Rolling Stone Wonders if Ben Platt Shut Down Interview Over 'Nepo Baby' Question

Tony-winner Ben Platt shut down an interview with Rolling Stone halfway through its scheduled 45-minute length, IndieWire reports.

Was the reason the "Nepo Baby" question? Rolling Stone thought so, headlining with "Don't Ask Ben Platt This One Question."

"When asked about Platt's inclusion in the infamous 2022 New York Magazine 'Nepo Baby' cover issue, Platt replied, "We're going to skip right over that if we can." His publicist later intervened (as included in the Rolling Stone piece), "If we could just focus on 'Theater Camp,' that would be great. Thank you."

Platt won a Tony Award for the musical "Dear Evan Hansen" in 2016 at the age of 23, playing a troubled teenager who uses the death of an acquaintance to become a social media personality.

He is the son of Marc Platt, a film, television, and theater producer whose credits include "Legally Blonde," "Into the Woods," "La La Land," "Mary Poppins Returns," and the musical "Wicked." Ben was a theater kid from an early age, growing up with "Molly Gordon and BFF Beanie Feldstein, [and] attending a performing arts school and appearing in the ultimate theater kid role as Winthrop in a Hollywood Bowl production of 'The Music Man' starring Kristin Chenoweth," adds Rolling Stone.

After winning the Tony, his career was on the upswing and Platt was coming into the national consciousness when he starred in the Netflix series "The Politician."

"Then came the backlash: in 2021, a trailer for the film adaptation for 'Dear Evan Hansen' was met with widespread opprobrium, with many TikTok teens brutally lambasting the then-27-year-old Platt for being too old for the role.

"Adding insult to injury, the releasee 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...," writes Rolling Stone.

"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."

After a dozen or so questions related to his career and "Theater Camp," Rolling Stone reporter EJ Dickson asked about the New York Magazine story, which was when Platt asked to "skip right over" the topic. "No comment?" asked Dickson.

Then, after six more questions – none related to the "Nepo Baby" issue – the publicist ended the interview, saying that Dickson had one more question.

At that time, Platt was asked about his engagement with actor Noah Galvin, who replaced Platt in "Dear Evan Hansen" in 2017. They were engaged last November.

"We're zeroing in on the big things and then trying to plant the flag far enough out that we can kind of take a little breather," Platt answered. "I think we are loving the being able to call each other fiancé, and obviously you only get that one time. So I don't think there's any rush. But we're zeroing in on a time and a place and having all the Jewish mother discussions that go along with having a giant Jewish family and figuring out what our version of that is gonna look like."

Platt's career is still on the upswing. Last fall he came to Broadway in the hit revival of the musical "Parade," which won the Tony Award for Best Musical and Platt another Tony nomination. He also co-wrote and stars in the mockumentary "Theater Camp," which opened in New York Friday to a rave from the New York Times. He based the film on his experiences as a teenager in a theater camp.