Welcome, Anthony Rapp! — Page 73

Okay Here's a question (and forgive me if this has been asked:

The other night, I went to Rent for the second time since seeing the original cast (It took me nine years to get up the "courage" to go and disassociate myself from the moving performances I had experienced back then). As me and my partner were walking in the doors, I had a thought that I expressed, and this thought is a question I ask you: Since leaving the show, have you attended a performance of Rent just for kicks? Or did you do the show so much that you never have/want to watch it again?

Oh, and another one...I have always admired performers who take the risk of coming out, and publicizing (I still have the cover of Metro with you and all other "Out" actors.) #1 - How risky was it for you, personally, in coming out, and #2 do you feel it Has helped/hurt your career in any way?

I have had several debates with my partner on this matter on a point/counterpoint level. I, personally don't want to hide who I am in this business because I don't care who knows, but I have seen so many careers go down because of it.

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Updated On: 1/20/05 at 07:05 AM

Cat, since your question has been asked before, I thought I'd post Anthony's previous response:

"I was wondering if you still keep in touch with any of the OBC of Rent.."

The people I've maintained the most contact with are Adam, Jesse, and Daphne. I'm also very close to Michael Greif. We're all very very busy, so nobody gets to see anyone all that often, but we are in each other's lives and always will be. And over the next several months, some of us will get to spend a lot of time together, which will be wonderful.

I was reading Sean Astin's autobiography (alot better then I originally anticipated) and he was talking about all the physical changes he had to make for certain movie roles. Probably the most popular example is the fact that he had to gain extensive wait to play Sam in Lord of the Rings. Which leads to my question. Do you (or the rest of the cast) have to make any physical changes to play your characters? I would imagine that the demand for a very specific look wouldnt be as large since this is based off a production that didn't require much in that area but you never know. Thanks.
-Mika

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Yeah for the stage production, no one expected much physical difference etc because it was a 2 hour show, only so much one can do in that little time. But for a movie the expectations are alot higher, especially since it spans over a year and some of the principle characters are suffering from a fatal illness that would surely take physical toll. Not to mention natural changes that would occur over the year. I know that over the years everyone has kind of gotten a very specific look into their heads based on how the cast looked in 1996 (ie: for Mark, short light blond hair, glasses etc) but will you be reverting back to that for the movie or just going with everyone's current looks and rely on the costumes to convey the "look."

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Mr.Rapp-

Is it true there is going to be sex and nudity in the movie of Rent because if there is i just lost a bet.

A Beautiful Mind is one of my favorites. I agree gotta love it. My mom always cries at the end of the film when he's receiving his Nobel and looking at Alicia. Always running to get her kleenex then. I started reading the book which was good(also for a project on schizophrenia) a lot of fun.

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Anthony - looking forward to your next update (no presure, we know you're busy!) I am hoping to hear if Taye and Idina have been able to join you yet.

Anthony, I've got a question! Slightly random, but a few of us have been wondering, so maybe you can put some truth to this. Anyway, we know there was a performance where RENT cast members did a cover of a U2 song (can't think of the name right now...) but there's some discrepancy as to whether that was the OBC or whoever was in the current cast at the time. Just a small thing that was bugging some of us. Thanks!

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I thought it was something like that. I was just going to make something up that might have been close, but then I thought that would be silly.

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Hello Anthony! I haven't had a chance to formally say hi yet, but thanks so much for your time and answers, we all love and appreciate it! I'm not sure if this question has been posed, but I saw you were in Man of the Century, and I was wondering what it was like to work with Susan Egan, if you did in fact get a chance to shoot with her at any point in the film making process. Thank you!

Yes Dream, Seymour does get eaten by Audrey 2 in the end.

I find the shock therapy scene difficult to watch for various reasons, but I completely understand why they had to be in there.

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As my boyfriend put it, the only reason that in the movie they didn't kill Audrey and Seymour was because Frank Oz wanted it to be happy and it wouldn't be so happy if they died. It was something like that, but it was funny.

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oopsies double post...

Updated On: 1/24/05 at 09:02 PM