Talking with Anthony Rapp & Vivian Kerr on Their Film 'Scrap,' and Rapp's OB Show 'Without You'

"Scrap," the new film written, directed, produced, and starring Vivian Kerr, centers on Beth (Kerr), a young single mother whose life begins to fall apart after she is laid off. She is determined to get it back on track, or, at the very least, convince her brother Ben (Anthony Rapp) and his wife Stacy (Lana Parrilla) that all is well.

The indie pic world premiered at the Deauville American Film Festival and had its U.S. Premiere at Cinequest and Southwest premiere at the Phoenix Film Festival.

At the core of this deeply affecting story is the complex sibling relationship between Beth and Ben, played by Kerr and Rapp.

This is Kerr's debut feature, but she's worked as an actor for over a decade, including TV roles in "Grey's Anatomy," "Rizzoli & Isles," "Masters of Sex," and "New Girl." And she has just completed principal photography on her second feature, "Séance."

Rapp is a theater, TV, and film veteran who started working onstage at the age of 10 in the Broadway show "The Little Prince and the Aviator" and would go onto star in the groundbreaking musical "Rent." His other Broadway credits include "Six Degrees of Separation," "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and "If/Then." He is currently starring in his off-Broadway one-man work "Without You," a show that takes audiences on a personal journey into the creation of "Rent," as well as delving into his loving relationship with his mother.

The queer actor's TV credits include, "The Knick," "The Good Fight," and five seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery." Onscreen he has been featured in, "Dazed and Confused," "Six Degrees of Separation," "A Beautiful Mind," and "Rent," among many others.

EDGE recently had a chat with both artists about "Scrap," "Without You," and their work.

EDGE: What initially inspired the idea for the film?

Vivian Kerr: I've always loved films about siblings. Two of my favorite films are "The Savages," with Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and "You Can Count on Me," the early Kenneth Lonergan film... I wanted to make a film about siblings, but I didn't really know what the story was going to be. Los Angeles had changed a lot in the last 10 years, and I've lived my entire adult life here. And I'd seen so many more people living in RVs, sleeping in their cars and it really affected me, and I thought it would be an interesting take on a story about a family who was sort of middle class where one of the siblings was slipping into that a little bit, and was too ashamed to tell their sibling.

EDGE: "Scrap" began life as a short. Can you take me through the journey from getting the idea to getting it made?

Vivian Kerr: Yeah, it was a long journey. [Laughs] When did we make the short? 2018?

Anthony Rapp: You're asking me about time? [Laughs]

Vivian Kerr: He has an infant now, time is, like, unreal. It was 2018 that we shot the short, it was a three-day shoot, and Anthony came for the last day. And I just thought we had really good chemistry as siblings... I really liked how he played Ben. And I already had the idea for the feature, so I ended up writing the feature with him in mind. And then in 2019, we were just doing a ton of festivals with the short, and it seemed like the audience was responding to the idea and was curious about this family and what was going on with them. Then I sat down [and] wrote the feature. Obviously, there was a little pandemic that happened. And then we shot it about 18 months ago, in August of 2021.

EDGE: Anthony, tell me about how you first came on board the short, and then was asked to do the feature?

Anthony Rapp: I really love working on independent films and creator-led projects. I've been lucky to do some big Hollywood things, but my heart, as a filmgoer and as an actor, are with these kinds of projects. So, when it came my way, it really affected me; it just felt resonant and honest. And I felt like I understood Ben pretty quickly. And... it's always a very nice thing to simply be offered something. It feels like an acknowledgement and a wonderful gesture... I don't think Vivian shared with me that she was working on a feature. I think I just got an email or a letter about it later.

Vivian Kerr: I think it was a year later, like, 'Hey, here's the script.' [Laughs]

Anthony Rapp: Yeah. And I was just really impressed with how much the expansion felt authentic and wonderfully complicated and alive. So, I immediately said, "Yes, we can make this work." And it did, it worked out perfectly, schedule-wise. So, it's just dreamy to me to get to do these kinds of projects.

EDGE: Vivian, were you always planning on wearing so many hats – directing, writing, producing, and acting?

Vivian Kerr: I've always loved writing, and I think a lot of times, as an actor, you start writing because you want to generate work for yourself, and you're not satisfied with what you're auditioning for. In my 20s there was a lot of me getting murdered or raped on TV... so out of that frustration, you start writing for yourself, for your friends to have something fun to do on the weekends. And then I got more and more serious about it as the years went on. Directing is something that I did always want to do, but I thought I would do when I was in my 50s or 60s. I suppose I thought I had to earn it – I needed more life experience before I was allowed to do it, which, obviously, in hindsight now, was just foolishness... I didn't direct the short film, I had a director come on board and she did a great job. But the process of doing the festival run made me realize the story is really important to me. And if I am going to write this full feature, this is this is going to be the project where I make that leap. And I'm so glad I did.

EDGE: Tell me about creating this authentic bond between Beth and Ben.

Anthony Rapp: We didn't really do a lot of chitchat about it, we just felt our way through... I think the most chitchat, if anything, was experimenting on the day with how intense the fights got or not, dialing it up or down, experimenting with those colors of it. But it just felt very instinctual and very easy to flow into it somehow.

Vivian Kerr: Yeah, to me, it just felt very natural... again, we only worked together one day on the short, but I was like, "I look at him and believe he's my brother. I like the way he's treating me as his sister. This is the dynamic I imagined!" Then... when I was fleshing out the feature script... it was written with me imagining him, so maybe that made it easier. But I had no concerns whatsoever about, "Oh, no, we're not gonna get a chance to rehearse." Rehearsals are lovely if you can do it, but you can't do it, usually, on a film this small. You just can't afford to.

EDGE: This is a question an only child would ask: Did you both dig into your own sibling relationships?

Anthony Rapp: To some degree. My siblings haven't been down and out. But I have an older sister – we've had some ups and downs over the years. It's not a direct comparison. But just that feeling of having this connection and understanding, and there's all the stuff that's unsaid and all the stuff that's part of the fabric of relationship and history. I think that was a little bit of a wellspring, even though there was nothing directly I couldn't point to. My sister and I have not had the kinds of fights Beth and Ben have. But [there's] that feeling of being so connected, and sometimes getting a little frayed.

Vivian Kerr: I have one sibling, one older sister, Marion, who's also an actress, who plays our mother in the flashback when the younger versions of us are listening to the records... Like Anthony was saying, when you do have siblings, and I'm sorry that you have missed this experience, they're the only other people or person in your life who understands what it was like to grow up in the house you grew up in, who understands what the dynamic was, who can help you... as you get older, look back and have perspective. And it's the most intimate bond outside of your intimate relationship with your partner, your husband. I think that's why I also have always been drawn to the movies about siblings.

EDGE: You've played at a few festivals now. How has that been going?

Vivian Kerr: Our first festival was so fancy. I didn't really know much about the Deauville American Film Festival. And I didn't know how the film would be received by a French audience or a predominantly European audience. And we had a completely full screening for the world premiere. And they loved it... I was really blown away by it. Honestly. What did you think?

Anthony Rapp: I think that the film has an almost European feel sometimes in the rhythms of it. So, it makes sense. As I was watching that film in Deauville, I was like, "Yeah, there's something about it. It's got a little bit of a dreaminess to it..." Sometimes American cinema's so hard-edged. And it just had a little more breadth. I wasn't so surprised once I was in that room with those folks. I'm certainly very gratified.

Vivian Kerr: [Laughs] We can only be understood by the Europeans! But then the U.S., like in Phoenix – we just had our Southwest premiere, and the Phoenix audiences were super into it, which obviously couldn't be any more different than the Deauville audience, so it's been really extraordinary.

EDGE: Anthony, I wanted to ask you about your off-Broadway show, "Without You." I had the pleasure of attending a few weeks ago. How has it been, going through those memories night after night?

Anthony Rapp: I'm spending time with something very, very precious. Even the painful memories are still really meaningful, so I feel really fulfilled by it. The response has been amazing. And I get to be home with our beautiful baby while I'm doing this work, as opposed to being up in Toronto, which is a nice city, where I do "Star Trek: Discovery." I feel incredibly fortunate.

EDGE: It's such a loving tribute to your mother and to Jonathan Larson. How long did it take you to put the show together?

Anthony Rapp: Well, it was a sort of a long journey in the sense that I first wrote the book, the memoir, and that took years because I would write a little bit and then have to bounce off of it because it was too hard. The book came out in 2006. And I never imagined doing an adaptation. Truly. And then I got encouraged to start thinking about it by someone that I didn't even know that well, but we had a passing conversation and that planted a seed... At the end of 2007 we first did a version of it. And we've done iterations over the years. This is by far the most fully-realized iteration and tightest version... I've always wanted to do a real run of it in New York. I'm very grateful that we finally got to do that. Also, with this time having passed, I actually feel I can approach it in a better way as a performer, as a person with the distance of time, too.

EDGE: Vivian, is it true that you've just completed your second feature?

Vivian Kerr: Let's not use the word 'completed.' Shot it. Yeah, we just started post-production on it, so we have a long ways to go. But yeah, we shot in December... another tiny feature called "Séance." It's a psychological thriller that takes place in the 1890s – so, very similar to "Scrap!" It's a little chamber piece. It only has four characters and takes place over one night in a really creepy old house. We'll probably be on post-production for the rest of this year. And then, hopefully, that'll come out in 2024.

EDGE: Exciting. Anthony, "Rent" went a long way towards queer visibility. Do you think the industry has taken bigger steps when it comes to queer people being able to play any type of role?

Anthony Rapp: I do think the industry has taken some good steps. I think there's still sort of the "Brokeback Mountain" effect that when actors like Heath Ledger – who was unbelievable in that film, I do not begrudge him at all – but when Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play these roles, they're applauded for being so courageous. That is still kind of in there a little bit. It's all a slippery slope. I do think there is extra meaning when openly queer actors get to play queer roles. I just do; the lived experience that people can bring to it, the authentic knowing that they can bring to it is meaningful, but on the flip side, people should be able to play all sorts of roles, in a certain sense. I do think that that we've absolutely crossed a Rubicon where cis actors cannot and should not ever play trans roles.

EDGE: Any word on a "Scrap" release?

Vivien Kerr: Not yet. We are working with a sales agent right now. We've gotten all these great reviews. We just got a whole bunch more out of Phoenix, which is lovely. Our sales agent's going to be taking all of that and bringing it to distributors. And hopefully in the next few weeks, we figure out who our distributor is going to be.

For more information on "Scrap," follow this link.

This interview has been edited for content.