Ben Platt Slams 'Randos Being Jerks' Saying He's Too Old For Dear Evan Hansen Movie

“The film required me to revisit areas of personal pain, so seeing ppl excited & moved makes it so deeply worth it.”

Ben Platt is addressing the criticism over his real-life age in the film adaptation of “Dear Evan Hansen.”

After Universal Pictures released the trailer for the film on Tuesday, some fans criticized Platt’s casting, claiming the actor is too old to play the titular role since Evan Hansen is a high school student, while Platt is in his late 20s.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Platt, 27, — who originated the role of Evan Hansen on Broadway back in 2016 — called out the “randos being jerks” about his age.

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“thank u from the bottom of my [heart] for the outpouring of trailer love yesterday,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet, per Variety. “the film required me to revisit areas of personal pain, so seeing ppl excited & moved makes it so deeply worth it.”

“PS to the randos being jerks about age, read this great article and/or watch grease,” Platt added.

Alongside his since-removed tweet, “The Politician” star had attached a link to a Vanity Fair article in which he discussed his age in the film, noting that production had to move quickly.

“I think everybody obviously had in their minds that I wasn’t going to stay teen-adjacent forever,” Platt explained. “The need to get it done was a little urgent. Then of course the pandemic happened, and I kind of assumed that was that — it would be a no-go, and by the time the pandemic was over, I’d have outgrown it.”

Platt — whose critically-acclaimed performance of Evan Hansen on Broadway earned him a Tony award in 2017 — admitted that he was surprised that Universal “seemed to be really hell-bent on making” the film adaptation and wanted Platt to reprise his role.

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And, in director Stephen Chbosky’s eyes, no other actor could have played the anxiety-ridden teen aside from Platt.

“You just have to hear him sing the songs,” he told Vanity Fair. “His understanding of the character is so complete and so profound. I couldn’t imagine anybody else playing it. It’s his part. I felt very strongly about it. And to me it was never even a consideration.”

Getting back into the role, Platt said “it was much easier than performing in the show because obviously I wasn’t having to recreate the entire piece” every day, however, he noted that “physically it was very much the same experience.”

“I’d lost about 15 pounds and did a very specific diet, grew my hair out, and was shaving to make sure that I didn’t look like I had five o’clock shadow all the time, you know,” he said. “I was just stripping myself into being a teenager for the last time. For what is hopefully the last time.”

“Dear Evan Hansen” hits theaters September 24.

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