Nov. 18, 2005

You'd think being one of the few non-original cast members in the new movie version of the musical "Rent" would be a challenge, but Rosario Dawson doesn't scare easily. Dawson tackles the role of the HIV-positive heroin addict and stripper Mimi with gusto. Audiences know Dawson can act after seeing her in movies like "25th Hour" and "Sin City," but few fans know this girl can sing.

"At recess, I remember singing all the Ariel songs from 'The Little Mermaid,'" Dawson says. "It's really the only thing I wanted to do. Some kids wanted to be a ballerina, or a princess, but I've always wanted to sing and dance."

Dawson grew up in New York City, but even with her musical aspirations, the 26-year-old never saw the original production of "Rent," which opened on Broadway in 1996.

"I didn't have the money to see it," she says. "The only musicals I ever saw were on film. I really loved them, but it was sort of like that dream thing where I could never imagine myself actually doing that."

One of the reasons Dawson was so perfect for the part is that like Mimi, she had spent part of her life as a "squatter." As a child, Dawson and her family were squatters in Manhattan's lower East Side. Then, if a squatter set up residency in an abandoned building, it was illegal to evict them.

"My mom is so much of what Mimi could have been or was," Dawson says. "She was struggling and she moved into a building with no heat, water or electricity and thought that was better for her even though her family thought she was crazy. When we first moved in there was this huge gaping hole in the floor. We had an extension cord that went across the courtyard for the one refrigerator we had for the entire building. And that's how we lived until they built the place around us."

The conditions seem appalling, but as Dawson adds, "It was better than living in some railroad apartment with a slumlord down the block."

Like many New York legends, Dawson overcame her humble beginnings and can celebrate that she's a star in the movie version of one of Broadway's most beloved musicals.

"I'm grateful for what I have in my life and the opportunities I have and I'm grateful for that," she says. "I love Mimi, but I'm also glad I'm not Mimi."