Anthony Rapp

Interview By: J.P. Mangalindan
JPMangalindan@TheCinemaSource.com

Anthony Rapp will be one of the first people to defend the casting of Chris Columbus' film adaptation of RENT. Contrary to naysayers, the 34-year-old singer/actor does not feel ' more importantly, look ' too old to revisit the character of filmmaker and video artist Mark Cohen.

'Entertainment Weekly went on record saying, 'What are they thinking' These guys are too old,'' he recalls. 'Most of the RENT-heads who were objecting hadn't seen us do it and they were just thinking that we were too old. There are two answers to that: 1.) I don't think you've seen us lately and I don't think we look too old. 2.) The ages are never stated, except Mimi's, which is 19.'

If skeptical RENT-heads want to get downright technical, Rapp will present you with a rough time character timeline. 'There's been a lot of stuff that's happened to these characters. You have to have been a few years out of college for Roger and April to have met, to have fallen in love, for her to have gotten sick, for her to have died, for Collins to have gone through whatever crazy things he's gone through, for Benny to have met Allison' All that stuff really has to have had time for it to have happened.'

End of story.

So, while Rapp joined fellow original Broadway cast members like Idina Menzel, Taye Diggs and Jesse L. Martin, several foreign faces cropped up also: the Sin-fully delicious actress Rosario Dawson came aboard as Mimi and Juilliard alum/actress Tracie Thoms stepped in as Joanne Jefferson, creating an exciting blend of blend of old and new. Rapp was confident in the source material, but jittery about the jump to the big screen.

'Every time I would think of it, I would feel a jolt of stress through my whole body because at that point also, it's out of our hands and I believed it was going to be good because of the experience in making it. In my history of making films, when it feels a certain way on set, it usually translates onscreen unless something really gets messed up in the editing room.' The family of deceased creator Jonathan Larson had seen a cut and was pleased; when Rapp finally saw the results for himself, he describes his initial reaction as mostly impressed. 'I was also mostly relieved throughout and then also moved by it because there's nothing I've done in my whole life that's meant as much as this.'

Was he surprised that things turned out well' After all, Columbus' directorial track record up to this point consisted of mostly standard kiddie fair like Adventures in Babysitting (a cult favorite Rapp starred in during his teens with Elisabeth Shue) and the first two Harry Potter films. Not so much, especially after he observed the effect the movie had on some of the film's 'hardened' crew.

'When I say hardened, they weren't one-eyed kind of guys,' he says with a chuckle. 'They were crew guys, union guys from San Francisco. Many had never heard of the show, never heard the music, but they started falling in love with it during the shooting process and said amazing things. At one point during the editing or shooting, we had this little promo CD/DVD that the editor put together; we started showing it to guests on set. We were very excited about it because you could just tell there was just so much life in it and the cinematography was beautiful. It was definitely this kind of viral thing happening on the set. Hopefully it's going to be the same thing that happens when people see the film.'

On his talented castmates, Rapp has nothing but kind words to say, particularly about Menzel, the wife of fellow cast mate Taye Diggs, and Martin.

'Idina's becoming deservedly famous for being so incredibly talented ' and not just for being a pretty white woman. The fame is very directly linked to her talent, especially because of Wicked [The Broadway Hit] and her connection to her fans.'

And Martin'

'I predict that if this movie's a hit, that one of the things people will be talking so much about is Jesse blowing people's minds. They never would have thought that in a million years that he could smile as beautifully as he smiles, let alone sing and dance the way that he can sing and dance and have as much light and joy and charisma and love in him. That's not what he's asked to do in 'Law & Order.' He's really great in that show, but it doesn't begin to scratch the surface of what he's capable of.'

Just because RENT is in theaters, doesn't mean Larson's legacy ends there. Several projects are in the pipeline for Rapp and company including a 10th anniversary concert performance of the musical in April. Rapp himself has a book due out end of January. 'Without You' chronicles Rapp's fulfilling, if tumultuous period while performing RENT in 1996. Though he'd found professional success and recognition, his personal life wasn't so lucky: his mother was losing a battle with cancer.

'It's a memoir of these two incredibly life-changing experiences and I just tried to be very honest about the all of the different aspects of going through both of these things,' Rapp says. 'One of the things I hope to accomplish is provide some sort of comfort, some kind of mirror, for young people who have lost a parent. ' It's not meant to be some How-To book on how to deal with grief or loss, but people certainly seem interested in hearing what that was like.'

With the musical behind him and the film version in the can, it feels like the end of an era for Rapp.

'In some ways the chapters are closing, but in some ways, it's a whole new chapter that's just beginning, which is really incredible. I never would have predicted it.'