- Hello everyone,
I'm Ben Platt.
I'm here at Buzzfeed
and I'm going to tell you about my first times.
(smooth music)
First memory from working on Dear Evan Hansen?
The first memory I have is going in
for the first ever reading of it.
Like the first time we ever sat down just
to hear it out loud
while they were very much still developing it,
really early on before there
was any productions or anything.
I wasn't allowed to know anything about it going in
because they wanted to see what the cold read
would look like, what it would be like if I just sat down
and opened it up and read and see what the connections
to the character would be like
without any preconceived preparation.
And I just remember walking in and being deeply terrified
that I was about to play like a, who knows,
like drug addict or like have to have an accent
that I didn't know how to like, I truly had no idea
what I was getting into and I opened it up
and his first big speech where he's like
going on and on and on about how nervous he is
and anxious he is about going to school,
I was like, oh I got this, I'm already anxious now.
And it worked out pretty well after that.
First time you were truly starstruck, oh.
I went to see Thoroughly Modern Millie,
that was my first Broadway show
when I was, I think, nine or ten
and with my mom, we went backstage and Gavin Creele
took us around, gave us a tour and kind of showed us around
and I was A, starstruck by him because he's beautiful
and so talented and I basically copied
the way he sang, that's how I learned how to sing.
And B, 'cause I was like I have to be in this world,
I gotta be in the theater, he's the coolest,
he knows all these backstage secrets
and I was like, my life is kind of set
and it kind of stuck so.
First memory from Pitch Perfect?
First memory from Pitch Perfect is that I came late
to the shoot, 'cause they had all been there rehearsing
for a few weeks down in Baton Rouge where we shot the movie
but I was only in that last number that the Treble,
like finale number, so I missed the first couple weeks.
So I remember coming in and being terrified.
And then I got there and I saw that Skyler Astin
was playing my best friend and I didn't know
who had been cast as the lead guy as my roommate
until I got there and I saw his headshot up
on the production office wall and there was just like
such a beautiful sigh of relief because I knew him
from the theater world and we'd done a workshop together
and I had wanted so badly to get close with him
and be his buddy, and so I was like, oh now
this experience is gonna be about that I got to be buddies
with Skyler and now he's been a dear friend of mine
for many years, love him a lot, hi Skyler.
First inside joke you made with Beanie Feldstein?
Oh Beanie.
First inside joke I made with Beanie.
We had this sandwich, this man who made sandwiches,
in our school cafeteria who really loved me and Beanie.
And he would love to chat like to the point
where he took way too long making the sandwiches
and our period for lunch was pretty short.
And Beanie kept telling him to focus, focus, focus.
And so he called Beanie focus and he kept saying okay focus
okay focus, and that became her name.
So sometimes I call her Okay Focus.
Or the time that she came out of class
just to see that I got my braces off with my new teeth
and pretended she was going to the bathroom.
That's when I knew we were going to be best friends forever.
First reaction you had to your Tony nomination?
I was in my apartment with my mom and Beanie
and a couple of our other dear friends
watching the nominations and I think the first reaction
was just kind of relief because I think at that point
there was so much pressure put on,
there's always so much pressure put on those awards
and so I just was happy that it turned out
the way we'd hoped.
And then immediately it was eclipsed by how excited
I was that Mike Feist got a nomination
'cause that was sort of out of left field
and I think Mike is so amazing in the show
and such a spectacular actor.
So I just remember jumping up and down on the couch
being it's Mike Feist.
First Song you wrote off your new album, Sing To Me Instead?
The first song that I wrote for the album
was the song called Run Away which is the last song
on the record and I wrote,
it's one of the two on the record that I wrote on my own.
I was lucky to cowrite all the other ones
with really fantastic writers and Run Away's very much
a tribute to my parents.
It was kind of the first thing that I knew for sure
I wanted to wrote about was sort of the way
that they set a beautiful example for me
with their relationship and their steadfastness.
And so I knew that it was gonna be a lovely epilogue
and button to the album and a lullaby.
I think it's a beautiful energy to go out on.
But I highly recommend listening in order
and having that be your last note.
First AIM screen name?
BDiddy150.
First song you wrote as a kid?
I think the first song that I participated in writing
was a rewriting of a song.
My family, whenever we have a bar mitzvah or bat mitzvah
we take a musical theater song, we rewrite it
and the lyrics to be about whoever's bar mitzvah
or bat mitzvah it is.
And so when I was old enough to participate it
was my sister Hannah's bat mitzvah and we did this song
called a Book Report on Peter Rabbit
from Charlie Brown Musical.
We rewrote it as a life report on Hannah Barren,
Hannah Barren's my sister and so I got
to contribute a little bit, my dad was the main writer
but I made some rhymes, so, look where I am now dad.
First time you got major stage fright?
I've never gotten major stage fright.
First time realizing you were famous?
Well I don't know about that.
The first time that I realized that I couldn't
walk out of the house without being a little bit conscious
of something like that was probably after the Evan Hansen
first preview there was like just a sea of,
I mean during the Pitch Perfect of it all
it was a lot more sporadic and now and then
it was a lovely surprise when someone would remember
you're that weird magician kid
but Evan Hansen took it to that next level.
I just remember looking out the window after the preview
and seeing a see of blue hats and then walking the stage
hearing shrieking people and just thinking like,
this is gonna be a different level of thing.
But it comes with the territory
and it's beautiful to have support.
But also, let's talk instead of take a selfie
if I do ever run into you.
First time you met your BFF Beanie Feldstein?
I really love that Beanie is appearing in these questions.
The first time I met Beanie Feldstein,
this is a great story, we were at a bat mitzvah,
a bat mitzvah reappears in this answers too.
We're at a bat mitzvah and it was our mutual friend
and we met during the cocktail hour outside the proper venue
and our friend was like, you should meet each other
you both love theater, we were like, okay.
So we sat down and started talking about theater,
time sped up and we stayed at that same cocktail
like area, table, just talking and talking about theater
we missed the entire bat mitzvah, so we never went inside.
And just spent the whole time talking to us.
Our mutual friend is still upset to this day
that we missed the bat mitzvah because we got along so well.
But then there were no cell phones so we weren't
at the same school so we were just like bye
see ya, this was a great first date
and then we never saw each other for like two years
and then I finally came back to the same school
that she was at already in ninth grade
on the first day we were like, I remember you,
and everyday since we've been soulmates okay.
First role you really wanted but you didn't get?
Oh, oh that's a good question.
My musical theater school growing up
I tended to get the lead most of the time
I mean I kind of earned it with my seniority
but I really did work for it each time.
And when we did Fiddler On The Roof
I auditioned for Tevia because that was the lead
and I as a naive young kid didn't really look at
the quality of the role and was just like
this is the biggest role I want the biggest role,
didn't get it, my best friend Yael got it
who I basically forced to do theater with me
just to hang out with me.
I was really upset, I was like,
I was cast as Motle the tailor which is the smaller role.
I was like why am I Motle?
But then over time I learned the role was more correct
for me and it fit my personality better and it was
a good lesson in casting and Yael gave
an amazing performance as Tevia which I have on tape.
DM me.
First thing you did after winning a Tony Award?
After winning a Tony Award I did karaoke with a bunch
of my best friends, in a room in Korea town
and screamed and shredded my voice pretty much purposefully
because I had been so careful over the last
four years before that.
And then got really drunk and then woke up the next morning
and ordered Panda Express and pizza and a McFlurry.
First time you heard yourself on the radio?
First time I heard myself on the radio I think it's on
my social media somewhere, I was in an Uber
and the ad for Evan Hansen played
it was way in the beginning during previews
and it was me singing Waving Through a Window.
And it was just this guy in this Uber
and he was like, bopping along and really liked it
and I like told him, did you know that that's actually me
and he was like, no it's not.
It's like, no it's fully me.
He's like no, it's not.
And he didn't believe me but it was sir.
Okay last one, First kiss?
Wow, interestingly my first kiss was with a girl
named Tori Liebovic who will probably be watching this
and we were in fifth grade and we were
at Danny Maharoonie's birthday party.
Hope you're watching Danny Maharoonie
and we were boyfriend and girlfriend as much as you can be
in fifth and sixth grade and they were like,
you guys should go behind that book case
and kiss each other.
We were like, no we're not gonna do that.
Everyone was like, go behind the bookcase.
So we went behind the bookcase and had simply
the shortest whisper of a peck you could imagine.
And that was my first kiss.
That's all I got, you guys should go
and listen to my album Sing To Me Instead,
it's out now, I think you'll really like it.
It's been a pleasure, thank you Buzzfeed.
See you later.
(upbeat music)