Perfect pitch leads Platt to ‘Politician’
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — To hear Ben Platt describe it, producer Ryan Murphy’s pitch for him to star in the new Netflix series “The Politician” had all the planning, precision and vision of a successful presidential campaign.
“He said, ‘OK, the show is called ‘The Politician.’ The character’s Peyton Hobart. This is the content of the character. I want Gwyneth Paltrow to play a mother. The world’s going to look like this. This is going to be eight episodes. If we go this many seasons, you’ll end up here,” Platt said of their meeting.
He signed on after hearing Murphy’s description of the character: a “borderline sociopathic-egomaniacalambitious witty man.” It’s a departure from Platt’s star-making role, the sweet, socially awkward title character of Broadway’s “Dear Evan Hansen.”
“To me, that was, as an actor, the most delicious possible possibility.”
Platt wasn’t the only actor who Murphy wooed with a perfect pitch. Jessica Lange, who has won two Emmy Awards starring in Murphy’s “American Horror Story” series, said the producer knew just how to get her to sign on.
“He reels me in because he knows what I like,” said Lange, who plays the shady grandmother of Hobart’s running mate. “So, then he’ll drop the couple things here and there: ‘She went to Hollywood. She wanted to be Vanna White. She’s from West Virginia. She got pregnant when she was a teenager. She was ...’ And I can see it all coming. So, you know, I end up saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ ”