Ben Platt has opened up about the backlash he faced for starring in the Dear Evan Hansen movie adaptation.
In 2021, Broadway fans flocked to cinemas to watch the highly anticipated film – which saw Platt reprise his role as the titular character.
Like its source material, the movie follows Evan, “an anxious, isolated high schooler aching for understanding and belonging amid the chaos and cruelty of the social media age.”
At the recommendation of his therapist, he starts writing letters to himself to cope with his anxiety. However, the letter is stolen by his fellow classmate Connor Murphy (Colton Ryan), who is also dealing with isolation and loneliness.
When Connor dies by suicide, his mother (Amy Adams) and stepfather (Danny Pino) mistakenly believe that he wrote the letter to Evan, who ultimately inserts himself into Connor’s past in a series of “inspiring, duplicitous and confrontational events.
While the film stuck close to its Broadway counterpart, it failed to find success amongst critics and fans – with many criticising Platt for being “too old” to reprise the role he originated.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, the Pitch Perfect star opened up about how he navigated the backlash.
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“It was definitely a disappointing experience and difficult, and it definitely opened my eyes to the internet and how horrific it can be,” he explained.
“You’d think, after doing Dear Evan Hansen onstage for four years, I would have already known that. I try my best to focus on people who tell me it was moving to them and they really felt seen by it. It is very easy for the good to get drowned out by the bad.”
Even though Platt had a rough time after the film’s release, The Politician actor still considers the role an “ultimate dream come true.”
“It will always be a piece of me. I feel a simultaneous constant pride and desire to keep it in my heart at all times, but also a real readiness and excitement at having moved forward and embracing my adulthood and playing characters that live in different worlds than that,” he told the publication.
“I got to live in that world for a very long time, and it was not the easiest world to live in. So I look at it fondly, but I’m also happy to be moving ahead.”
Since stepping away from Dear Evan Hansen, Platt has shifted his focus to mature projects like FX’s The Premise and Prime Video’s The People We Hate At The Wedding.
Dear Evan Hansen is available to stream on HBO Max in the US and Now TV in the UK.
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