Hello. Hi, welcome.
I'm Jonathan Larson.
What was it like to embody Jonathan Larson?
It was a dream come true.
It was a dream that I didn't know.
I even had that Lin woke up in me.
You know, it was like being reunited with
a long lost brother that I didn't know existed.
An artistic brother.
Someone that I felt I feel a real kinship with, and
I just feel honored that I get to attempt to honor him.
So it was enlivening.
And you know, being speaking with Jonathan makes you feel more alive.
It makes you feel more appreciative of
of being alive and makes you feel more aware of the sacredness of being alive.
And we have one life to live.
And while we're here, let's sing and let's love each other.
Let's create community and let's take care of each other.
I think he was someone
who was so heartbroken, by the way, that his community were being treated
at the time during the AIDS epidemic and how the government, the Reagan
administration, were being so kind of abusive and
restrictive and frustrating in terms of getting his community
the care that they needed in order to live, to live fully.
So, you know, he was a he was a warrior.
It was a warrior artist for the people that he loved.
Is there something about this character that will remain with you?
The love that Susan has for Jonathan, but the understanding that her dreams
and her passions are just as important putting herself first?
That is just taught me so much, I've learned so much
about the protection of oneself and one's
highest power, which is their art,
their creation, their connection to source and being a conduit of that.
That's going to stay with me forever.
Yeah, for me, I think
what's coming right now is like the self-awareness that Michael
has, the fact that he was able to clock the math and say, Hey,
I chose this career path and I'm not really happy in it.
It's not serving me.
So let me go. And it was it also wasn't serving him
because he was just dealing with, like,
you know, being a Latino man in the nineties in musical theater
and knowing that like whenever he came into the room, people call him one
better on me gay and all the other names that weren't here, you know?
And he was smart enough to know this is no longer serving me.
So I'm going to find happiness and and creativity in this other space.
And so that that that type of questioning and self-reflection
and self-defining of happiness is what I want to lean into and take away from him.
How do you prepare for a role like this?
Oh God. So in so many ways, I had a long time to do it.
I had to learn how to sing, play piano and brush up some dance skills
that were rusty.
And then there's immersion into Jonathan himself
and learning and finding all the footage and the images and his songs.
And, you know, talking to friends and getting all the stories and then,
you know, making my own interpretations and doing my own work.
And then by the time you get on set, the hope is, is that
you can let go enough to let Jonathan just kind of travel through you.
I was just ultimately the channel, the vehicle
for this incredible man to to have another chance at life.
And I was very, very grateful that his spirit
was able to come through on on every day that we shot.
It was a very magical, powerful thing Has working on this
film changed the way you see Jonathan Larson's work?
I think it depends.
For me, I think it's like that that Steven.
I love that feeling involved in that.
Jonathan was like so centered on love
and so centered on community and and like.
So giving to his people that he, as a white man and ally was like,
I see all these black and brown folks who need to be seen,
and I'm going to give them roles and I'm going to I'm going to give them space
and not just give them roles
and give them like meaty roles, layered roles, roles that are allowed
to be messy but are still deserving of our love and respect.
You know that that was like, just like one of the greatest gifts he's given us.
I think that working on this movie
has deepened my appreciation for Jonathan's work.
I was familiar with his work,
but I wasn't familiar with him in this intimate of a way.
And to see it and feel it
and hear it and taste it in so many ways,
I was able to relate to him.
It's like meeting your your idol. I got it.
I got a chance to kind of do that as as Andrew was channeling him.
You know, there's that saying like, never meet your idol
because it's not what you think.
And I feel like I had an opportunity to change that narrative in my mind
because I got a chance to do that and it made me love them that much more.
Yeah. Lin also always says that apparently Jonathan would like come up
with these little gifts and surprises for his friends,
like he was always aware of the things that they liked,
and he would like randomly do things for them or like, write them songs.
And so he was always just like, in that spirit, he was always like
centered in that spirit of like joy and celebration
and making his people just just happy, being selfless in that way.
We all know Lin as a composer and a performer.
What was it like to work with him as a director?
Working with Lin is like, It's fun, it's family.
It's joy, it's it's it's like reminding yourself why you do this.
We forget sometimes that when we were kids,
it was like, Oh, I'm auditioning for the play is called play.
We're supposed to play.
And then like somewhere in this business, like the
the mind games of it make you lose that.
And so it's so nice to return to a space where it is just that
it's like it's getting in touch with that childlike joy. Yeah.
And Lynn was able to create that space for us,
and I think that's a testament to who he is as a director and to see him shine
as a first time film director in this moment, holding that space is
is so sacred. And he was able to do it and execute it flawlessly.
You know, I imagine it's a same thing. He's a master.
He's like, is a total confident leader,
master of what he does, and he he loves what he does.
And he's a genius. He's an absolute creative genius.
So I would follow him to the ends of the Earth.
And what he did for me was he created a space where he was
my catcher in the rye, where he knew I knew that I could be totally free and.
Impulsive, spontaneous and play.
And I know that he wouldn't let me fall off the edge of the cliff,
that that was what it was and his insights into Jonathan
and his his connection to Jonathan became so.
My connection to Jonathan, it was all it all became one thing
and we were all there.
Every morning we would get together
and we would just try to honor John and have John lead as the North Star.
It was a privilege.