Photo: Rich Fury/Getty
Ben Plattis reflecting on the negative reaction to his involvement in 2021’sDear Evan Hansen.
“[The movie] 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 outlet. “You’d think, after doingDear Evan Hansenonstage for four years, I would have already known that.”
Many online criticizedthe significant age gap between Platt and Evan Hansen, a character who is a senior in high school.
In theNYTprofile, the actor and singer said he has stopped using Twitter, which he said “is almost exclusively for tearing people down.”
“I wasn’t getting anything positive, and it’s been really nice to be away,” Platt said of the social media platform.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Ben Platt and Kaitlyn Dever inDear Evan Hansen.Courtesy NBCUniversal
Platt previously expressed a belief that movie"probably" would not have been made without his involvement.
“The reaction is largely from people that don’t understand the context of the piece,” Platt saidduring a June 2021 appearance on theZach Sang Show. “The fact that I created the role and workshopped it for 3 years, and did all of the out-of-town performances, and originated it on Broadway, and received the accolades that I did… and also not really understanding that were I not to do the movie, it probably wouldn’t get made.”
The actor added at the time that while he’d like to continuously defend himself online, he would rather just let people watch the film themselves.
“My defensive response is to go on Twitter and be like, “Eff you guys, you don’t even know that this wouldn’t exist without me,' " Platt said. “And of course, that’s not true entirely and that’s not my place to say.”
“All I have to do is let the work speak for itself,” he concluded. “Hopefully people will realize that this is engrained in me and there wasn’t really any question on anyone actually connected to the piece or who was actually a part of the film, there was never any kind of discussion that it wouldn’t be me.”
source: people.com
