00:00:00 Music Music Gentle trilling music with a steady drumbeat plays under the dialogue. 00:00:01 Promo Promo Speaker: Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR. [Music fades out.] 00:00:12 Jesse Host I’m Jesse Thorn. It’s Bullseye. Thorn 00:00:14 Music Music “Huddle Formation” from the album Thunder, Lightning, Strike by The Go! Team plays. A fast, upbeat, peppy song. Music plays as Jesse speaks, then fades out. 00:00:21 Jesse Host Lin-Manuel Miranda grew up in a working-class neighborhood, north of Harlem. He went to a fancy school for gifted kids, on the Upper East Side. He went to college at Wesleyan, and not long after he graduated, he had a hit Broadway musical: In the Heights. He’s also the creator and star of Hamilton, the award-winning, massively influential musical about the founding father. I mean, [laughing] not that I have to explain what Hamilton is, on NPR. These days, Lin-Manuel is in a spot in which not many artists find themselves. He can do pretty much whatever he wants. Take on any project. So, what did that mean for him? He started another show on Broadway. Freestyle Love Supreme is an improvised hip- hop performance where the performers get their prompts from the audience. Before Broadway shut down, I got to see it, in New York. It’s a delightful show: a combination of improv comedy and freestyle hip-hop that you won’t see almost anywhere else. There’s a documentary about the show coming out in July, on Hulu. It’s called We Are Freestyle Love Supreme. When I talked with Lin, last year, he was doing something completely different: the HBO show, His Dark Materials. It’s a fantasy series, based on the book of the same name. It centers around a young girl named Lyra, who is trying to find her kidnapped friend. Lyra grew up in Oxford, UK. But her journey takes her far from her home, to a desolate and dangerous region known as The North. There, she meets a guy named Lee Scoresby, played by Miranda. In this clip, Lyra and Lee realize they’re looking for the same thing: a bear. 00:02:04 Sound Transition Music swells and fades. Effect 00:02:05 Clip Clip [Sounds of a crowd—voices and clanking in the background.] Lee Scoresby (His Dark Materials): [Yelling over the din of sound.] Has anyone seen a bear?! [The crowd chatters and shouts among itself but does not answer.] Lyra Belacqua: What do you want with a bear? [Beat.] You’re bleeding. Lee: Hazard of the job. Lyra: And what job do you do? Lee: I’m in Aeronautics. Lyra: What part of being an [sounding it out phonetically] air-o- naut— Lee: Let me give you a tip, kid. Never upset a seagull. [He sits down with a heavy thump and a sigh.] Lyra: [Exasperated.] You’re not serious. Lee: [Strained.] Not if I can help it. Lyra: [Beat.] Will he want to see you? This bear? Lee: I hope so. You know where he is, don’t you? Town’s no place for your— Lyra: How do you know him? Lee: [Amused.] Well, she’s just a sprung box, isn’t she? She just keeps asking questions. Lee Scoresby. Can you tell me where to find him? 00:02:43 Sound Transition Music swells and fades. Effect 00:02:44 Jesse Host Lin, welcome to Bullseye! I’m so happy to have you on the show! 00:02:47 Lin-Manuel Guest Thank you! Long-time listener, long-time fan. Happy to be here. 00:02:51 Jesse Host Aw, that’s very kind of you. And I apologize for canceling on you, the last time, [chuckling] when my child was born. 00:02:57 Lin-Manuel Guest That was—that was a very valid excuse and I was happy to have the hour. It was during a very hectic time in my life, too. [Laughs.] 00:03:04 Jesse Host Is His Dark Materials another one of these things where you weaseled your way in because— [Lin-Manuel breaks into startled laughter.] —it was something that you’ve always loved? 00:03:15 Lin-Manuel Guest [Completely shocked and delighted, his voice pitched high from laughing.] I weaseled my way!? 00:03:16 Jesse Host Or is this a regular acting job, where you—you know… 00:03:20 Lin-Manuel Guest This was a straight-up offer out of the blue. I was in London at the time, filming Mary Poppins Returns, and Jane Tranter—the producer of the series—and Jack Thorne—the writer—invited me to dinner and sort of thought of me for it. And I would not think of myself as a natural fit for this role. I don’t think I’m anyone’s first choice [chuckling] for a Texan aeronaut. But Jane Tranter said she had seen me at a thing. She was—she was a fan of my work, but she had seen me at the closing night of In the Heights, in London, and she said that she saw me bound up on the stage and she said, “You looked like a human rabbit, and I thought—is that Lee Scoresby?” [Jesse chuckles.] So, I guess the answer to your question is yes. I was a big fan of these books before I got this offer. 00:04:08 Jesse Host There was movies of these books, before. You know, five years ago or seven years ago. And the part that you play was played by a guy who I’m sure you’re all constantly sitting next to at auditions, in one of those things: Sam Elliott. 00:04:23 Lin-Manuel Guest [Teasingly.] Sam Elliott. I mean, he was almost Hamilton. He was almost Usnavi. [Jesse laughs.] I mean, we just constantly [laughs]—going in for each other’s gigs. 00:04:30 Jesse Host Why did you not think of yourself as this kind of guy? 00:04:35 Lin-Manuel Guest Well, honestly, I’d seen the movie and I thought Sam Elliott’s about as perfect as it gets! And what was—what was interesting about their take on it was, they’re big fans of Once Upon a Time in the North. Which was this novella prequel that Philip Pullman wrote, where Lee is much younger and it’s, sort of, where he meets Iorek Byrnison—who’s the armored bear in the series. And so, they were—they were just sort of thinking in an entirely different way, and I was a big fan of Jack Thorne’s Harry Potter adaptation, for the stage. So, I was like, “Well, if he sees it, I’m gonna—I’m gonna fake it ‘til I make it.” 00:05:12 Jesse Host I mean, it—I think it… speaks to your relatively unusual priorities, in having, perhaps, accidentally gained what here in Hollywood they call heat— [Lin laughs.] —by making, you know, the biggest hit musical of the last 20 years, or whatever. Which is, like, I think most people would just go straight to, “Yeah, I guess I should try and be a movie star!” And you starred in a movie, but it feels like you are making choices on an entirely different basis, and a little bit—maybe—it feels like you have—you have decided to, like, take this moment and… almost play, like, you know, show business fantasy camp. [Lin-Manuel laughs.] You know what I mean? Like, just do little things that you would always have loved to have done. 00:06:13 Lin-Manuel Guest If it had—you know, In the Heights was a successful show that recouped its money and won the Tony. And that’s about as good as you can expect from a Broadway musical. We don’t get off the Arts and Leisure page, necessarily. But, you know, we get done in high schools and the show lives on. And I thought that was as big a success you got, and then Hamilton happened. And by then I was married with a kid. I had done some TV shows, with mixed success. I’d done a little movie stuff. And… frankly, I don’t have to do anything ever again. I know it’s the first line of my obituary! That’s what Hamilton is. So, okay. So, if that’s—that line is handled, then what else can I do with my time here? 00:07:01 Jesse Host Is it hard when opportunities present themselves that are, like… public-facing, famous-person opportunities to maintain the part of your identity that is… maybe even more a writer and composer than a performer? Though, you certainly have always been both. 00:07:28 Lin-Manuel Guest At this point, I know who I am, and I know what is for me and then what is not for me. Or what will stretch me or what I can learn from. I mean, I’ll give you an example. Like, I did get a Marvel call that I said no to. And I may kick myself about it forever. [Jesse laughs.] But I got the call and it was for a part [chuckling], that will remain nameless, and I said—and I was still in Hamilton, at the time. And I said, “When does it film?” And they said, “We’d probably start immediately after you finished.