who are also fair. We are all colors in Puerto Rico.”

She continued, “[this is] how it is, and it would just be so nice if they hadn’t come up with that and left that alone, just for now. They’re really attacking the wrong person.”

Rita is pictured below at the premiere and parade for her documentary, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It, during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival over the weekend in New York City.