Lin-Manuel Talks Finding the Sounds of MOANA and Why He'll 'Never Beat Robert Lopez' in New Interview

In a brand-new interview with TheWrap, composer, actor, and all-around nice guy, Lin-Manuel Miranda, discusses the ins and outs of his hit film, Moana, why Disney meeting are the best ("At the end of a three-hour meeting, you'll get five caricatures of yourself."), and his longstanding relationship to fellow composer, and fellow high school alum, "Frozen" and "Book of Mormon' composer, Robert Lopez.

On collaborating with Opetaia Foa'i on the indigenous sounds for Moana the composer said, "We had the great advantage of Opetaia - everything that comes out of him sounds like it's from that part of the world. Just like you hear New York in my work, you hear the Pacific islands in his work. If I wrote a song and turned it in and I'd made the mistake of writing the rhythms first, Opetaia would say, "That's too Caribbean. Definitely from the islands, but not my islands." So a lot of the time when we'd get together, we'd just get around drums and start vibing until Ope was like, "Yeah, this is the stuff."

When asked about his feelings on beating fellow composer, Robert Lopez, to an EGOT, the always humble Miranda replied,"I'll never beat Robert Lopez. We went to the same high school, Robert Lopez and I. His little brother was in my first musical, and he has been my role model my whole career. We were in the same talent show in elementary school. When I graduated college, he was working on "Avenue Q." I ended up working with the same producer on my first show, "In the Heights." While "In the Heights" was happening, he was working on "Book of Mormon." As I'm working on "Hamilton," he starts working on "Frozen." I'm just chasing Bobby Lopez my entire life."

Read the full interview here.