anything like that.
So evidently there's a videotape with some
footage of you using an offensive gay
slur. Do you have any idea what I might be
referring to?
Ben Platt, I have a question for you.
When Ryan Murphy first approached you with
the concept for 'The Politician' what was
the selling point for you?
He came and saw me in 'Dear Evan Hansen,'
which was kind of the inspiration for this
particular performance.
And in that piece, also in 'Book of
Mormon' and in 'Pitch Perfect' I played a
lot of very kind of meek,
anxious, kind of easily likeable, heart on
their sleeves kind of characters.
Performing live gives me such a rush.
And this guy was much more aggressive and
confident and had sociopathic
tendencies.
How dare you run against me?
You're blowing this thing way out of proportion.
You know, the moment you win I'm going to tell
everyone that we had sex and that you're living a lie.
Things that I had never really done as an
actor, and he very smartly knows
that actors like that kind of scary,
stomach flip thing that they've never done
before, and he led very much with that,
which was very smart
It's so hard to have to try so hard all
the time.
Payton Hobart is complex to say the least.
How would you describe him?
I think he's blindly ambitious to the
point where he is willing to sacrifice
not only his time and social life and
his emotions but his authenticity,
his empathy, a lot of things to achieve
his goal of power and the
ultimate goal of the presidency.
'This school deserves better than you.'
How did being an executive producer for
this project affect how you approached
your role as an actor?
I tried as hard as I could to keep them
pretty separate.
I think
When you're doing a piece of theatre,
which is when I'm most comfortable and
that's sort of where I've grown
up and that's what I know the best, it's
such an actor's medium in the sense that
you can be directed and shaped beforehand
but at the end of the day you're the one
going out there administering the
performance and telling the story.
And as an actor in a piece that's being
shot it's—you do what you can
on the day, but then it's curated after
the fact and edited by others and shaped
for you, sort of.
So you still have to kind of have that
release as an actor but then as a producer
to be able to feel like I had some sort
of, you know, claws in the whole project
and to be able to be like kind of liaison
between the cast and the
creators, in between and right in the end
and Brad, it was a really
great learning experience especially
because these guys are the absolute top
of the field of what they do and to watch
Ryan as a producer is like an
ultimate master class.
Many of the characters in this show
express their sexuality fluidly
without that defining their
characterization.
Do you think that's becoming more of the
norm or does Hollywood still have a lot of
work to do?
I think
that Ryan is portraying in the show.
I know what's going on between you and River. Come
over to my house after school.
Let's all get it on.
Ok.
The queer characters are not defined by
their queerness, it's just part of what
colors the action and what makes the
relationships interesting and, you know,
differentiates the relationships as
opposed to being a source of trauma
or oppression or sort of
identity crisis, anything like that.
I realize you didn't ask me to be your running mate, River did.
Two generations ago that wouldn't have happened because I was Black.
One generation ago that wouldn't have happened because I'm gay.
Winning this election would be historic and meaningful for a whole lot of people
who aren't used to seeing people like themselves in positions of power.
I think that, you know, Ryan took an
amazing leap with 'Glee' and having
characters that were defined by their
queerness and and introducing characters
like that into the mainstream and into pop culture.
The largest single-day drop of the campaign. We've lost all 22 LGBT+ voters.
The Haitian vote has turned against us for some reason.
It's really sensitive to gay rights issues.
Can we just call him Pierre instead of 'the Haitian vote'?
On issues such as gun reform and the
climate crisis, we're really seeing the
passions of young people really impact
change around the world.
Why do you believe governments should be
paying attention to them?
Well, I think they're going to be the ones
that are around the longest.
I mean, God willing.
And that they'll be the ones that are sort
of the most long term deeply affected by
these decisions that are being made.
It's not that we should forget our past
and where we come from, but I think it's
important to listen to the people who are
being born only in the world that we're
currently in and have that as their
kind of rubric.
Could we could we spin this thing and
attract us some votes?
Yeah, if you wanna extend the franchise
to shop teachers and white male janitorial
staff 55 and older.