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Exclusive: What Ben Platt's Looking For in an Album (and a Man)

The Tony winner gets candid ahead of his debut record release.

Ben Platt may be talking publicly for the first time about his sexuality, but don’t call Sing to Me Instead his coming-out album. The Tony winner has been out since he was 12, and, well, the subject apparently just hasn’t really come up since he entered the spotlight as the lead in Broadway’s critically acclaimed smash Dear Evan Hansen.

Somehow, the topic was even avoided after a 2017 New York Times profile mentioned a big photo of Judy Garland in his dressing room—possibly the same one that appears briefly in the video for his first single “Bad Habit”—and described him listening to the Gypsy soundtrack and staging Cats in his backyard as a kid.

As the 25-year-old tells NewNowNext, he’d prefer that those kind of details speak for themselves. “I just hope that we’re reaching a time when any kind of announcement or declaration is not really a necessary thing.”

Ahead of his album’s release on March 29, Platt discusses the relationship that inspired his first trilogy of videos, casting Charlie Carver as his love interest, and what he’s looking for in a man.

What’s going through your head as you get closer to your first album entering the world?

I think I’ve graduated to just pure excitement. It was definitely a very scary first step releasing these first few songs. But there’s been such a lovely response. It’s kind of addicting to see people connecting to the music. Now I really just can’t wait to have the whole body of work out there. I always wanted it to exist as a group of songs together, as one piece of work, and to have it out in the world is something I’m really ready for.

Charlie Carver plays your love interest in two of the music videos you’ve released so far. Why did you decide to cast the same actor in those?

I wanted to definitely have a bit of connectivity. Going forward, it’s not necessarily going to be, like, a Lemonade experience where it’s all one through-line. But I did want to suggest that it was all part of one greater experience. I think that lends itself to a bit more emotional weight. And Charlie—I knew he was very publicly out and outspoken and sort of a pillar of the community. So, I was just really grateful that he was game when I asked.

You’ve described those first three videos as a trilogy. What is that trilogy of songs about?

They were written about the same relationship. “Bad Habit” is about being at the end of that relationship and looking back on how addicting it was. “Ease My Mind” explains what about him was so appealing and what made it so hard to be without him—which was his ability to allay anxiety and…ease my mind. And “Grow as We Go” I wrote during the dissolution of the relationship. There are people who have connected to it as a vote of confidence in the relationship, vowing to grow together on a personal level as you stay together. In the specific case that song was born out of, it didn’t work out. But I think there are certainly scenarios where the connection is such that you could continue to find yourselves in tandem.

Does that approach—creating a narrative out of three videos—come from your musical theater background?

My only way in as a songwriter was to write about things that felt sort of worthy of singing. So, a lot of those stories ended up being more than one thought, more than one beat. I have always really loved when things feel like a complex piece of work and are interconnected. I didn’t necessarily want that throughout the whole album. It’s not necessarily one very literal connected story, but there are a lot of through-lines and themes that I wanted to lean into.

You were very clear on Ellen that you’re currently single. Are you looking? What’s your type?

I mean, I think it’s difficult to actively look. I’ve always found that the relationships that have been the most positive experiences in my life have happened when I’ve least expected them. They’ve been people that I didn’t necessarily seek out. But, of course, I’m always open to meeting anyone. At the end of the day, I think as long as there’s a certain level of kindness and some sort of creative passion, then I can pretty easily get on board.

You came out at 12 and have not considered yourself to be a closeted celebrity. But was there ever a moment when it hit you that while you were out in your real life, there wasn’t necessarily any way that the public would know that?

Not really. It was never really pertinent information to the work that I was doing, because I was always playing characters. It never really kept me from supporting things that I wanted to support or speaking out in favor of or against things that I wanted to speak out for or against. I just was waiting for the moment when it was relevant to the art that I was making. Of course, it feels really wonderful to be able to have it out in the open and to be a visible representation for younger people.

So many headlines about you recently have talked about you “coming out,” but it almost feels like you resist that characterization.

Well, it’s sort of the term that we have as part of the vernacular. I’m not aggressively upset that has been used. What’s been really great about the reaction to the music is that it’s been first and foremost people feeling like they have a connection to the experiences I’m singing about, rather than celebrating just the queer nature of it.

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