when i used to listen to or watch the musical, i would fantasize about playing éponine. But now that i’ve seen how much amanda seyfried brought to her role, i’d love nothing more than to be a soprano and play cosette.

i think that the reason i don’t like ramin karimloo as valjean is because to me, he is the perfect enjolras.

i have a soft spot for the tac, but have to admit maguire is pretty far from my interpretation of enjolras … so now whenever i watch it, i pretend the real enjolras was sick that week, and combeferre built a buffybot-style replacement with a slightly malfunctioning personality chip.

recently, a friend of mine was talking about how she watched les mis for the first time at a friend’s house. i asked her how she liked it, and then what her favorite song was out of curiosity. she then proceeded to tell me that she had fallen asleep after, and i quote “anne hathaway’s death”. she didn’t bother to address the character by her name, which bothered me, but i was angry when she started to belittle the show, and then act as if she had known the entire plot, calling it ‘boring’. sorry, i didn’t realize that only watching twenty minutes of a show could give you a complete understanding, and you the right to make fun of it. i have never wanted to slap someone as hard as when i did then.

valjean’s willingness to pay any price to take cosette from the thénardiers always touches me, especially because of something my dad told me when i was about her age. he was tucking me in one night and said that he loved me so much, if i was ever taken from him he’d trade all the gold and jewels in the world to get me back.

as i’m french and didn’t see the musical before watching the movie, i was so scared it would distort the book. and it was perfect. the characters, the spirit, they kept it so true.

i hate it when éponine sings in ‘a heart full of love’. it completely ruins the moment.

my best friend / boy i love writes letters to all his close friends at the end of the year. last year, he also wrote one to his ex-girlfriend. she’d broken up with him, but he wanted to thank her one last time for the experiences they had together. when he had to leave early from the party where he was going to give it to her, he gave it to me to have me deliver it. though i really thought about not doing it, i gave it to her. as stupid as it sounds, i really felt like éponine in that moment. having the power to put an end to a relationship, but caring enough about that person’s happiness not to.

i was furious when i discovered that four lines of fantine’s death were cut from the us tour. then i realized that at least her whole song wasn’t cut, unlike cosette’s.

i despised anne hathaway before les mis. i rolled my eyes when i saw her in the trailer. but after i saw her performance as fantine, i have never wanted any actress to win an oscar as badly as i wanted her to. she 100% deserved it. the thing that truly convinced me to go from hating to loving her was the line “as they tear your hope apart” in i dreamed a dream. the raw, undeniable emotion and genuine torture in her voice is something i’d never seen before in any performance of the song. anne became fantine.

the way hadley fraser says “you have no chance; no chance at all. why throw your lives away?” is so genuinely remorseful and heartbreaking it just may be my favorite part. it’s as if he realizes these kids don’t quite wholly realize what they’ve gotten themselves into but knows he still has to do his job.

one of my best friends told me that i would be a great éponine and that i even look a bit like sam. it’s still the best compliment i’ve ever gotten.

i love anne and hugh’s chemistry. after i watched the movie, i looked up youtube videos and i saw the one where they did a duet at the oscars and then when anne sang a version of on my own to hugh at the oscars. honestly, i find it funny that they did all this before they got cast as valjean and fantine. then i saw them at the sag awards. their chemistry is undeniable.

after first being really put off my hadley fraser’s take on javert, i read an interview where he explained his javert as the brickish wolf with a human face. what i thought was histrionics makes so much more sense to me now, and in hindsight, his version of javert’s suicide is among the best i’ve seen and heard.

i think russell crowe’s javert is my favorite because he showed a true range of genuine emotion and made excellent acting choices that developed his character and showed the motivation for his suicide.