An Icon Steps Into The Light

“I don’t want to give too much away” says Robin De Jesus over the phone, as we settle into our interview, just days after the premiere of his latest film Tick…Tick…Boom!

Words by Dio Anthony

We’ve only been on the line for a few minutes and already his openness is not only admirable, but charming, too. “I’m not sure where we will go on this call, so I want to pace myself.” It’s a nice way to start a conversation—refraining from holding back and giving yourself to the other person in the short time you have together. He’s playful and funny, and breaks in and out of Spanish depending on the question. He feels like a cousin, a friend. It’s familiar, to me, a 31-year-old Dominican, who grew up visiting the Bronx—a place De Jesus now calls home at 37-years-old. Having grown up in Norwalk, Connecticut, removed from the glimmer of the city, but close enough to get a glimpse of a life that would soon be his. He’s found a community in the Bronx , a haven. De Jesus feels like somewhat of an underground icon, of the Warhol variety. He’s a part the New York City’s Bohemia, and the characters he plays are too. In Tick…Tick…Boom! Lin Manuel’s latest masterpiece about the trials and tribulations of Jonathan Larsen’s quest for success and the community around him, De Jesus steps into his light. Breathing life into a character based on a real person with a palpable authenticity. We sit down for a discussion I can only dream of, on community, New York City and stepping into his role as an Elder for the younger generation, simply by being who he is. Taking a seat a table that’s always been reserved for him.

Dio Anthony: I'm excited to be talking to you today!

Robin de Jesús: My pleasure. I want to make sure I heard you right—Dio, is that how you say it?

Anthony: It's Dio, yes! 

de Jesús: Dio, okay. I'm Puerto Rican, I was thinking Spanish, that's why.

Anthony: Yeah! I'm Dominican. It's actually Diomedes, which is way too long. It was a point of bullying in school, but it's a great name.

de Jesús: it is a beautiful name!

Anthony: Thank you! Let's jump into it. I wanted to start off by asking you what it was like growing up in Connecticut? Were you commuting into the city all the time or did it feel like a complete world away from you?

de Jesús: It was a little bit of each, because I only grew up an hour outside of the city––in a working class factory town called Norwalk. The city still had a bit of an effect on where I was in Connecticut, but it also had a bougieness to it as well. My high school was about 53% minority. It had a huge Latino community, Black community, Asian community. Lots of  immigrants, Italians, Irish, Hungarians. But for the Latinos and for the Puerto Ricans especially, there was always a connection to the Bronx. We'd go shopping a lot on Fordham Road, Third Ave, Grand Concourse. It was part of our economy. There was always someone going to the Bronx! I remember that if there was a baby shower, my mom's friend, Julia, she’d go to the same stores and stock up on possible gifts. Anytime there was another baby shower, she already had clothes she had bought from the Bronx. It was like Barbara Streisand's basement––she basically had her own store. 

Anthony: That’s hilarious. I have an aunt who lives in the Bronx and I’m pretty sure every household item she has right now has been bought from the same store on Fordham Road.

de Jesús: It was great. That proximity definitely helped. I didn't see my first theatrical production until middle school, but I remember listening to La Mega and I knew that Quien Mato A Hector Lavoe was playing at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater Company. I would hear folks talking about it all the time, even though I was too little to go to stuff like that. I don't know what we’re going to get into, so I don’t want to give it all away early...

Anthony: Not at all, I love it. You’ve already touched on so many things that I was going to ask. I actually wanted to speak to you a little bit about the Bronx, because I grew up visiting the Bronx all the time. I grew up in Philly, about an hour and a half away, two hours at most. My aunt lived in the Bronx. Literally right by the steps made famous by the Joker movie. You get to the top step and her building’s right there. I grew up visiting her most weekends, being dragged to Fordham Road with my aunties and all that stuff. So everything you’re saying is very familiar to me.

de Jesús: We’re in sync. 

Anthony: Yeah! So, it's interesting to me, why you settled into the Bronx as an adult. I love the Bronx. In many ways it feels like home, but I never lived there so I can’t rightfully claim that [laughs].

de Jesús: I love the Bronx too. You know, really what it comes down to is–– It started as a combo of me exploring where to live based off of my realizing that for my mental health and sustainability, family has to be there.

Maybe that's also because I am so spoiled and privileged in that I live in the city and my family's only an hour out. Whereas I know so many people in this business, friends of mine, and colleagues who go years without seeing relatives. They live on other sides of the planet, or economically they can't afford that flight to the Dakotas or wherever it is, you know? I get to have the best of both worlds and I wanted to make that a little better, having lived in Brooklyn for years. I’ve lived in every borough except Staten Island at this point. In the Bronx I was going to get more bang for my buck, I was going to be closer to my family, but also close to work, I was also going to be in the Mecca of the Puerto Rican diaspora, which I loved.  I was having a conversation with a dear friend of mine who does a lot of EDI work and I was talking to her about planning for the future and owning a home in Connecticut, and the frustration of Connecticut being home, because my hometown is incredibly gentrified now. The black and brown folks and the working class folks don't have anyone having their backs. The pandemic didn't help either because people are just swooping in from the city and buying houses. I was looking at these other towns in Connecticut, but there was no diversity and in some areas, there was blatant discrimination. Yazmin Khan is my friend's name. And Yazmin Said to me, “Robin, why would you want to give your money to that local economy?” She really put it in my head. Where I live is who I give my money to. That's going to be the bodega I shop at, that's going to be my local coffee shop, a local restaurant. There’s something about living in Mott Haven, the area of the Bronx that I live in now, where I have the proximity to everything I need regarding my work. But I also feel like I'm a part of my people's community. I think it gets a little problematic because I come from the working class background of the folks that would spend lots of time in the Bronx. But, then I'm also coming in as a person of privilege... So there's a unique navigation there.

Anthony: Yeah, definitely. 

de Jesús: But I also feel like I have to question myself and what my intentions are, and I’d like to believe that I'm trying to come in as correct as possible.

Anthony: Right. That's so interesting to me because. One of my questions was going to be what your favorite thing about the Bronx is? But now that we’re chatting,  I feel like your favorite thing about the Bronx is the diversity and just being part of that community.

de Jesús: I'm gonna tell you right now, my favorite thing about the Bronx is just talking Spanish everywhere. [Laughs] You don't even realize how much I’m a mumbler. I have a mumble, which is why sometimes I'll sound like everything's okay, other times, you'll watch an interview or something and be like, “Wait, what did he just say?” Because I had a moment where I wasn't conscious of my diction. And when it comes to Spanish, when I don't speak it all the time, I mumble more. It's so nice now to be in a consistent flow and practice with my dualinguality.

Anthony: What you said earlier was interesting to me because I remember during the peak of the pandemic period there were a lot of people in New York, particularly in Manhattan that stopped taking the subway.I had a friend who wasn't taking the subway at all and would tell me,“Oh, I haven't been on the train in months.” But she lives walking distance to Washington Square Park, so she doesn’t really need to take the subway. Then I'd go visit my aunt in the Bronx and the 4 train was packed with people. It was an eye opening experience because most of the people living in the Bronx aren’t part of the work from home community. People were very much still commuting daily. They weren’t able to avoid the train the way my friend was, for example. It was a privilege to be able to refrain from taking any public transportation. You can't walk to Union Square from the Bronx if you work at Forever 21 across from the park. You just can't do that.

de Jesús:  You know what’s crazy, now that you’re saying that, I've only been back in the Bronx now since August or September, but it is interesting clocking the difference in rush hour. I know when I look out my windows, the highway is already packed at 6:00 AM. Whereas I feel like that wasn't the case when I was living in the city and I could see the highway. I think it's because it's all of the working class folks who are the ones that have to be there first thing in the morning. Or the people that work overnight and are coming back home from a real late shift. The demographics just manifest differently, you know? It is unfortunate because I know that the stop that I get off on the subway in Mott Haven is one of the subway stops that does flood. When we have those flash floods, and those videos of people literally swimming to the train cart--that’s not happening in Manhattan. I can identify my people in those videos.

Anthony: For sure, But then you’re coming in, and you’re in the movies! That to me is so interesting because… I mean, you can throw a rock and hit a model in Soho. But movie stars aren’t coming in and out of the Bronx unless they’re on location filming. You know what I mean? You’re coming from such a different place than most of the residents. 

de Jesús: 100%. Though I will say, where I'm living, this area of Mott Haven, I'm in an old building, but it definitely is the area where all the bougie new buildings and high rises are coming up. It's going to be really interesting to see how it progresses. I know personally, I'm just gonna hope to stay connected in ways to make sure that whatever I'm doing is as least problematic as humanly possible.

Anthony: I love that. Going back, what made you want to act? You were in this community in Connecticut where you’d kind of been exposed to the arts, but you weren’t really experiencing the arts yet.. 

de Jesús:  I was always attracted to music. I always wanted to be like the adults. I was a little hibratio, a little mensch from a really young age. Even in the way I ate too. I always loved and respected the elders so much. I remember as a kid thinking, “That's who I want to be friends with.” I remember in that desire to impress the elders, I lived for Parranda season,which is basically Christmas caroling season for Puerto Ricans. The way Puerto Ricans do it is you start at night, you go with a band, guitars, congas. If you’ve got the person an accordion, and Maracas, lo que sea! You’d go to someone's house and you'd knock on their door and they'd open up and you would carol for them.  The Puerto Rican custom of doing it is there's an improv section too. There's a call and response section to it, it's very communal. I was the kid that would learn all the responses to the calls and stuff like that.

So that was kind of the beginning of the musicality. That and The Little Mermaid. Hearing “Part of Your World,” I remember loving that so much, but I wasn't a good singer. 

Then puberty came and puberty shifted that, and I learned how to match pitch.  Then in middle school, I had this Mr. Sylvester, my beautiful teacher who I'll never forget. Him and another teacher, who played the piano for him. They were so good to me. The importance of Mr. Sylvester as a black male figure being the first person to tell me that I could sing was big. There was something about that paternal energy he had over me that really helped me. And then my other teacher leaned in even more. She would meet me in the summers at my job and try to give me piano lessons and teach me how to read music. It really stepped in middle school. By high school I had discovered theater and was ravenously obsessed. I would go to the library and take out all the CDs and read the scripts. I knew I couldn't afford lessons and I fell behind because all the other white kids that did theater had been in lessons of dance, singing, acting. Our local community theater, the Crystal Theater, gave classes.

Anthony: Now they have these elaborate musical theater summer camps…

de Jesús:  Yes! and I was going to a government funded camp. I was in that sliding scale camp situation, which I loved, but there was no musical program there. Then by high school all the pieces fell together and I started doing musicals. I found the theater kids, I was discovering my voice. I found voice teachers that were putting me on scholarship. A lot of folks fortunately had my back and were able to sustain me economically with all my lessons. I don't know where to tie that into ‘cause I'm scared, I don't know where we're going to go... 

Anthony: I love that in general because I think teachers are so important. If you asked me who my favorite teachers were I could name them instantly. I love that it takes you back there.

de Jesús:  It does, because everybody wants to be seen, everybody wants to be taken seriously, and when you're a kid, the elders don't treat you that way. I feel like a really good teacher, just kind of zooms in. It's that moment in the movie Precious that I love so much where the teacher asks all of the students, “What's your name? What's your favorite color?” I forget what else. Precious decides to not respond because she's too nervous and then she realizes that everyone's getting something out of it and she goes, “Actually, I want to go.” She says her favorite color and there's a sadness and a weight over her, and the teacher looks at her and says, “How do you feel?” And she mumbles, “I feel like I'm here.”

Anthony: Goosebumps. I saw that movie in theaters.  That took me back.

de Jesús: That was the first time I cried in a movie.

Anthony: That’s so cool to me. See, that's important. I think teachers are one of the first adults to really see children outside of their homes.  So, a lot of the time, they can tap into something that parents don't see. I want to talk to you about Tick, Tick, Boom, which I love so, so, so much. I just felt like it was such a universal story. Despite it being a true story. Which is why I think people are going to love it so much. My question to you is, living in New York City, being in the art scene, Tick, Tick… Boom! is very particular and very specific to someone, but the theme of making your dreams come true is a big theme. I imagine you've seen your fair share of those who find success and those who are still seeking it. Could you talk a bit about that? Your character and Andrew Garfield’s character in the movie are at a tug of war with this very topic…

de Jesús: I have so many thoughts right now, some directly related to what you’re saying and some that just come to mind. The first thing I thought about was that I feel like it's so easy to look at my character, Michael, and think, “Oh, he gave up and it's a sad life.” For me, it's more like he signed a contract that said, “I'm going to be this performer. I'm going to go to New York and do this thing.” Then as he matured, he was like, “Oh, wait, look at this fine print that I never paid attention to. I didn't know that this was going to come with all of this baggage.” For him, being a Puerto Rican man in the 1990s, it meant that he was very limited in how he was seen, so he was navigating the white supremacy of it all. He was navigating an already difficult business during a very difficult period because of the AIDS and crack epidemic. I think it became too much. I think he realized, “Oh, this is not healthy and sustainable, but look at this other route in which I can still be creative. ”Because I do think he remained creative. Michael is alive to this day. I won’t say his name ‘cause I don't know if he wants it out there like that, but he actually is still alive, and he’s still creative and is still involved in the arts. Susan is also still a creative human being. Jonathan really stayed in the weeds, in the thick of it, trying to get the Broadway thing. I think there’s a part of him where the ratios of full love and passion within him really sustained him and kept him in it. I also think there's a part of it that was divine intervention, letting him know like, “Yo, unfortunately your time is limited so if you want this to happen, you’ve got to get on it.” Because I don't think that Jonathan's way of doing things is sustainable for everyone.

Anthony: I think it's beautiful. It's so beautiful. and a bit sad? I don’t want to say that but I feel it. I loved the story so much.  

de Jesús: I know, I love it too. To me it's sad because Jonathan is the beautiful white ally that we struggle so hard to get now. It’s so weird, the nineties had these moments for people of color that were so glorious and then all of a sudden in the aughts, it was like, “How are we going to go backwards now?” When it comes to Rent, the two leads were the two white men, but it was such an ensemble piece and all of those people of color that were involved and were characters, they were just as loved. In some cases even more than the leads.

They were so layered and nuanced and meaty and messy. They were allowed to be messy, ugly, but they were never stripped of their dignity, their respect and their requirement of empathy, sympathy, and compassion. His roles are so tasty for us. Also when you think about how long that Broadway show ran, and that's just the one production, and then adding in the tours and local productions, think of all the black and brown folks this story gave jobs to.  His work gave them insurance, gave them the ability to buy and own homes. To have children and to have cars. What he did for us also helped sustain us actors of color economically. His gifts just keep on multiplying for us.

Anthony: Totally. What you said about your character, I love that too. It’s something I admit I didn’t tap into while watching, but it makes so much sense now. You don’t always want to do the same thing for the rest of your life. 

I follow you on Instagram, and I think it’s so  cool that you write your captions in Spanish. I know Ricky Martin does that too. I was wondering if there was a motive behind it. But now in speaking to you, I know you’re speaking spanish all of the time. It’s probably something you just do without much thought. Right? Regardless, I really enjoy it.  

de Jesús: Thank you! I appreciate that. I will say this: I've always been  Spanglish in my writing of my things online. My pages were always personal and over the years I realized, it's becoming less personal, and more tied to this business that I'm in, which is great, don’t get me wrong–– but I won't lie, it’s very intentional. My writing in Spanish is also tied to the fact that other languages are so romanticized in this country. Other European languages, even though Spanish comes from Europe as well. 

But there's just something about it that people feel like they're allowed to be violent with Spanish speakers in ways that they're not with other white people who speak other languages–– whether it's French or Italian, you know. So it's like, “Oh no, fuck that shit, I'm going to make sure that I'm putting it out there in the way that I speak. The way my people speak! Also, I grew up code switching, but there's a liberation in not caring anymore. There’s a liberation in being like, “This is how I'm going to speak. This is how it feels right and I'm not going to let white supremacy sneak in the backdoor and colonize me with my own consciousness.”

Anthony: Wait, yes! In what instances would you say you would code switch? Because I totally know what you mean. I grew up doing the same.

de Jesús:  When I was a kid, I always had diverse friendship circles, but I was in the theater, which is a whiter space. That was fine, but I didn't realize that there was a part of me that felt unsafe. The first musical I ever did was in a really wealthy town next door to my hometown and there were these two girls who used to make fun of me. Nothing had happened, there was no beef, but I was this chunky kid with mad acne and I was poor. I used to come in wearing my matching mesh basketball jersey set that I bought in the Bronx. I would hear them talking smack about me, and I remember thinking, “this must be important to me”—this being performing in theater—“if doing this show makes me not care about the smack that they're talking about me.” I knew that there was a power in that. I fell in love with theater and the bullying didn’t stop me from enjoying and participating in that. I do think that there was something there that made me go, “Oh, you have to navigate differently.” It was all very subconscious. It's funny because over time, I'm not performing my code switch, it just naturally has become a part of me. Sometimes I speak a certain way and it presents one way, and then I speak another way and it sounds and presents a different way, and they’re both authentically me, but there's a part of it that was created.

Anthony: Your friendship with Andrew’s character Jonathan in Tick, Tick to me rang true. The chemistry between you two really knocked the ball out the park when you were acting opposite each other. What was it like creating this real relationship for the screen? How did you ensure that it felt real?

de Jesús: You know, it kind of happened naturally. I'm a very touchy, feely person and I'm that way with my straight guy friends too. 

Anthony: I think It's a cultural thing ‘cause so am I.

de Jesús:  Yeah! I would agree! I'm like, “If you're gonna be my straight guy friend, you're going to know that I'm going to be kissing you on the cheek, I will be hugging you, I'm going to hold your little face.” That's just part of it, I make sure that my people know I love them.

The people that I roll with, we’re expressive that way. I have that intimacy with straight male friends of mine, but what was funny is that Andrew's the same way. Andrew's very loving and he loves his gay community. He’s very respectful of us, but there was something that happened on the second or third day of the table-read where Lin [Manuel Miranda], he and I were just going in, breaking down the scenes and finding every beat that we possibly could.

That day we realized–– whoa, there's so much happening between my character and Andrew’s. He said it, he named it first, while we were feeling it. He said, “Wow, there's another love story here.” There was something about naming it that, that just elevated it in this new way. A lot of it, like the touchy feely-ness and that intimacy just kind of happened and then Lin would come on set and be like, “Keep that, keep that moment where you touch his face, or the kiss on the cheek.” It was very collaborative, and totally happened organically. To the point where it wasn't until after the movie that Andrew and I were like, “Yo, we're modeling friendship for young, straight boys and young gay boys to know that it's actually totally okay for them to be each other's ride or die, and it not be a sexual thing.”

Anthony: Yes! It’s chill!

de Jesús:  It's so chill! I think some people don't even grasp it or don't even acknowledge that it's a huge component of the story, because it's so organic between us. Yo, my brother, Andrew and I, when we would get in a zone, it was so fun and so present, the way in which Divinity and Jonathan would present themselves in our space together. He and I could look at each other and we wouldn't even have to say it, but we knew spirit was present. We were very aware that whatever scene and whatever location we were at shooting our scene, that that location went from a location to church. It became church! 

Anthony: Y’all are killin’ it, I love it so much! Obviously I know you're not promoting The Boys In The Band, but I want to talk about it. I watched it on the plane ride to LA right around when it came out and I was literally mesmerized. I was like oh my gosh, this is the best movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life! I was just up there in the sky, feeling so represented. I texted my cousin and told him it felt like I had just watched all my past, present and future gay lives.  I just thought it was such a beautiful story, it was so layered, and your character was a standout. I know people have to tell you that all the time. I saw on an Instagram caption that you said how you were excited to infuse the role of the film with what you learned and the growth you had gone through while doing the Broadway play.. I am so curious as to what that growth was for you?

de Jesús:  So—rehearsing the Broadway play had been very difficult for me, and I have to say finding that character was the most difficult job I've ever had in finding a character. It was frustrating because I knew everything was on the page, but there was something that wasn't clicking with me. My process was  dragged out longer than I was comfortable with at the time. It was nice that when we got to the film, I knew this guy inside and out, but being in a new medium, it also allowed me to be present and receive any new information as it came in. I think honestly the biggest thing for me—yes, there are technical things that I changed for the medium and that I had to focus on—but the big thing was I leaned more into the fact and the awareness that Emory came from a different background than those men. I know in theater people didn't always know, I'm really fair skinned, I’m a light-skinned Afro Latino. In certain spaces, especially in theater from far back, I can pass as white, so not everyone saw that I was othered in this other way within the group. On camera, you definitely noticed it more. It's an energy thing, I didn’t want it to be just my intention internally, I wanted to make sure that you never lost sight of the fact that I was a Latino in a period piece.

Anthony: Yes! And I didn’t... at all. I instantly held on to that character when watching because he was my way in. I felt like I was holding hands with him the entire time [laughs].

de Jesús:  Word! I wanted to make sure that you saw that and I wanted to lean more into the complexity of being a problematic light-skinned person. Being a problematic light-skinned person who then makes jokes at the expense of the darker person in the room, the black folks in the room, and just using that social currency.

Anthony: Really amazing stuff, honestly. I love that movie, I’m watching it in my head as I'm talking to you. I feel like all great actors learn from all the roles they play. What do you think you took away from this most recent role of Michael in Tick, Tick, Boom!

de Jesús:  I'm embarrassed to say this because I had never heard it worded until my best friend, Dominic Colon who is a beautiful, beautiful, playwright, actor born and raised in the south Bronx, also Puerto Rican. Were doing a reading of his play, The War, at the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater Company like a month and a half ago. We were doing a talk back and his play is all about centering black and brown folks, women included, poor and working-class black and brown folks in the HIV narrative that was colonized by white gay men, it’s the beginning of a trilogy. He lost his aunt and uncle to AIDS and then his cousin was born HIV positive. Thankfully, she's still with us to this day, she’s 38 years old, she's married to a negative man that has a child and everyone's healthy, it’s beautiful. We were leaning into the idea of the elders that we never got to meet. It was the first time I realized, yo, as queer Latin-x folks, we never got to meet our elders. We never got to meet our role models. So now I feel like in some strange way, people in my age group up to the fifties, and sixties, it's like, we've become the elders, or we're becoming the elders and we're modeling for others. So with Tick, Tick, I really, really wanted to make sure that I was honoring all those ancestors who never got to be seen in 1990. All those ancestors who were erased. Now we’re inserting them back in and giving them space. I mean, when I think about the AIDS epidemic and the amount of black and brown folks and the lesbian death doulas that helped gay men go out with dignity, it's like, I don't always want to lean into the stories about HIV and AIDS with such weight and consistently be in this state of like trauma. But I do think that there are folks that haven't gotten their flowers that deserve them. I do think that we have to figure out how to address them healthily and I think part of that is having diversity in all other ways. Not just having all gay stories be traumatic, but also having gay romantic comedies, or just stories where people just happen to be gay.

Anthony: Chill stuff, just regular stuff.

de Jesús:  Chill stuff, yes. Heal stuff!

Anthony: I love that and you totally did do that for the film. You succeeded. These final questions are really simple. What was the first Broadway show you saw?

de Jesús:  Ragtime.

Anthony: Amazing. 

de Jesús:  Oh, I lied, I lied, I’m a liar. That was the second, it was Les Mis.

Anthony: Classic.

de Jesús: Classic. I do love me some Ragtime though.

Anthony: What is the first thing you think about most mornings?

de Jesús:  Hmm… What are my intentions today?

Anthony: Nice! So healthy. What's the last thing you think about most nights?

de Jesús:  I hope I sleep. That really is it! [laughs]. I hope I get a good night’s rest.

Anthony: What's your perfect New York City day? I feel like this is a perfect question for you because you feel kind of like a New York city icon to me.

de Jesús:  I will receive that, thank you so, so much. A perfect New York City day involves some good chill music, a walk through the park. Something to get me in a really chill mood, how about that? I especially love a perfect fall day walking through the park when the saxophone players in New York City decide, “Our hustle starts now,” and they set up in a random corner under a tunnel or a tree. You know what I'm talking about? Those days in New York City, it's one of my absolute favorite vibes. Then go home and just cook a good warm meal, pop in some, Hector Lavoe, Ella Fitzgerald, or Frank Sinatra on the record player and some good tranqui music. Maybe learn some lines if a good audition came in, catch up with the fam, chill with my friends. It's always breaking bread, socializing, finding ways to be creative, and enjoy the present moment.

Anthony: I'm obsessed with your Spanglish. It’s inspiring me to embrace mine more. Last one is, what’s your favorite place in New York? It might be a hard one, it's such a big city, but I feel like every New Yorker has a place that—for example they take all their visiting friends and family to. I would always take my friends or anyone that visited to the same restaurant.

de Jesús:  To the same restaurant?

Anthony: The same restaurant!  

de Jesús:  It's funny ‘cause I actually haven't done it this year since coming back, but the first thing that came to me is a walk down the Writer's Walk in Central Park, down to the fountain.

Anthony: That's really nice and quintessential in New York.

de Jesús:  It really is. It always just makes me feel all romantic and it's also partially because of all those movies we grew up watching as kids.

Anthony: Like every possible scene is filmed there.

de Jesús: Yeah, but also I will say this. I love a day in New York of just stopping by on the side of the road, grabbing some quenepas, seeing who's selling Mavi, and passing by Brisas Del Caribe. That's another option for the day too.

Anthony: I love it, and alternate. Alright, well, this was honestly such a great conversation. I'm so glad we spoke. I’m honestly so pumped for everyone to see the movie and I hope it resonates with them as much as it did with me.

de Jesús: Thank you, Dio, I really do appreciate it and I appreciate the good questions and getting me out of the usual ones that I've been doing. well. It's nice stimulation for me.

Anthony: I’m king of asking good questions, so I appreciate the compliment. You're killing it. I'll talk to you soon, alright?

de Jesús: Alright! 

Photographed by Jason Rodgers

Written by Dio Anthony