Hamilton's America Page #9

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the room where it happened

No one really knows

how the game is played

The art of the trade,

how the sausage gets made

We just assume

that it happens

But no one else was in

the room where it happened

-A lot of that debate

was not really

a debate

about central banking.

It was a debate about power.

-The federal government came in

and bailed out the states.

And so I guess, in that sense,

it was the first bailout.

- Alexander Hamilton

- What did they say to you

To get you to sell

New York City down the river?

- Alexander Hamilton

- Did Washington know

about the dinner?

Was there presidential

pressure to deliver?

-On paper, what looks like

a very dry history lesson,

Hamilton traded away New York

as the capital

in exchange for

the passage of his debt plan.

[ Pretends to snore ]

Um, but if you tell it from

the perspective of Aaron Burr,

who is watching all these people

leapfrog past him into power,

it's a thrilling

dramatic moment,

and it's also

the turning point for Burr

to stop hanging back

on his heels

and lean forward and say,

"I want in on this life."

- I -- I wanna be in the room

where it happens

The room where it happens

-He's a super-fan of the arena.

He's watching Hamilton

in there making things happen.

And this is the moment

where he decides,

"Oh, my God,

I got to get in there."

- I've got to be

- In the room

where it happens

- I've got to be

- In the room

where it happens

- I've got to be

- In the room

where it happens

I got to be I got to be,

I wanna be

In the ro-o-o-o-m

- The room

where it happens

- Click, boom

[ Music stops ]

[ Birds chirping ]

[ Piano plays

mid-tempo music ]

-It's picturesque in a way

that words

can hardly describe it.

Every corner of this place

has another essence of calm.

It's beautiful.

Washington had been serving

for 45 years of his life,

and he wanted to return home

and actually enjoy

the fruits of the labor

that he had invested in --

in the building

and the establishing

of the government itself.

Washington is revered as

the father of our country,

but our understanding

of history goes awry

when we only seek

or care to listen

to one part of a story.

From the moment I knew I was

gonna be playing Washington,

it was the first thing

that came into my mind --

the slave question --

the reality of the fact

that he owned people.

I'll never make peace with it.

I tried to, till I stood

in the slave quarters,

and there's no way

to reconcile that.

If anything, it brings

to bear the entire truth

of who this man was.

And some parts are ugly.

Some parts are abhorrent.

But there's nothing that

I can do to change those things.

And there's nothing

in my portrayal

that would suggest

that we forgive any of that.

-You can't pretend that

they didn't do things, right?

I mean, there was a country

that was founded,

and we're sitting here.

There were great things

that were done,

but there were terrible things

that were done.

And for me, the best thing to do

is to see both of them.

-Look at Jefferson.

You know, Jefferson wants to --

this myth around

the yeoman farmer.

Wow. Easy

for a slaveholder to say.

-The interesting thing about him

is that he is the author,

the principal drafter

of this document that says,

"All men are created equal,"

and that is a paradox.

-You don't have to separate

these things with Jefferson.

He can have written

this incredible document,

and several incredible documents

that we all sort of --

with things that

we all believe in.

And he sucks.

You know, I think

those are both true,

and those have to be both true.

I think we really have

to stop separating them,

because that's where

you get into trouble.

That's when you stop

letting people be whole people.

I disagree politically

with a lot of rappers

that I listen to.

You know what I'm saying?

There's sort of rampant

misogyny and homophobia

in a lot of rap music.

That doesn't make them

less brilliant rappers.

They're both true.

-These are not perfect people.

These are deeply flawed people.

But they made contributions,

and I think what this means

is we have to acknowledge,

right now in the 21st century,

how much of what we have today

is built on the backs

of people whose contribution

never gets acknowledged.

-What we're trying to do

with the cast

and the larger gesture

of this show is say,

"Here's a group of people that

you think you can't relate to.

Maybe we can take down

some of those barriers

and allow a reflection

to be truer."

-What I think is that

there's something

incredibly pure and fun

about the casting,

that our imaginations really

will let us take these leaps

and that we don't have to be

so closed-minded,

especially in the theater,

that it can be about --

It can be whatever

we want it to be.

- I anticipate

with pleasing expectation

That retreat in which

I promised myself to realize

The sweet enjoyment

of partaking

In the midst

of my fellow citizens

-Washington had

an extraordinary American life.

I think the most

extraordinary thing he did

was step down

from the presidency,

ensuring that

this American experiment

would continue without him.

By modeling

a peaceful transition

from president to president,

he puts us eons ahead

of every other

fledgling democracy on earth.

- George Washington's

going home

- Teach 'em

how to say goodbye

- George Washington's

going home

- You and I

- George Washington's

going home

- Home

- Going home

- George Washington's

going home

- History has its eyes on you

- George Washington's

going home

- Yeah

We're gonna teach 'em

how to say goodbye

- Teach 'em

how to say goodbye

- Teach 'em

how to say goodbye

- Teach 'em

how to say goodbye

- To say goodbye

- To say goodbye

- To say goodbye

one last ti-i-i-i-me

- One last time

- Ti-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-me

[ Crowd cheers ]

-I think it's so important

to take George Washington

off the pedestal.

These were real people

who lived and died.

I think one of the things

we really tried to do

with the show

is show them all as flawed.

There's no one who's --

There's no saints

in this show, not a one.

-It's really logical

to ask the question,

given all of the ways

in which he's extreme,

"What kind of a guy

was Hamilton?"

I would say to a lot of people

a lot of the time,

he was an arrogant,

irritating, ass...

-His big flaw --

his inability to shut up,

his tenacity, his drive --

they're all great

things in the war.

It's great when we see him

writing to Congress

and saying,

"We need more stuff."

But in the absence

of a common enemy,

that virtue goes inward.

They go from assets to flaws.

And that explains things,

like the Reynolds scandal.

This young woman,

Maria Reynolds,

shows up at

Hamilton's door one night.

She gives him

this sob story

about her husband

who abandoned her.

She asks him for money.

She needs his help.

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