The Winner Is…

One word describes Ben Platt's reaction when Ryan Murphy pitched him the new Netflix series The Politician: glee.

"It seemed too good to be true," says Platt, who first met Murphy backstage after the producer saw him perform the title role in the Tony-winning Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen. "He offered exactly what I was hoping to find."

That would be the role of Payton Hobart, a super-ambitious Santa Barbara teen who runs a ruthless campaign for high-school class president in the series' first season; subsequent seasons will flash forward to Payton's future political races.

Like Payton, Platt saw the world with tunnel vision from a young age. "I grew up just doing musical theater," says the actor, whose father, Marc Platt, produced Wicked and other stage hits. "I was raised listening to cast albums in the car."

But after becoming the toast of Broadway — and winning his own Tony — Platt was looking for new horizons. "I wanted to find other ways to stretch myself and feel challenged," he explains.

With its surreal dramatic sensibility — and occasional musical numbers — The Politician seemed a perfect platform for Platt. "Ryan's writing has a heightened quality that comes from theater," he says. "It was a comfortable way to transition from spending so much time onstage to working on camera, but with that same intensity."

The series also offered Platt the opportunity to learn from screen veterans Gwyneth Paltrow (who plays his mom) and Jessica Lange (as a classmate's mother). "Gwyneth took me under her wing in a way that made it very natural to be talking to her as a mother figure," Platt says of the actress, whose husband, Brad Falchuk, created the show with Murphy and Ian Brennan.

"And while we think of Jessica as a brilliant dramatic actress, she's also this unbelievable comedian. I ruined several of her scenes laughing at her."

But the biggest thrill for Platt may be collaborating with Murphy, Falchuk and Brennan, who also cocreated Glee. The Fox series, about a high school show choir, debuted in 2009, when Platt was attending L.A.'s Harvard-Westlake School.

"My friend [Booksmart star] Beanie Feldstein and I went as Sue Sylvester and Mr. Schuester for Halloween one year." Though he makes a convincing candidate, don't expect Platt to run for office anytime soon. "It requires too much compartmentalization of desires and feelings. As an actor, I've been trained to lean into those," he says. "But you never know."

Spoken like a true Politician.

This article originally appeared in emmy magazine, Issue No. 8, 2019.

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