If the Rent screenplay bastardizes Mark's character, then perhaps Rapp shouldn't reprise the role...
However, at 33, he's not too old. Mimi is defined as 19 but the other characters are considerably older (or so logic indicates). In fact, Jonathan Larson officially defined Benny and Mark as having been roommates during undergrad at Brown -- which means that they would have graduated at 22, lived together in the flat, climbed to career failure or success as Benny moved out and married, developed tension due to Mark and Roger's failure to pay the Rent over the last year, etc... with all of this in mind, Mark could reasonably be a character closer to his late twenties. Rapp can pull it off. I mean, he played a young TA in "Road Trip" and a Princeton student in "A Beautiful Mind" just three or four years ago. His older look now is "strictly" about hair. He hasn't developed wrinkles, put on weight or done anything else that would make it impossible for him to pass -- with costuming and makeup -- as a man of 26.
I'm more concerned about his on-screen chemistry with whomever plays Roger (not that he and Pascal didn't seem like an odd best friends couple) than I am about people thinking that he's too old for the character.
Last I checked, Matt Caplan was 24...
And considering that Joanne as a lawyer and Collins teaches Computer Age Philosophy, I'd think that their characters are both closer to (perhaps even a little past) thirty. Maureen and Roger are age-ambiguous. Let's just say that Mimi is the only character who absolutely must be played by someone who can past for 19.
Updated On: 9/3/04 at 01:34 AM
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