Ben Platt shut down a Rolling Stone interview when asked about his nepo-baby status

Last year, New York Magazine declared that 2022 was “the year of Nepo-Baby.” Nepo-babies are people who are beneficiaries of nepotism, and New York’s cover story was specifically about the entertainment industry’s nepo-baby problem. Meaning, there’s a glut of nepo-babies in Hollywood these days, to the point where it’s notable when someone from a non-entertainment family gets a breakthrough role. Ben Platt was one of the actors featured on New York’s cover, and he is, without a doubt, a huge beneficiary of nepotism. His father is Marc Platt, a hugely successful theater, film and TV producer who basically ensured that his son was cast in tons of stuff from a very young age.

Well, Ben Platt really doesn’t want to talk about any of that. I guess his team hasn’t told him that he could simply acknowledge that yes, he has benefited from nepotism and it’s not great, but he’s here to promote something. That never occurred to Platt or his team. Platt is currently promoting Theater Camp, which is why he sat down with Rolling Stone (this was pre-strike). Platt spoke to Rolling Stone at length about Judaism, Jewish camp, theater camp, his friendships and more. And then he and his team totally shut down when RS asked him about being a nepo baby.

Adding insult to injury, the release of Dear Evan Hansen coincided with the advent of the nepo baby conversation, with many on social media pointing out that the film had been produced by Marc Platt, Ben’s father and the producer of films like Legally Blonde. The discourse reached its apex with a 2022 New York Magazine cover, “The Year of the Nepo Baby,” in which a photo of Platt was photoshopped onto a baby’s body.

At the time, Platt appeared wounded by the criticism of the film, telling Rolling Stone, “People having opinions about me that don’t know me makes me so anxious. You can say, ‘That’s not what matters, the in-person things are what matters.’ Of course that’s true, but it’s hard to not take in stuff.” In recent months, he’s re-emerged with a starring role in the revival of Jason Robert Brown’s Parade as Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of raping and murdering a 12-year-old factory employee, as well as a sharp turn in the indie Theater Camp (which he co-wrote) as Amos Klobuchar, a frustrated kiddie theater director at a performing arts camp called Adirond-Acts in a codependent relationship with best friend Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon, who co-directed the film).

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?
We’re going to skip right over that if we can.

No comment?
[Publicist intervenes: “If we could just focus on Theater Camp, that would be great. Thank you.”]

[From Rolling Stone]

This is being reported as “Ben Platt shuts down interview after nepo baby question,” but if you go to the Rolling Stone piece, it’s written in a way which would suggest that RS simply moved on and continued asking Platt other questions after he refused to talk about being a nepo baby. Still, he and his team need to come up with a better way to deal with these questions, because… um, they’re not going away?? Speaking of, an Esquire journalist tweeted this out – apparently, Platt’s publicist is really bad at their job.

This publicist once demanded I interview Ben in the same room as his entire team. I refused.

Then he called me the day before the profile went live to question me about the tone. Called me again the morning it was published to tell me I was a terrible person for what I wrote. https://t.co/dFD5ibz8Kt

— Justin Kirkland (@justinkirkland4) July 14, 2023

My terrible Ben Platt profile, for reference: https://t.co/Rtd02lHvuJ

— Justin Kirkland (@justinkirkland4) July 14, 2023

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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