Lin-Manuel Miranda Shares the Greatest Performance of His Life—It Wasn't Onstage | Playbill

Film & TV News Lin-Manuel Miranda Shares the Greatest Performance of His Life—It Wasn't Onstage The Tony-winning and Pulitzer-winning star talks Mary Poppins and being the youngest person to earn a Kennedy Center Honor.

In anticipation of his feature film debut in Mary Poppins Returns, Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! November 15.

While Miranda confessed he has a few ideas for shows that he’s working on (“I always have ideas and you kind of wait for the right one to raise its hand,” he said.), Kimmel thought Miranda’s old letters from camp might provide some fodder.

Miranda explained: “I was home sick and I didn't want to get my newborn son sick, so I crashed at my parents' house. My mom is a hoarder, so she has all of the letters I sent home from camp. I was really a city kid, so sending me to a place without electricity was really a bad idea.

“Do you know how I got out of there?” Miranda teased. “I faked a spinal injury. There was a kid who injured his back the day before who got to go home. So I was with a friend and I threw myself on the ground, and I said I couldn't feel my legs and just burst into tears.

“I hope you enjoy Mary Poppins, but it is not the greatest performance of my life. The greatest performance of my. life was me faking that I couldn't feel my legs.”

Of course, Miranda is excited for everyone to see his portrayal of the new character Jack, “a lamplighter—which is now an extinct job.”

Miranda did not write any of the music for the new movie and was relieved to just perform. “I started writing musicals because I wanted to be in musicals. Unless you dance well enough to play Bernardo [in West Side Story], which I don't, that's it for a Puerto Rican dude in musical theatre. So this feels like the fruits of a lot of hard work to play a part and not have to write it.”

Watch the video below to hear more about the “happiness machine” of Mary Poppins Returns from Miranda.

 
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