Ben Platt‘s route to showbiz success was a win for show-tune singin’, boogie-loving, theatre kids everywhere. But when Platt made the cover of New York Magazine‘s Nepo Baby Issue, stylised as a literal baby, people were pretty shocked. Many fans, including myself, had no idea that the awkward dude in Pitch Perfect was the son of a prominent Hollywood producer and didn’t just stumble into success.
And now, it turns out that Platt refuses to talk about being a nepo baby at all – which is a very nepo baby thing to do if you ask me.
It all kicked off when he did an interview with Rolling Stone to promote his latest flick Theater Camp. During the chat journalist EJ Dickson asked him a question about the now-infamous magazine issue.
“You were on the cover of New York Magazine‘s Nepo Baby Issue. I’m curious what was your response to that? And what do you make of that whole discourse?” she asked.
“We’re going to skip right over that if we can,” Platt responded.
Dickson then confirmed whether Platt had “no comment” to make on the topic when his publicist stepped in.
“If we could just focus on Theater Camp, that would be great. Thank you,” they said.
While I think Dickson’s question was a fair and considered thing to ask Platt, she clearly hit a nerve with The Politician star. In her final piece in Rolling Stone, Dickson said that the question prompted his team to end the interview early. That’s pretty damn frustrating for the writer when the interview was aimed at being part of a full feature profile on Platt, rather than just a one-dimensional article on the movie.
The thing is, Ben Platt is undoubtedly a nepo baby. His father is Marc Platt, a producer and three-time Oscar nominee. He’s produced some of the biggest films around including La La Land and The Trail of the Chicago 7. But more importantly, he produced the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen.
For theatre kids or those playing along at home, that was Ben Platt’s breakout role. He won a Tony Award for his portrayal of the lead character in 2017, before going on to reprise the role for the film adaptation in 2021. Although he obviously slayed the part on Broadway, fans critiqued the casting of the film claiming that a then 27-year-old Platt was too old to play a teenage boy.
And, considering daddy Marc Platt was the producer of this one too, it wasn’t a great look.
Although Platt is undoubtedly talented, the fact that he’s not even willing to ~discuss~ his inherent privilege as a nepo baby is puzzling people online.
Honestly, it’s not like Ben Platt’s rise to fame is groundbreaking. For decades Hollywood has been built on nepotism and who you know.
There are a bunch of different stars today who have received a big ol’ step up from mummy and daddy and still find themselves beloved by fans. The difference is, by attempting to ignore his inbuilt industry privilege altogether, it’s just making the lack of awareness even more noticeable.
In a time where actors and writers are striking just to be able to earn a living in the entertainment industry, Platt’s snub just feels a bit shit.
Image Source: Getty/ Roy Rochlin / New York Magazine
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