Daphne Rubin-Vega - Rent movie

[Gothampc]

On Netflix, the biography of Daphne Rubin-Vega says she didn't do the Rent movie because of a pending pregnancy. I thought the reason was that she would look too old for the part on screen. Has anyone else heard the pregnancy story?

[Jordan Catalano]

There's truth to that. But you probably just don't like her because you're a racist and all around bigot.

[Jon]

It was laughable on stage in 1996 when she said she was 19. Ten years later, in close-up, it would have REALLY been ridiculous.

[FindingNamo]

Actually, it was Roger with the bad eyesight.

[ClydeBarrow]

Because everyone else looked like a spring chicken in that movie?

[Gothampc]

"Actually, it was Roger with the bad eyesight."

Well if he had listened to the Sister and not done so much wanking, he wouldn't have lost his sight.

[FindingNamo]

I didn't realize he went to Catholic school. Were there hints in the text?

[Jordan Catalano]

There's that thing about his priest giving him AIDS.

[Gothampc]

For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. Psalm 18:28

[FindingNamo]

^ LOL

[My Oh My]

I caught most of the OBC still in place when I saw Rent on Broadway for the first time in July, 1997. Only Idina Menzel and Daphne Rubin Vega had left the cast by the time I saw it at the Nederlander.

Got $20 front row, center orchestra lotto seats for a return engagement of the show to Los Angeles that starred Daphne Rubin Vega reprising her role as Mimi. I couldn't have been any closer to the action onstage, and the very first thing that came to mind the moment Daphne appeared onstage was, "sh*t, she REALLY does look like a 16-ish year old!" She had significantly outgrown that very youthful look shortly afterward.

That was in 1999.

[finebydesign]

"Because everyone else looked like a spring chicken in that movie?"

The only good in that movie were the replacements. Tracy Thoms and Rosario Dawson were great and fresh. That movie may have made some money if they had Justin Timberlake and youth it in.

[Sinfonia2001]

what biography? wnats the title?

[Gothampc]

On Netflix, some actors have bios next to a list of all the film Netflix rents. Below is Daphne's.

A Tony-nominated actress and singer who launched her career on the dance-club charts, Daphne Rubin-Vega was born Nov. 18, 1969, in Panama City, Panama. Before becoming a solo artist, she was the lead vocalist for the Latin freestyle group Pajama Party.
Although Rubin-Vega is best known for originating the role of Mimi Marquez in the original Broadway production of "Rent" (1996-97), she was replaced by Rosario Dawson in the 2005 film version because of a pending pregnancy. In 2010, Rubin-Vega earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for reprising her stage role in Jack Goes Boating, a relationship-driven character study that also marked co-star Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut.

Rubin-Vega's other notable theater credits include "Anna in the Tropics," "The House of Bernarda Alba" and "Les Misérables." She also appears briefly in Sex and the City: The Movie 2008.

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Having the old cast members didn't help at all, but the director's vision was so so so bad that it ultimately didn't matter who was in the cast. Rubin-Vega dodged a bullet with this one.

[My Oh My]

I know it's popular to say the original cast members in the film looked like they were just about ready to check into the local retirement home, and I admit to chuckling heartily at such commentary because it's clearly in jest and the wild exaggeration is so ridiculous, it's funny.

But every now and then someone marches into these threads with flat affect and announce, "The OLD cast didn't halp. Nuh, uh. They did not."

And I have to wonder, "Their idea of "old" is seriously looking like you're in your 30s?" "With the exception of Mimi, why do they think those roles are limited to spring chicken?"

"Do they really not get that the film version was an ADAPTATION of the stage musical? And that the actors being in their 30s, while their characters are of an undetermined age, does not make them 'too old' and their casting not somehow 'wrong'?"

"Don't they realize they are merely repeating things perceived to be popular, not offering a shred of support, and not knowing why they even repeated that in the first place?"

Nope. I suspect they don't.

OK, I'm officially nuts. Only you lot can make me begin to talk to myself on an internet message forum. *dies*

[Gothampc]

But one of the criticisms of Rent was: "Stop your whining and get a job so that you can pay your rent!". If the characters are in their 20s, the audience can pass it off as youth trying to find their niche in life. If the characters look like they are in their 30s, the audience wonders when they are going to stop dancing on tables and get on with their life.

[Bettyboy72]

I think RENT is about youth-young bohemians at a precipice in their life-people in their mid 30s look too old on screen.

Yes, they aren't the cast of Cocoon, however they read way to old to convey that sense of discovery, living versus dying and hope versus despair. The movie screen (and now HD cameras, video, and TVs) are unforgiving.

You need to hire young to get that believability on screen. They would have been better off peppering the cast with a few names (Timberlake, XTina, Britney, Pink, Kelly Clarkson) and some young newcomers to make it look fresh.

It was day old before it was even released. Pascal, who looks so fresh faced and youthful in person looked like he had a facelift in the movie (the long hair aged him) and Rapp looks so tired.

The casting and direction were so bad for such a wonderful musical that got killed as a film.

[luvtheEmcee]

What year is it again?

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

I should say I mean I old in the context of the show, not old in real life. They were just too old for their roles. The show has a sense of urgency that might appeal to all the ages but is specifically rooted in a 20s sort of mentality, the whole "finding yourself" process and "no day but today" mentality resonates with everyone but it comes from a sensibility that manifests itself very differently when you are older. The cast members from the original cast might have been able to capture that with a better director or if they had been better actors (I don't think Adam Pascal could be a good film actor regardless of the director or age), most of them look like they are at the age where most people are getting married, having kids, etc. I was 20 when that movie came out and I can say for me it never felt like those people were capturing people my age, it felt like older actors trying to capture people my age, much like Corey Monteith in GLEE.

[Jon]

Her bio says "pending pregnancy". Does that mean they offered her the role, but she turned them down because she knew she was GOING TO BE pregnant?

[THDavis]

This has the potential to sound terrible, but I think the idea of the characters being in their twenties (especially most in their young twenties) brings about a very heartbreaking angle of people very young in life who are dying and losing those very close to them. I'm not trying to say HIV/AIDS isn't heartbreaking at all ages, but I think that playing that angle at a very young age was meant to hit everybody as hard as possible into embracing the "No Day But Today" theme of the show.

[Gothampc]

Also, as we grow older our perspective changes. We put more emphasis on having the need to accomplish something and less emphasis on just hanging around.

I remember watching the original Tales of the City when it first came out and thinking the characters were so interesting.

I recently rewatched it and was surprised how much I disliked the characters. Mouse is just hanging around looking for a sugar daddy not really putting any effort into finding a purpose in life. Mona quits a really good job and then wants to sponge off her rich model friend. Brian is educated as a lawyer but has crashed out of that career and just looking for his next lay. Mary Ann is the sensible one who finds a job and volunteers at a suicide hotline but all she gets is mocked as being the "square".

The characters in Tales of the City are much like in Rent where you just want to say "Do something with your life. Make it count!"

[luvtheEmcee]

This has the potential to sound terrible, but I think the idea of the characters being in their twenties (especially most in their young twenties) brings about a very heartbreaking angle of people very young in life who are dying and losing those very close to them. I'm not trying to say HIV/AIDS isn't heartbreaking at all ages, but I think that playing that angle at a very young age was meant to hit everybody as hard as possible into embracing the "No Day But Today" theme of the show.

I don't understand how that sounds terrible. That's just the point - characters have always been meant to be young (20s, probably early 20s) and I have always found it that the younger the cast (within reason, I do not ever want to see teenagers doing Rent), the more heartbreaking the experience. Not that death from AIDS at ANY age isn't terrible and heartbreaking, of course, but the stories in Rent on the whole have a certain power to them when the cast is younger that they don't necessarily when they are older -- and I don't think that's JUST about loss and death, either.

That wasn't very articulate. Whatever.

[Broadwayboy2631]

She's pretty open about the fact that, while she was sad to miss out, she thinks that she would have been laughable in the Rent movie. I, personally, think that, if she was age appropriate. She probably would have delivered one hell of a Mimi on screen. She's a great film actress, and probably would have benefited from... a little of sound mixing in the recording studio

[SporkGoddess]

A lot of movie critics actually mentioned the cast being too old as one of the reasons that they disliked the film. They said that the whole anti-conventional attitude that you see in RENT is something that is expected in younger adults, but in people in their 30s like most of the cast was, it's irritating and you want to say "Just get a job already."