Moulin Rouge! Standout Ricky Rojas on His Connection to the Baz Luhrmann Film, the Scandalous Way He Met His Wife & More

How wonderful life is for Moulin Rouge! The Musical standout Ricky Rojas. The triple threat is rocking a mustache and wowing audiences with his moves in the steamy number “Roxanne” as Santiago, the pal of Christian (Aaron Tveit) who brings him into the Moulin Rouge’s world of splendor and eye-popping excess in the new stage dazzler. Broadway.com spoke with Rojas ahead of the show's opening on July 25 about doing a school musical to meet girls, watching his Australian friends on the big screen in the Moulin Rouge! film, and his own love story.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker
Born in Chile and raised in Australia, Rojas grew up attending an all-boys Catholic school down under. "I was a prefect. I was a goody goody. I wasn't a troublemaker. I wasn't the bad boy," he says. This didn't mean Rojas didn't find the occasional loophole: "I've been singing in front of my family ever since I was little. I used to use the excuse to sing to get out of class. They used to let me organize group singing session and things like that," he recalls. "We did a production of Fiddler on the Roof. It was with the girls school next door, so I thought, ‘Do I do sports, or do I do the musical where I can interact with the girl school?’ I ended up doing the musical. That was when the bug got me."

Call Waiting
Whether they're rewarding, weird or just plain boring, survival jobs are something most actors have to take at one point or another. Rojas describes one he had many years ago as "soul-destroying." He continues: "I was in telephone sales. It was in London, and they liked actors because we could read the script and deliver it. I ended up being quite good at it, but I died every day."

'Stache Life
On top of maintaining the physical stamina to perform eight shows a week, Rojas has something else that involves a lot of upkeep: Santiago's signature mustache. "It tickles. I've got a love-hate relationship with it," he says. "My wife hates it. I love it sometimes. It takes a bit of getting used to. It gets a bit lopsided. I can't tell if it's up or down sometimes. How is it? Does it look good? Great!"

Casting Call
Rojas has been waiting for a Moulin Rouge! musical ever since he saw the film on the big screen when it first came out in 2001. "It was filmed in Australia, so I had quite a few friends in it," he says. "I've been a big fan of Baz Luhrmann ever since he did Strictly Ballroom, one of my favorite films. I just never thought I'd be playing one of the parts in the musical from the film." But one of Rojas' buddies did and predicted he would make a great Santiago. "One of my friends clocked it. He saw the movie way before I did," Rojas says. "He was like, ‘That part is made for you. You are going to play that part.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, sure. All right.’ And it happened!”

Perfect Fit
While Rojas is here on Broadway, he is far from his wife, Natalie, and 10-year-old son, Rafael: "They're in France at the moment. We've just recently moved to France to the Loire Valley. We're in the process of setting up shop there, which is quite exciting," he says. Theater was actually what brought him and his wife together. "She left the arts and worked for bank for many years, but she was my dresser in my first show. It was quite the scandal."

Photos by Caitlin McNaney | Video directed and edited by Kyle Gaskell