Ben Platt is known for his roles in Pitch Perfect, The Politician and his Tony-winning performance in Broadway’s Dear Evan Hansen. He will continue his intersection of Broadway and film in Richard Linklater’s forthcoming feature adaptation of the 20-year old musical opus known as Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. But before we see him in that, we will see him get a little raunchy in the Prime Video comedy The People We Hate at the Wedding directed by Claire Scanlon.
Based on the book by Grant Ginder and adapted by Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin and Wendy Molyneux of Bob’s Burgers fame, The People We Hate at the Wedding follows Paul (Platt), his sister Alice (Kristen Bell) and their over-optimistic mom (Allison Janney) as they attend the British wedding of their estranged half-sister Eloise (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) and attempt to reconnect and learn to love one another as they once did. The movie also stars Dustin Milligan, Isaach De Bankolé, Karan Soni, Tony Goldwyn, Jorma Taccone, Julian Ovenden, and John McMillan.
It sounds like a sweet family comedy but don’t get it twisted – it’s raunchy. For Platt, it was wonderful to play a queer character in the genre. “I think I took for granted — at least up until this point — how few opportunities I’ve had thus far in my career to play queer characters,” Platt told GLAAD’s Anthony Allen Ramos.
Platt did play Payton in Ryan Murphy’s The Politician who he described as “pseudo queer” in where they don’t really talk about the character’s sexuality. With Paul in The People We Hate at the Wedding, it was the first time that Platt played someone openly gay on screen. In fact, he said Paul was a lot like him.
“It was just really relieving …there was this weight off in a way that I think you don’t necessarily always realize as a queer actor playing roles that aren’t queer a lot of the time,” said Platt. “There’s such a relief and there’s a whole box of tools, that you get to use when you’re playing somebody queer as a queer person that you kind of have mastered keeping a lid on in a lot of the parts of your life and career, so it felt so freeing to let it wide open and enjoy that sense of humor in that tone.”
He said that the queer narrative has no traumatic, oppressive, or depressing element. The movie is about a modern career person dealing with a relationship. “It was so fun and it felt very forward moving , and positive,” added Platt. “I think the way the sexuality is handled in terms of being able to like laugh with it and at it in a way that you do with all sexuality and raunchy comedy but not make a joke of it …was written very well, I really appreciate it.”
The People We Hate at the Wedding joins recently released comedy films Fire Island and Bros which feature queer actors and queer roles created by queer people. To add to that, these stories aren’t centered on their queer identity. Instead, it focuses on character and story. Despite box office performance for a movie like Bros, Platt said this kind of representation is important and that there shouldn’t be pressure to be the queer story that represents the entire LGBTQ community. “It’s just one of hopefully many, many great queer funny stories that we’ll get and I think it’s a great example,” he said. “I don’t think it has to be the end all be all, I think it’s just a great film. So hopefully this can just be another one of those queer library films.”
He continued, “I think seeing queer people play queer roles is a really, really important thing and I think is something that hasn’t been very common and in a really wonderful way is becoming more and more common,” said Platt. In regards to Bros, he said it was really moving to see people playing themselves and telling their own stories. He also emphasizes that queer writers, directors, and actors can tell a story that isn’t necessarily queer.
“I do think to balance out the opportunities,” he said. “It’s been wonderful to see more queer people playing the part… I’m really honored to be in that zone now playing my own experiences.”
The People We Hate at the Wedding premieres November 18 on Prime Video.