Empire Records stars Ethan Embry and Johnny Whitworth have reunited, paying homage to the classic teen movie while also revealing something that links the character Rex Manning to Kurt Cobain.
The cult 1995 movie was centred around an ailing US record store and starred the likes of Liv Tyler and Renée Zellweger. It was recently reported that the film is being turned into a Broadway musical, set to premiere in 2020.
In the movie, April 8 is dubbed ‘Rex Manning Day’ after the character of an aging former heartthrob visits the store for a disastrous fan meet-and-greet.
Embry (who played Mark in the movie) took to Twitter to explain why they chose that specific date. “The reason we picked April 8th as the day to have the powdered/coifed Rex Manning visit Empire is because Kurt was found [dead] on the 8th of April, the day the music of the 90s lost its mascot,” Embry wrote.
Embry and co-star Whitworth (who played AJ) also reunited to act out a classic scene from the film that originally featured Whitworth and Rory Cochrane’s character Lucas.
The reason we picked April 8th as the day to have the powdered/coifed Rex Manning visit Empire is because Kurt was found on the 8th of April, the day the music of the 90s lost its mascot.#RexManningDay
— Ethan Embry (@EmbryEthan) April 8, 2018
Something silly – “What’s with today today”? It’s #RexManningDay w/ @EmbryEthan @johnnywhitworth shot by @SunnyMabrey #HappyRexManningDay #EmpireRecords #DamnTheMan ? pic.twitter.com/NYXab05DmY
— Johnny Whitworth (@johnnywhitworth) April 8, 2018
Embry also responded to the reports of an Empire Records musical, tweeting: “The original was borderline a musical with all that damn dancing in it. The only question should be, how much weight will @GWARofficial be pulling?”
A musical huh?
The original was borderline a musical with all that damn dancing in it.
The only question should be, how much weight will @GWARofficial be pulling?— Ethan Embry (@EmbryEthan) April 6, 2018
Many of the Empire Records cast reunited back in 2013. See a photo of that below.
20 years later..
Empire reunion.
Can you spot Warren?
Eddie?
Berko?
A.J.?
Mark with a C? pic.twitter.com/Z9dHY1Pejp— Ethan Embry (@EmbryEthan) August 9, 2013