“Wonka,” “Mean Girls,” “Joker: A Folie à Deux,” “The Color Purple.”Hollywood may not be too loud about the proliferation of big-budget musicals these days. No, but remember the story about how the audience didn’t realize that the recent remake of “Mean Girls” was actually a musical? — but that doesn’t mean the classic genre isn’t still making its way to movie theaters.
Actress Melissa Barrera got her start in Hollywood in Jon M. Chu’s dazzling “In the Heights.” very Although it’s more of a musical, she still sees the strange way the film industry obscures and completely hides what kinds of movies it makes.
“I feel weird about it. I’m not going to lie. I feel weird about this rejection of musicals because before, every movie was a musical. [audiences] I loved them, they were great, and I don’t know what happened to turn the tide and cause this rejection,” Barrera said in a recent interview with IndieWire. “Maybe it’s the quality stuff. Maybe the quality has gone down and people started liking them less and that’s why they now judge everything that comes out.”
The one thing that doesn’t help? The tendency to hide the fact that certain movies are musicals in marketing. Mr. Barrera cited the next installment of “Joker,” director Todd Phillips’ Oscar-winning musical sequel to the blockbuster, as having very strange intentions by Hollywood’s higher-ups: to further infuriate audiences. as further evidence of his intentions.
“Now, the sequel to ‘Joker,’ they try so hard to say it’s not a musical, but it’s actually a musical. Come on!” she said. “We already know how many songs there are in the movie. This is a musical, so just like the trailers don’t include songs or anything like that, this horror is also a rejection of the idea that the audience will feel like they’re being manipulated.” When a trailer is released without music, you’re like, “What’s that?” What the heck is that? Then, a week before the release, they release the last trailer and it has music in it and everyone is confused. ”
Barrera himself found himself confused about some of the more recent works in the genre. When asked about her recent musical hit “Wonka,” Barrera confessed, “I don’t know. I did not understand. Still, the movie was a huge hit, so she’s hopeful for the future. (She’s also “obviously very excited about ‘Wicked,’ too.”)
“I love musicals,” Barrera said. “I would love to do a musical if I had the chance. I love them so much, and I believe that with the right creative input, the right production, execution, and the right talent, they will become popular again.” I feel like it has to be a combination. Even in the golden age of Hollywood, the golden age of Mexican cinema, everything was musicals, and every actor had the triple signature. Every actor could sing and dance. He was able to act, he was good, and he was attractive. I think we need to invest in our talent.”
And Barrera herself is keen to return to music, and has some ideas for dream roles, such as in Giuseppe Verdi’s classic tragic opera Aida. It has been made into a movie several times, but it has never been shown in this version. modern era.
“I want to do more musicals. One of my favorite musicals and one that I think would make a really great movie is ‘Aida,'” she said. “That was my high school senior show. I played Amerith, and imagine that show, visually it was just spectacular. The story, the music, everything is going to be amazing. I think so.”
Barrera has several other ideas, including a very funny mashup of her comedic dreams and a wink at some of Hollywood’s most successful musicals.
“If we’re talking about what we want to do; want However, I wanted to do something different from what I’ve done before, so I did a musical, a horror film, and something more dramatic,” she said. “I’d like to try a straight comedy. That would be nice.”
She paused and laughed, seeming to combine her two great desires into one wicked little idea. “Do you know what I actually want to do? What are my dreams?” Barrera said. “I’d love to do a movie like ‘Grease,’ where I’m 35 and I play a 16-year-old, and everyone else is in their 30s and playing high school kids. it is What I want. ”
