Nobody can caress a butcher-block table like Robin de Jesús does in Tick, Tick…Boom! “I made love to that table,” the three-time Tony nominee says with a laugh. “I loved that table so hard, there’s gonna be three tables by the end of the night.”
That brief furniture frottage neatly encapsulates de Jesús’s role in the film, which is based on an early one-man show by late Rent composer Jonathan Larson. Netflix’s movie stars Andrew Garfield as the future Pulitzer winner; de Jesús plays Michael, his best friend. In someone else’s hands, the character easily could have been the dull yin to Jonathan’s electric yang. In de Jesús’s, he’s a scene-stealer.
According to director Lin-Manuel Miranda, who was also de Jesús’s In the Heights costar on Broadway, most actors auditioning for Michael played him as a stuffed shirt trying to blend in to a white, corporate world. “I didn’t want that,” de Jesús says. “I feel like we’ve seen that story. I’m curious to see the person in the ’90s who didn’t bend, who still kept their swag, essence, flavor.”
But Michael does represent a path not taken for de Jesús: the creative person who, unlike uncompromising Jonathan, swaps a life in theater for more stable work. In de Jesús’s own career, “I definitely have had moments where I was like, ‘Yo, am I gonna peace out right now?’ ” he says. “But as a queer person of color who’s into storytelling and performance, there’s also so much beauty and joy and community” to be found in acting. “So that’s been the lifeline that brought me back. And also the fact that there ain’t shit else I can do.”
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