#Dear Evan Hansen Star Ben Platt On Donning The Blue Polo Again 6 Years Later [Interview]

Definitely challenging, mostly in the really fun, juicy ways. But definitely a little bit scary. I had a wonderful experience doing the show for many years on the stage and developing the piece, and it was a very formative experience for me in many ways, professionally and personally. And to say goodbye to that and sort of move forward from that was a very difficult and just a heavy transition that I was fortunate to be able to do while making original music … and putting out my first album and getting back in touch with myself separate from the character of Evan. So when it came back again and the film was becoming a reality, I was certainly quite nervous to re-enter that space, both in terms of myself as Ben professionally and also just mentally and emotionally to get back into Evan’s mind and Evan’s body because he has a lot of mental health challenges that he deals with and a lot of discomfort and difficulty connecting and a lot of self-hatred and things that aren’t that fun to live in all the time.

But all of that was kind of overridden by just the excitement at the idea of how many young people would be able to see the story if it was a film and how many people of all ages hopefully could be affected by it emotionally and could feel seen by it and hopefully changed in the right way by it. And so that assuaged all of my personal fears about returning for sure. And I’m so very happy that we ended up doing it and then I was able to be part of it.

And in the interim you’ve had many more life experiences since you last took on the role. So did that change at all how you approached the role of Evan Hansen or was it about trying to get back into the head space when you first portrayed him?

I think it was definitely a combination. I think there were certain things and instincts and natural second-nature physicalities or emotions that were still there just from growing it for so long and for doing it for such a long time. And I certainly wanted to lean into those, but I think at the same time, as you said, I did grow a bit since then and I have kind of evolved a little as a person. And I think in order to protect myself in terms of my own mental health and my emotional health, I think this time I was able to maintain a bit more separation between the character. And I really appreciate him as a separate entity, a separate person that I have love for, and empathy for, and sympathy for, rather than being so synonymous with myself so that I could at the end of each day, after living in that head space and in that character, really come back to myself and to my own clothes and my own feelings and my own relationships. So I did appreciate feeling a bit closer to adulthood this time.

The musical takes on difficult fraught topics of mental illness and suicide. In returning to the role, especially for one when you’d be on screen generally in closeup, were you motivated to do more research into the depictions of anxiety disorders and mental illness, especially on the big screen?

Yes and no. I think it’s kind of impossible not to experience all different iterations of mental health and mental health struggle just by virtue of the people in your life and your family and your friends and media and all of the ways in which we see depicted. I have my own mental health struggles with anxiety that I deal with. And so I think for me, it was just about making Evan as specific and as particular a person as possible. Obviously I had quite a lot of time to get to develop who that was and shape who that was. And then obviously adapt that for film. I think sometimes when we’re speaking about such a global issue, such an important issue like mental health and you’re trying to express such a broad idea, you can lose some of that idiosyncrasy or some of that specificity because you still want to be able to express something that can be universal and connected to by everyone.

And I think I’ve learned particularly from my years with Evan Hansen, that specificity and that idiosyncrasy really begets the universality. It really makes it connectable by everyone. I think the more particular and specific a character is, the easier it is to see yourself in him and to connect with him. So for me, I really tried to really just focus on this specific story and these specific issues just because there’s such a huge spectrum of the ways in which mental health manifests itself. So for me, it was just staying focused on really just Evan specifically.

I know you lost weight and grew out your hair to return to the role. Can you explain your reasoning for doing both of those things?

Totally. I think I just wanted to feel for myself as close to Evan as I could and as I’ve envisioned him always in my mind, and as I mentioned before, for my own mental health and emotional health, I really wanted to feel a separation between Evan and I. As you can see, I like to express myself in a different way. When I’m myself, my hair, my beard, my clothes, that’s who I am. And so the idea of allowing myself to transform somewhat physically to feel that separation and to feel like someone outside myself was important to me. And I always saw him as someone that, due to his anxiety and worry, I don’t think he has the biggest appetite.

I don’t think he’s someone that can manage to eat a huge amount because of his nerves and because of his isolation. And in terms of the hair, I really wanted to feel a little bit shrouded and a little covered by the curls. And then in terms of the shaving and the youth, just trying to do what I can to return to that high school phase. But mostly it was just for my own performance, for my own emotional inner life to feel as much like him as I could.