Lin-Manuel Miranda on making "In the Heights" into a movie full of "joy and love"

It wasn't Lin-Manuel Miranda's idea to appear on screen in "In the Heights," the jubilant new movie adaptation of his 2008 Tony Award-winning musical — the Broadway hit that paved the way for "Hamilton." He says he would have been happy sitting in his writer's chair and cheering on the cast filming in his own neighborhood. But he was persuaded to take on the small role of Piragüero, who pushes a cart selling shaved ice with fruit-flavored syrups, thanks to the film's screenplay writer, Quiara Alegría Hudes.  I'll be a businessman, richer than Nina's daddyDonald Trump and I on the links, and he's my caddy.  What about immigration?Politicians be hatin'Racism in this nation's gone from latent to blatant. 

"Quiara talked me into it," Miranda told CBS News. "'If you're in it, it's the surest way the song doesn't get cut,'" he recalled her suggesting during a pre-production meeting with director Jon M. Chu. The character's song, "Piragua," isn't essential to the plot, which is why he worried it could face the chopping block. But Miranda sees it as key to what the movie, a love letter to his Washington Heights community set during a very hot summer, is all about.  "It's a metaphor for the entire neighborhood: Life is hard. Prices are going up, but we keep scraping by," explained Miranda.