NEW YORK (AP) -- "Bohemia is dead," Taye Diggs' character proclaims disdainfully in "Rent." Now it's being reincarnated, with the film version of the long-running Broadway musical now in theaters.From director Chris Columbus (of the first two "Home Alone" movies and the first two "Harry Potters"), the film is extremely faithful to the Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning rock opera about friends struggling with drug addiction, AIDS, poverty and artistic expression in New York's East Village.Just before the show opened off-Broadway in 1996, its creator, Jonathan Larson, died unexpectedly at 35 of an aortic aneurysm. That strengthened the bond between its eight original cast members, six of whom reprise their roles in the film.Besides Diggs returning as the yuppified Benny, there's Anthony Rapp as aspiring filmmaker Mark; Adam Pascal as angst-ridden singer-songwriter Roger; Wilson Jermaine Heredia as drag queen Angel; Jesse L. Martin as Angel's professor boyfriend; and Idina Menzel as Maureen, the self-centered performance artist.Joining the cast are Rosario Dawson as junkie exotic dancer Mimi and Tracie Thoms as Maureen's lawyer girlfriend, Joanne. Pascal, Rapp, Heredia and Thoms snuggled with lattes on a big, comfy couch to discuss the leap from stage to screen.Q: What was your reaction when you heard there was going to be a "Rent" movie?ADAM PASCAL: It had gone through several studios and had been attached to different directors, the most of which was (with) Spike Lee. That project actually got to the screen test phase and literally the plug was pulled at the last minute. But we weren't a part of it.TRACIE THOMS: I was supposed to be a part of it.PASCAL: Were you?THOMS: I was supposed to be in the back, dancing on a table. I auditioned for him twice in 2001 and he loved me but he thought I was too young, so he was like, "I'm gonna try to put her in it somewhere."PASCAL: And then I hadn't heard anything about it until I literally got a phone call all at once saying the movie was happening, Chris Columbus was doing it, and he was really interested in having us be a part of it. ... I was amazed that it was being done, I was amazed that he was interested in us, I was amazed that it was him.WILSON JERMAINE HEREDIA: I didn't hear about it until the very last minute, because I was under a rock in Westchester (County) and I wasn't really paying attention to the media. I got a call from a friend and he said, "You know that Christopher Columbus is looking for you, none of us can find you, where the hell are you? ... My first question was, "Is Jesse doing it? How many people are doing it?"Q: Can we discuss why two of the original cast members didn't come back for the film? There have been various rumors.HEREDIA: Daphne Rubin-Vega (the original Mimi) was pregnant and the character also was age specific. She had to be 19 because Mimi is 19 years old. And with Fredi (Walker, the original Joanne) I think it was just a mutual agreement that she was most likely too old for the role, but it was all amicable. Director Chris Columbus (right, with Dawson) was determined to do the film with original cast members.Q: This thing that was so small and personal for you on the stage is now going to the big screen all across the country. Did you think it would translate?ANTHONY RAPP: I don't know that I was ever worried about that. I just wanted to make sure that it was done with the right intention. When I sat down with Chris at the first meeting, I just felt at ease within five minutes because of the way he was talking about it. I was asking him, "Well, what about 'La Vie Boheme,' and what about all of it?" And first of all, he said the statement that I don't think any director who's been as successful as he has been would make lightly -- which is, "This is the most important film I'll ever make."Q: It must have felt good that he was so true to the original material -- right down to Angel's Santa Claus suit.HEREDIA: It felt great -- also for me personally that he allowed me to really play with the character and to really move as the character. He trusted me -- he trusted all of us completely. Then again, I haven't worked with a lot of film directors.Q: Tracie, you were a huge fan of the show for a long time before you were cast in the movie. What about it spoke to you?THOMS: It affected me on so many different levels and at the time that I saw it I couldn't even comprehend what they were. I was just a sobbing mess in the balcony of the Nederlander (Theater) and I just couldn't figure out why I was so moved. I just thought they were all geniuses. ... But also just the story, on so many levels it helped me -- the passion that these people, the characters, were following their dreams, regardless of if they were starving or dying.Q: What was the hardest part of making the movie?HEREDIA: For me it would just have to be the heels. But really, in retrospect thinking about it, even that didn't really bother me. I was just so happy. It didn't really feel like work at all.THOMS: Also, Chris was just so smart for casting all these guys who had been living with the characters for eight years. And I had been auditioning for the character for eight years so I felt like I had been living with the characters for eight years, too. And Rosario grew up in the same situation these people were living in, so she's been preparing for it for her entire life.Q: "Rent" takes place in such a specific time and place -- one year from Christmas Eve 1989 to 1990, on East 11th Street between Avenues A and B. I know you've been asked this question before so I'm not going to ask you whether "Rent" is still relevant, but --RAPP: I am astonished to tell you, I read a thing today that somebody said online that AIDS isn't a big deal anymore. I'm paraphrasing, but I'm like, "What are you talking about?" I couldn't believe that anyone would have the audacity to make a statement like that -- that it doesn't mean the same thing that it did.THOMS: The numbers are astounding.RAPP: It's a part of our lives. And it's gone under the rug but that's not because it's not relevant, that's because people have turned their attention elsewhere.THOMS: And also because people aren't walking around with lesions on their faces anymore. People aren't just completely dropping dead. You have somebody like Magic Johnson who came out -- it was a big thing -- but he's still walking around, opening up Starbucks and movie theaters, and he seems like he's doing OK.HEREDIA: But AIDS is not the only issue or theme in the film. It's about community. It's about making sure that the people around you, letting them know every single day, that you appreciate them because you really don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. There are so many universal themes: It's about disenfranchised artists, it's about love, it's about loss of love. This is why it still rings true today.Q: OK, last question: Have you guys seen the movie "Team America," which features puppets performing in "Lease: The Musical"?RAPP: Yes, we watched that number again during rehearsal.Q: The "Everyone Has AIDS" song?RAPP: Yes, it's hilarious.Q: 'Cause the lead puppet looks kinda like Roger.PASCAL: Yeah, but he's also wearing a scarf, too, so he's like a combination of Mark and Roger.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.