Ben Platt Opens Up About All the Hate He Got For the Dear Evan Hansen Movie

Ben Platt is moving forward from his Dear Evan Hansen days.

The Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winner spoke with The New York Times about last year's movie adaptation of his iconic role in Dear Evan Hansen, and the backlash he faced for appearing "too old" to be a teenager in the high school movie.

When the first trailers for the Dear Evan Hansen movie came out, many were confused over the 27-year-old Platt playing a 17-year-old. The criticism reached meme status, and soon the entire internet was making fun of Platt in the role, one which he originated on Broadway and won multiple awards for.

"It was definitely a disappointing experience, and difficult, and it definitely opened my eyes to the internet and how horrific it can be," Platt told The New York Times. "You'd think, after doing Dear Evan Hansen onstage for four years, I would have already known that."

"I try my best to focus on people who tell me it was moving to them and they really felt seen by it," he continued. "It is very easy for the good to get drowned out by the bad."

In fact, the bad got so bad that Platt quit Twitter because of it.

"I find that Twitter is almost exclusively for tearing people down," he said. "I wasn't getting anything positive, and it's been really nice to be away."

Still, Platt doesn't regret starring in the movie, and will always hold a special place for the role in his heart, even as he moves on to the next part of his career.

"It will always be a piece of me," he said of the role. "I feel a simultaneous constant pride and desire to keep it in my heart at all times, but also a real readiness and excitement at having moved forward and embracing my adulthood and playing characters that live in different worlds than that," he shared.

"I got to live in that world for a very long time, and it was not the easiest world to live in. So I look at it fondly but I'm also happy to be moving ahead."

This month, Platt has the Amazon comedy film The People We Hate at the Wedding coming out, where he co-stars with Kristen Bell, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Allison Janney.

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