For a man with an opportunity to join one of entertainment's most exclusive clubs, "Hamilton" mastermind Lin-Manuel Miranda was surprisingly disconnected from Tuesday morning's Oscar nominations.
Scoring his first Academy Award nomination with his song "How Far I'll Go" from Disney's "Moana," Miranda could become one of just 13 individuals to achieve an EGOT, winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
But Miranda wasn't bound up with anxiety over the possibility. In fact, he says he'd forgotten all about the awards.
Miranda is in London filming a sequel to the Disney classic "Mary Poppins" and was on his lunch break as nominations were announced.
"I was watching the Australian Open on tape delay and eating tandoori chicken," Miranda told The Times by phone. "Then my phone vibrated off the table.
"I still don't know if Federer won," Miranda quipped. (He did.)
Though the announcement of the nominations may have caught him by surprise, that's no indication of Miranda's excitement of being recognized by the academy.
"I'm not even a little jaded, especially about the Oscars," Miranda explained when asked if the acclaim from "Hamilton" has made accolades old hat for him.
"I'm that kid who used to memorize Billy Crystal's musical monologues where he'd make fun of all the nominated films," Miranda said. "I'm that dork. The fact that I'm going to get to go to the Oscars is actually a crazy big deal."
For Miranda, whose musicals have twice taken home the Tony for best musical ("In The Heights" and "Hamilton"), it's also a big deal to see Hollywood embrace its musical roots with its celebration of "La La Land."
"I write musicals for a living. That's my day job. Those of us who grew up in the '80s, we're nostalgic for the MGM period where the musicals would be up against all the other films and had a seat at the table with all the other genres," said Miranda. "I haven't seen 'La La Land' yet, but I'm thrilled for its success because that just means more. That means more musicals and more people who love this art form."
While he's disappointed he hasn't had time to see more of this year's crop of nominees, Miranda is anxious for that to change in the future.
"From what I understand, one of the perks of being nominated is you get to be a part of the academy and one of the perks of being part of the academy is screeners, so I'm really down for some screeners right now," Miranda laughed.
"So, you know, hook a brother up."
