Ben Platt Really Doesn't Want to Be Called a Nepo Baby

The actor is sparking new nepo baby discourse after shutting down a question during a Rolling Stone interview.

While Ben Platt is one of our favorite performers, he’s not perfect, and a recent interview with Rolling Stone has some fans side-eyeing the Pitch Perfect star.

In an interview with the actor about his new movie Theater Camp, which he also co-wrote, Platt was asked about how growing up with parents in the industry affected him. At first, Platt was happy to answer.

“The fact that I was in a family where we were listening to show tunes in the car, and all my siblings also love musical theater and we got to bond over it together, it was a cool thing and not like something to be ashamed of,” he said. “I think I owe a lot to that upbringing, and obviously musical theater brought me to my potential husband. So I certainly owe a lot to the openness and the artistic kind of freedom that was in my household.”

But when Rolling Stone asked about him being on the cover of New York Magazine’s Nepo Baby cover (which photoshopped his head, and other actors’ onto the bodies of babies), he shut down, asking if he could skip the question. When Rolling Stone asked if that meant “no comment,” his publicist stepped in and said they’d like to focus on Theater Camp for the interview.

Rolling Stone also says that shortly after that question was asked, Platt’s publicist intervened to say that they had only one question left, despite being only twenty minutes into what was supposed to be a 45-minute interview.

Platt became one of the focus points of a recent “Nepo Baby” discourse around actors and singers who have influential parents in the industry. His father is Marc Platt, a producer who has produced Broadway hits like Wicked, movies like La La Land and produced both the stage and film versions of Dear Evan Hansen, which starred Platt.

While Platt’s response to Rolling Stone’s question wasn’t that out of line or rude, a lot of people on the internet are dragging the Dear Evan Hansen star for refusing to answer.

Perhaps all it would take would be a simple answer acknowledging his privilege and moving on.

Platt’s very excellent film Theater Camp is now playing in limited movie theaters.