Lin-Manuel Miranda doesn't feel like he was 'canceled' after 'In the Heights' was called out for its lack of dark-skinned Latinx actors

• Lin-Manuel Miranda said criticism of "In the Heights" for colorism isn't "cancellation."
• "That's having opinions. So I try to take it in that spirit," he said.

Lin-Manuel Miranda said the criticism "In The Heights" faced for failing to feature any dark-skinned Afro-Latinx actors in lead roles is not "cancelation," but viewers "having opinions" about the film.

While promoting his feature directorial debut "Tick, Tick, ... Boom!," Miranda told New Yorker magazine in an interview published on Sunday that he has "learned lessons from the reception of my work, good, bad, and indifferent."

He explained that once he became successful on Broadway, he was no longer "the underdog trying to make it happen," and people had higher expectations from him and his work.

"People go, 'Yeah, but what about this? And what about this?'" Miranda said. "And that's fair! I do that with art I find lacking. It's not cancelation. That's having opinions. So I try to take it in that spirit."

"You try to take all of it, and whatever sticks to your gut is what you bring with you to your next project," he added.

The "Hamilton" creator continued that one of his biggest challenges as a filmmaker now is figuring out how to "stay hungry" and focus on what he's trying to say through his work, rather than fixating on the stuff he may have left out.

When "In the Heights" was released in theaters and on HBO Max in June, some social-media users pointed out that the movie primarily features light-skinned Latinx leads, while most Black Latinx actors are cast as background actors in big dance numbers.

Ahead of the film's release, director Jon M. Chu told The Root's Felice León at a press junket that he "needed to be educated about" including more Black Latinx actors in "In The Heights."

Miranda said in a separate statement after the movie's release that he was "truly sorry" for the lack of "sufficient dark-skinned Afro-Latino representation" in "In the Heights."

"In trying to paint a mosaic of this community, we fell short," he said.

Reflecting on the criticism the film received, Miranda said in the New Yorker interview on Sunday that "at the end of the day, you can't control how the world receives something."

"All you can control is what your intentions were," he said. "And, if it closes in a night, those six years don't feel like wasted time, because you learned from it and you put everything you had into it."

"Tick, Tick, ... Boom!" is out in select theaters now and streaming on Netflix on December 19.