Film

Aaron Tveit: The Overlooked Star of Les Mis

When I say, “A young, talented male actor in Les Miserables” I must be talking about Eddie Redmayne right? Wrong.

Aaron Tveit has been incredibly overlooked for his role as Enjolras in the recent film adaptation of Les Mis and I for one don’t understand how he can be ignored. Tveit gave the most convincing performance of the younger cast members and what has he gotten for it? Nothing!

With an impressive background in musical theatre and TV, the actor has played a recurring role in Gossip Girl, as Nate Archibald’s cousin Tripp. His many onstage roles include Link Larkin in Hairspray and Roger in a production of RENT alongside stars such as Nicole Scherzinger and Vanessa Hudgens.

As someone who had never seen any versions of Les Mis before seeing the film, I was amazed at Tveit’s portrayal of Enjolras, he sang perfectly and his acting was on point, right down to his facial expressions which really showed the passion and strength behind the character. He was really believable and I was entranced.

That’s not to say that the rest of the cast weren’t also incredible – they were – it just seems that where they have all been praised and applauded in the press, there’s been a distinct lack of coverage when it comes to Aaron Tveit. Although Enjolras is not necessarily considered a main character, his character is still key to the plot, as the man fuelling the want for revolution.

Even on their Oscars performance, it seems that Tveit was only seen on screen when he first walked on stage to sing his solo. After this, the cameras never showed him, at least not purposely in his own shot. Yet he gave one of the best vocal performances out of the cast.

I guess that my point is, sometimes the smaller cast members are just as talented, if not more so, than the bigger stars of the show, and that we shouldn’t forget about them just because they’re not in the most heartbreaking scenes of the movies.

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