Scandal, back-stabbing and betrayal – and that’s just in school
BEN PLATT tackles a voice he’s never played before in Netflix drama The
Politician.
The dark comedy series, created by Glee dream team Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, sees the Pitch Perfect star take the lead as Payton Hobart, a wealthy, egotistical student with ambitions to one day be US president.
But in his campaign for the White House, Hobart must first navigate Saint Sebastian High School, a political landscape brimming with ruthless rivals, sordid scandals, back-stabbing and betrayal.
Quite the training ground for a career in affairs of the state, you could argue. And an environment that’s entirely alien to Tony Award winner Ben, 26.
“I was immediately the good kind of scared, the scared I chase as an actor,” he says of receiving the scripts, which see Hobart think you were ever going to feel for,” he says of the piece, which also features big names Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Lange.
What about the subject matter in this somewhat politically-fatigued climate?
“I think the title is misleading in the sense that it is of course, on a surface level, about political discourse and high school as a microcosm for American politics,” he explains.
Humour is a key too, he says: “To discuss things that can sometimes feel like lecture fodder or a bit tedious – and make them funny, biting, satirical, entertaining and relatable for young people.”
Ben first showed his performing prowess at just nine years old, when he appeared in the Hollywood Bowl leg of The Music Man.
It was a taste of stardom that would later culminate in a standout casting as Elder Cunningham in the Chicago production of The Book of Mormon; a role that would lead to his ground-breaking turn as the title character in hit musical, Dear Evan Hansen.
Can he relate to Payton’s determination to succeed, then?
“I definitely relate to the one-track mind because I’ve been working since I was nine. I’ve always only wanted to do this and, similar to Payton, I was born with this inexplicable innate understanding that that’s what I was supposed to do without having to make a conscious decision.”
And his next move may see him return to high school once again, if the rumours of a Dear Evan Hansen film ring true.
“It will hopefully come together soon,” he teases, “but that would be the farewell to that time in life I think, and I hope people would forgive me for returning to it one last time for that particular character.”
Next Ben will shoot Richard Linklater’s big screen adaptation of the classic Stephen Sondheim musical Merrily We Roll Along, alongside Blake Jenner and long-time friend Beanie Feldstein.
The coming-of-age drama will top the director’s 12-year span on Boyhood.
“It’s surreal,” Ben says of his part in the project, which will be filmed over the course of 20 years.
“When [Richard] pitched the idea and led with the fact that he wanted Beanie and me in it together, playing roles that we’d always dreamt of, it seemed like a joke.
“It’s a dream come true to work with my best friend in a show that meant so much to us in our childhoods.”