'Dear Evan Hansen's Ben Platt Says Film Revealed "Horrific" Side of the Internet to Him: "Definitely a Disappointing Experience" - Decider

Ben Platt says helium was wounded by the internet’s corporate laughter implicit his show successful the movie mentation of Dear Evan Hansen released past year. Platt archetypal starred arsenic precocious schooler Evan Hansen successful the signifier accumulation from 2014 done 2016, and reprised his relation arsenic a 27-year-old, overmuch to the amusement of Twitter.

Now, Platt says the mockery got nether his tegument and showed however disfigured the net tin be. The histrion told The New York Times the Broadway acquisition of Dear Evan Hansen was “a imagination travel true,” but the movie mentation was thing but.

“It was decidedly a disappointing experience, and difficult, and it decidedly opened my eyes to the net and however horrific it tin be,” helium said. “You’d think, aft doing Dear Evan Hansen onstage for 4 years, I would person already known that.”

While Platt won a Tony for his enactment connected 2016’s Dear Evan Hansen, his much caller instrumentality connected the quality was overmuch little celebrated. The movie mentation of the philharmonic presently holds astatine 29% connected Rotten Tomatoes and was panned by Decider’s John Serba arsenic “a grim trudging cringe that lives up to its estimation arsenic a singular tonal failure.”

Platt was besides mocked online from the precise start, with commenters complaining astir his property successful the movie aft the trailer was released. Platt, who was 27 astatine the time, was playing astatine 17-year-old successful the film.

Vulture joked that Platt looked adjacent older than his property arsenic a effect of the movie’s efforts to nonstop him backmost to precocious school. Nate Jones wrote successful 2021, “It’s that each the film’s efforts to alteration him into a plausible teen person the reverse effect of making the quality of Evan Hansen look to beryllium determination successful his mid-40s. When helium gets up onstage for the 2nd act’s large philharmonic number, I wasn’t definite if helium was going to memorialize his dormant classmate oregon talk connected the value of 401(k) matching.”

Platt, who told The Times he’s nary longer connected Twitter due to the fact that the tract “is astir exclusively for tearing radical down,” seems to beryllium moving up contempt the Dear Evan Hansen backlash, and reasoning of lone the bully that came from the film.

“I effort my champion to absorption connected radical who archer maine it was moving to them and they truly felt seen by it,” helium said. “It is precise casual for the bully to get drowned retired by the bad.”