DEAR EVAN HANSEN Cinema Intro + Q&A | TIFF 2021

good evening we've missed you welcome to the 46th toronto international film festival welcome to all of you we are thrilled to see you here it's been a minute hasn't it it's great to be back here in roy thompson hall and we want to thank all of you for helping us to get this all started as you join us today we encourage you to reflect on the land that we're on and its history this is sacred land where we gather today and it's been the site of human activity for 15 000 years we're located on the treaty lands and territory of the mississaugas of the credit and the traditional territory of the anishinaabe the wendat and the haudenosaunee this territory is within the lands that are protected by the dish with one spoon wampum belt covenant and it's home to many first nations inuit and metis people and we are so grateful to be here working and sharing this land cinema lovers from all over the globe traveled to toronto in order to experience the most outstanding films in the world and yes traveling over these last 18 months has not been easy so we are especially thankful to be here with you our wonderful thief audience at roy thompson hall tiff's audience is a combination of film lovers all equal in their love for and curiosity about cinema and its ability to transform the way we see the world each year you our audience you show up to discover the latest from the world's best filmmakers you're here for the actors that light up the screen the artists who challenge us from every corner of the world and the stories that transform how we look at life each other and ourselves across every genre we'll see stories told of ordinary and extraordinary lives we are proud to bring these films to audiences in toronto tiff and the city work hand in hand in every year and their partnership consistently reveals the welcoming generous and innovative spirit of this city and that's toronto thank you to our lead sponsor bell our major sponsors rbc l'oreal paris and visa and our major public supporters the government of ontario telephone canada and the city of toronto we would also like to acknowledge our major industry partners ontario creates and again telefilm canada a tif we talk about the power of film to transform the way we see the world but we also know that not every story gets told so this week we launched every story a fun to support diversity equity and inclusion in film a very special thank you a very special thank you to nbc universal our founding fund partner who will match any donation made to every story we offer a heartfelt thank you to our wonderful dedicated board of directors and to our tireless chair jennifer torrey thank you to our generous donors partners and members for supporting tiff during our annual festival and year round at our home tifa lightbox tonight we also want to acknowledge two long-time tiff team members who passed away over the past year dimitri eppedes was a pure cinephile and a lifelong champion of the artist who opened our eyes to new ways of seeing for over 30 years he brought films mostly from europe and asia to toronto and he shocked us sometimes with the visions of filmmakers who've become regulars here jennifer barkin was the secret soul of our festival working as a coordinator and manager in festival programming she was the glue that brought all the pieces together and she did it all tirelessly jennifer also programmed for our tiff kids festival and later festival street we will miss jennifer and dimitri always the next 10 days will be filled with wonderful films and punctuated by simple meaningful moments and that is what makes tiff a unique going experience whether it's ben platt melting us with his magical voice legendary abenaki filmmaker elenisa bomsuen honoring audiences with a retrospective of her career hearing your favorite director or actor talked about their craft or enjoying an animated discussion at this industry conference i can promise that this year everyone will have a special thief moment that will stay with you before we introduce the opening night film i would like to acknowledge the immeasurable contribution of the founders of the toronto international film festival bill marshall dusty cole and hank van der kolk without this group of determined entrepreneurs these amazing gents we wouldn't be here today so thank you the province of ontario is a valued and long time supporter helping to make tiff happen each and every year especially through key funding support received from ontario creates the ontario arts council the reconnect festivals and events program and the ontario cultural attractions fund as such we're truly delighted to welcome the province of ontario tonight for this evening's screening please join me in welcoming an avid and outspoken champion of the arts and an incredible woman the honorable lisa mcleod ontario minister of heritage sport tourism and culture industries to the stage well hello everyone so i'm 46 years old and like everybody i haven't had a birthday party in 18 months and it occurs to me that tonight is tiff's 46th birthday and since they weren't able to have a proper 45th i thought we could all wish them tonight a happy birthday so before i get started at the count of three will you join me i'm wishing tiff a happy birthday will you you're way too quiet you will okay so on the count of three we're gonna yell out happy birthday tiff one two three happy birthday tiff hey it was a long time coming [Applause] it has been an incredibly difficult 18 months for the sectors that i represent here in ontario in heritage sport tourism and culture industries you know pre-pandemic we boasted about this spectacular double bottom line we drove 75 billion dollars in economic activity which was larger than agriculture mining and forestry put together larger than the gdp of manitoba and larger than the gdp of most countries but yeah i love it because guess what we aren't just an economic driver we're also the reason we love to live where we live whether that's in toronto the city i'm from the city of ottawa or any other point in between in this great province we represent culture the arts we represent sports and recreation hospitality and tourism who has a favorite restaurant that they're finally glad they got to go to i know you all do and that type of cultural fabric the society that we live in that's also what this ministry drives and that's why it's so important for us to be here together tonight now cameron and joanna i want to congratulate you for your resilience your efforts and we've remained in constant contact during the last 18 months and i knew from day one that no matter what happened tiff would stand strong and would continue to be here to support all of the canadian arts and culture sectors because of your drive and your commitment and here we are on your 46th birthday exactly and cameron mentioned the the support that he receives from my ministry whether it's the reconnect festival event program ontario cultural uh events and and uh a foundation fund uh through ontario crates in the ontario arts council and this year we're provide we're pleased to provide them 1.7 million dollars so they can continue to have this hybrid event but i gotta tell you as much as i love ontario place and i'm revitalizing it as the minister responsible and it's great to have a drive-in and drive-through opportunity there it's so much better to be back here at roy thompson hall isn't it and i'm really excited that there's going to be some ontario productions oscar peterson of course and lakewood but tonight we're here for uh evan and and all of those uh that are going to be here to support this incredible movie and i i gotta say in in reading about it and and thinking about it and as a mental health advocate myself evan hansen is about soul searching um it is profound it's it's thinking about coming of age and and how we talk and i know that it's it's a big broadway musical but wouldn't it be great if we could all just take the lessons that are learned there and really look at other muslims and dads and and uh and those of us who are raising children to really make sure that our children are resilient postcovid19 and think of films like this which are so profound and and wish everyone well and i have to say i'm going to conclude now because i've gone on too long and i do have an air canada flight to get back to in ottawa but i wanted to say um as evan hansen said today is going to be an amazing day and i'm not going to quote him on here's why but i am going to say to all of you because we're back it's great to be here with all of you i hope you enjoy the festival congratulations to both of you cameron and and uh and joanna and to all of the people that have made this happen next year number 47 i promise is going to be bigger and better have a great day everyone we are also happy to welcome an honorary member of the t family to the stage tonight we could not put on our festival without the support of our municipal government partner the city of toronto and the tireless efforts of mayor john tory in a in the year when we needed him most mayor tory did everything in his power to support tiff he has been a true champion of the festival and we are so grateful for his support everyone from our mayor's office our city of toronto councilors their staff the team the team from the city's economic development and culture division transportation services the ttc toronto police and beyond all are critically important in helping to make thief a success each year and every year for the enjoyment of both torontonians and visitors alike thank you for all you do please join me in welcoming a very dear friend of tiff his worship john tory mayor of toronto to the stage after that joanna i have nothing to say but um thank you uh to you too uh and and i'll add my sister into that i'm so proud of her she's the chair of tiff it seems like a long way from the days when she used to chase me around the house with a hairbrush accusing me of teasing her which was unfounded allegations but you know tiff is something that is easy to be proud of and easy to support because it is so important to the city and i think it's been especially important it is especially important uh in a year like this when we've just been through uh the pandemic we haven't been able to do the things that we enjoy being together whether it's out on the street awaiting some of the people who grace us with their presence in town during tiff or being inside here watching movies together there were simpler things than that that we treasure so much being with family and so on that we we just couldn't do for so long and so i'm so happy that they had the courage and the gumption uh because they talked with me about it and many others in the spring to say we're going to move ahead and do uh tiff and it's going to be different than last year and that we're moving ourselves back to what i just said on the red carpet was the big enchilada that we'll have back next year but but these two leaders were so blessed to have them uh as as a part of the sort of cultural fabric of our city and film you know film is so important uh to toronto um it's true it's important in the production end where we're doing as much as we've ever done and and that brings so many talented people to the city but they join all the talented people that are here if you went abroad and some of you i'm sure have been abroad but i end up talking about the film industry to promote this as a place to produce movies and herd what people say about our talented people that produce films here and that perform every job in the production of films here you'd be very proud of that and of course everywhere i go representing the city and trying to attract investment at jobs the one thing they know there's several things they know more than you might think about toronto they know about tiff and it's something to be extremely proud of and it's to be proud of because it's the people's film festival it brings people together it celebrates artistry including canadian artistry which is very important and i think all of those things are um to be to be celebrated whether it's year 46 or year 146 because i won't be around for that but we'll we'll get there so i've written i actually wrote myself and sometimes people write things for you and i'm not going to deliver any of this no in this case i didn't throw away somebody else's speech i actually threw my own speech away but i just want to say this this is a city i just and i know i hope you all feel this way it's a city that is going to come back strong uh in fact we did a a sort of seminar today for 1500 people from around the world who are prospective investors and they all came online we thought we might have a couple hundred we had 1500 people from 50 countries and the thing was called stronger than ever and you know the right stuff is here tiff is here and tiff has gone through this pandemic and the talent pool that we have here in every field including film but not limited to film the arts and cultural world which represent the soul of the city and of this country and of people the diversity of the city so people can stand and and watch a film or celebrate a concert together and even if they can't speak to each other they can they can you know be together the values that we have the values of respect and embracing each other and caring about each other as we did throughout the pandemic and so i just want people to kind of come through this different tiff with a great sense of hope this represents a great sense of hope that we're here tonight starting another festival it's a bit different but it's going to be great and it represents lots more to come because we're doing so well also at doing what we have to do and getting vaccinated so i wanted to say thank you to you because i don't haven't had a chance to speak to any audiences of more than well the people at home my family they get tired of listening to me but in person i haven't like everybody else and it's been a team effort that's got us here and we've got a little distance yet to go but we're going to get there because this is the greatest city and the greatest country in the world and i'm so proud and privileged to be its mayor thank you very much thank you meritori and i love that message of hope i hope that if you are still getting used to wearing heels or hard pants that you're still comfortable because it's been a while since we had to do that but we're going to ask that of you more often i think you know finding an opening night film is both a challenge and an honor and the last year and a half have been a challenge for all of us as we were watching films over the summer it became clear that we needed a movie that acknowledged the challenges we face in life but that also celebrated the power of connection of really seeing one another and this year one film hit all the right notes for opening night dear evan hansen that's right directed by stephen chubowski dear evan hansen is based on the award-winning broadway phenomenon it stars tony winner ben platt as evan along with amy adams julianne moore caitlin deiver amandla stenberg nick dadani so many more it is just a wonderful film steve returned this year in the wake of a pandemic that has changed all of our lives we felt it was important to open to open this tiff 2021 with the film that connects us to our shared humanity and they remind us how deeply we need one another and need to be seen by one another especially in times of loneliness and uncertainty dear evan hansen is ultimately about healing and forgiveness and reaffirms how connected and essential we all are to one another we couldn't think of a more important idea to celebrate this year as we come together once again to share the power and joy of cinema in theaters massive thanks to nbc universal for bringing us this film and now we couldn't be prouder to present the world premiere of dear evan hansen so please join me in welcoming director stephen chubowski screenwriter and author of the musical steven levenson producer adam siegel actors colton ryan danny pino nick d'addani amandla stenberg julianne moore get out here people and the star of dear evan hansen ben platt hello toronto i agree um i have i have to say uh once more for this amazing cast thank you um so i want to thank uh uh quick personal story so nine years ago i brought my very first studio movie it was called the perks of being a wallflower and i premiered it thank you i premiered it here at the toronto international film festival and it was a night that changed my life it was the opening the world premiere was right here and i never forgot that experience i love this city i've had the greatest times in this city i've been here many many times so it feels like coming home for me personally but i yeah thank you very much i didn't know you made it mom anyway um so uh but i want to say i thought i was thinking backstage listening to uh cameron and joanna very uh eloquently speak and the mayor and the minister and i was just thinking about wow this is opening night here you all are we've all been sequestered in our worlds for a long time it has taken a terrible toll on all of us we all know that but here we are with hope in our hearts and we're here and we're together and that is remarkable so i want to talk about opening night and here it is so a little secret you may or may not know so we all know that ben platt played evan hansen on broadway i myself yes yes he already knows that okay so uh i myself never saw him perform that character on stage um so for me and this goes for every member of the cast for me every day on set was like opening night every take was like big front row center just like watching and marveling at these unremarkable actors and reading mr levinson's uh amazing words and story it was an honor to be there and the thing is when when we all went to atlanta georgia we were there for four months and for all of us who traveled from out of town we couldn't see anybody you couldn't go out to dinner there was no bars we just were there but then we would go to set and we'd take off the mask for the visors and this magical moment happened and when i said it's like every moment was like opening night and so now you guys get to have the bragging rights forever to say like you were here not only opening night of dear evan hansen not only opening night of tift but as far as i'm concerned the opening night of cinema in theaters in north america you're here so so thank you for for being here thank you so much for having us it is an honor to be the opening night film um and uh as the the movie said and the reason why we all made it is just to make all of us here to finally know and i love this lyric so much to that we all know that you are not alone so thank you to tiff thank you all of you and uh i hope you enjoy the show thank you uh okay um so i was in the original broadway company of this show um and i would watch from the wings uh thank you and i it was um the first big professional gig of my life and it was all of my dreams come true um and that was a lot of it was because of music's been a big part of my life for most of my life and the musicianship that comes with the quality of this material and then you know ben i mean um recording in progress fantastic i don't want to talk anymore i'm sorry um i feel betrayed um no but but to be i mean you all saw it but um especially when you see it live it is just um it is it's just religious you know and um i won't i won't go too much farther down that tooting his horn but i will say the thing about this movie even me as a viewer and something as growing up loving musicals and loving musical films is just always i've always had that desire to see people just open their mouth and it'd be organic and natural and it just flow out just live and just for as i get older and i'm more in the business i understand that's a little harder to do but the commitment to that on this film i think is what it made me especially feel like as someone who's seen this show the stage show live about like 4 000 times it was like i was there again tonight um they all saw i was kind of pulling myself together just a second ago i'm still misty-eyed about the whole thing and i think it's the live aspect of it that just puts you back just like we were there at the music box in that congregation receiving that sort of i don't know i mean communion or whatever whatever it is for you but like for me it just the live aspect of it was such a thrill and i'm so proud to be a part of that like lineage and everything [Applause] and i i should say colton was the second evan hansen ever like the second person to ever play that role other than ben after three years of ben so it's kind of remarkable to be sitting here on stage with both of you after that journey yes well it's remarkable for me because more tooting ben's horn i learned so much just watching him so um i would i mean i'd even thank him i wouldn't i don't think i'd be on this stage if it wasn't partly a mentorship that he doesn't know that he um accepted but but one that i i have um been gladly receiving for so long are you proposing to me cue it that was the recording they're gonna get it all right here it turns out it was gay [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh um it was a really special experience i don't sing um and so the music team set up private lessons for me to help to help with with that and the very first uh rehearsal we had in person in atlanta it was just supposed to be me and the music director private safe space ben walks in just to say hello and be nice we hadn't met yet and the music director was like why don't you sing together [Music] and uh i had a very quiet panic attack and i don't know if you remember but i basically whispered sincerely me um that first time um but ben is the sweetest and so it was it was we found a lot of like jared and evan chemistry off-screen which was really really delightful um and wow did you hear that get married already okay the movie we just got we are patience please come on uh stephen levinson i wanted to ask you what it was like to see something that you had worked on for so many years and through that incredibly successful tony award-winning run on broadway see that become a film and also was that a challenge to kind of let some of that that control go and let it into the hands of the filmmakers yeah i mean it was it was certainly a challenge and a thrill i have to say you know part of the reason i think you write a musical in the first place or you know you find out really quickly whether it's right for you is if you are into the idea of collaboration because it is such a collaborative medium and for me this was really an extension of that it was an opportunity to collaborate with more people a bigger team um but it was certainly i mean it was hugely thrilling to get to see it come to life on the screen and to get to see it on this screen and mostly to get to work with this company of actors i mean they're just there's nobody better and to get to see them bring this material to life was was just every day was a thrill and incredible especially in those dark days the pandemic uh getting to show up to work every day and and watch them come to life was was was everything um stephen chbosky i want to ask you you know when we saw the film we saw the film in june when we were putting this festival together and we were working from home and dealing with isolation which the film very much treats and what i loved what we all loved those of us who saw it was that is it's really sincere in addressing how hard and how painful it can be to feel alone to feel like you can't tell people what is in your deepest heart and then it brings you out of that and it gives you a a reason why connecting is so important um and you know whenever you're sincere in any art form that there's a risk to that you're really putting yourself on the line i wanted to ask you about the tone of the film maintaining what was already in the play and and just any risk you felt in terms of just you know putting your heart out there um i didn't i didn't particularly feel at risk with it i uh you know um i came to it because i i just simply love the show like a lot of other people love the show i think steven's writing is brilliant genuinely brilliant and i loved the characters and i thought that the language was amazing and i thought the songs were beautiful so there wasn't a whole lot of risk involved i felt like because i felt like as a fan i was trying to make the movie for people like me like the like the fans um and you ask a very interesting question i don't i don't know what it is maybe as i'm getting older i've made more movies i do make emotional films i'm not terribly apologetic about it i'm a dude from pittsburgh i don't you know what i mean i i wear my heart on my sleeve and if you don't like it off you know what i'm saying and so [Applause] so um yeah i there's no risk in that to me there's only reward you know when you the one thing that's interesting about directing and something i love about it so much is that like so often people like think that you're what you're trying to cast or crew or you're putting together is you're looking for the right actor or the right this or the right that i'm only looking for people what is amazing about being a director is it's like you have the ultimate backstage pass you know i'm not doing the performances i'm not i'm not doing the writing i'm not doing the music what i'm doing is facilitating and really just celebrating i hope supporting brilliant people and i get the front row center seat and i just watch it it is remarkable to do to to experience there's no risk in that it's just beauty that's all it is and it's just life like the fact that i got to work with these amazing people day in day out um the fact that like this amazing writer and i'm a fellow writer so i have a special reverence for stephen um that we were able to work on this you know the script and develop it together um you know with and he he would listen to whatever thoughts i had and the producers and there were so many other people that are not on this stage who who had a hand in this to me again what's the risk in that look if we're we're sitting in this auditorium right now that means whatever tragedy that we might have experienced in our families for the last year and a half we are alive we are here we saw art that was great and we made it so you know look sorry that my pittsburgh is showing but like you know you know what i mean i just what's the risk we're alive the movie rocks this guy's a genius these people are amazing we're here in toronto here it is i love a little pittsburgh um as my last question for all of you i want to ask you not what was your favorite song in dear evan hansen but what is the song that you felt what song did you hate no what song did you feel best express something about you what did you most connect with uh as whether it's the music or the lyrics of the combination what song did you connect with most and can we go to roma caitlyn are you there still i am here hello oh gosh i i truly just love the music in this movie it's it's so hard um to pick just one because i do feel like there's so many different songs in the musical that represent a lot of my emotions all packed into one um i'd say uh i guess requiem was was um i think my favorite one to sing and my favorite to listen to and my favorite to watch when i saw it on broadway uh i think for for zoe as a character you know she's it's her moment to really sort of come to terms with how she's feeling and she's feeling just so so lost and it's um a way for her to release but as a person as um you know performing that song uh on set it really felt like i was releasing a lot of um uh built up tension and and um anger and i think it was um really helpful for me as a as a as an actor i i think my um personal connection to it was that i it was actually really amazing when i was doing the pre-reports um right before we started shooting i i i really overcame like a lot of my own personal fears um and i was all of a sudden like unafraid to just fall if i needed to fall or um you know i i it was a really really uh eye-opening experience performing that song and then seeing it in the film um with danny and amy and all of us getting to sing together in rehearsal um he was like really really really special to people um to experience those emotions with the two of them they're just so brilliant and i love them so much so requiem would probably be my my favorite because it's just a such a beautifully written song and i love that um you know all of the music in this musical but but really the the dialogue um and the lyrics like blend so so beautifully let's go to the rest of your screen family danny do you want to go next what song was it for you oh man caitlyn just made me tear up again thanks caitlin anything that ben platt sings like literally anything that ben platt sings um man there's so many songs in this movie that the first chord plays and i'm already losing water weight right like the tears start to to stream um man sincerely me i think lifts the whole thing and it sets this this movie this show on a path of like the high school should be fun this should be fun and look what we're dealing with um yeah so that always hits me um so big so small destroys me i mean it just i can't i had to crawl out of the theater after how did you get through making this movie he's really hard on you no it's it's it's it's tough and and colton you know the hope that colton sings with and knowing what happens to conor that that is really difficult to deal with but if i had to pick a song that influenced me the most it's a song that's not even in the movie it's uh to break in a glove which is which it's it's in the broadway show but uh did not make the film but i i learned it because i wanted it to influence the scene that ben and i played with the baseball glove and you know that that missed opportunity to play catch uh i needed to i have two sons and so to understand that and to pay the price for uh pay the price to play that scene i felt that learning that song was the price i had to pay to play that scene the way it deserved to be played and so i love that song even though no one will ever hear me sing it it lives inside of me anyway that's that's my really long-winded answer [Applause] uh this is really bringing something out so um amy i do want to go to you next i i kind of wanted to get a sense from the family but maybe we'll do more of a kind of a lightning round to get a sense of just what song touched you what song moved you i'm messing it all up under your answer you got it i'll go fast so of course so big so small i'm i'm a mom and when i saw that in the theater i i made it through the whole show is really trying to be brave because i hate crying in public and when they sang that song i was like you guys are just mean that's just me it's so beautiful and so poignant but in filming i'm going with for forever and anyone who was there with me will attest it was like three days i just couldn't stop crying i realized what the song um meant to cynthia and to hear so i'll start crying again to hear ben sing it uh for days on end and just the depth of of um in hope and him creating a friend for himself while he's also giving me my son it's it's a beautiful moment and so i'm going for forever so thank you amy colton what about you um uh lightning um waving because it's a bop and um and because it was the first time that uh i essentially met amy adams where we looked across the table uh i was trying to hide my face because i was weeping really bad at the first table read where everyone was meeting each other and she looked up and was like it's okay me too as we both just kind of across the table like so that's how i met my hero amy adams amazing um nick uh the anonymous ones for sure thanks nice this is a manless song yeah i mean the idea that anxiety and depression don't always look like what we think it looks like and there are people who are achieving great things who still struggle with that i relate to that very much so thank you for doing that it's such a beautiful song amandla let's go to unix what song maybe it is the anonymous ones or another one that really um you connected i'm not about to say my own song crazy you can say your own song it's all right um my answer changes every time but i think today i'll say for forever as well um because seeing that imaginary relationship between connor and evan just really murders me um these people who are both so in need of connection and love and and this imaginary scenario in which they find it is like what i hope for everybody um and so yeah it just really moves me and i hope that this film provides that space and that opportunity for people to feel seen and not alone and to find friendship um and yeah to feel loved by it so yeah for forever today i love you julianne you can also say your own song if you want was it was it the one you sing it's hard to it's hard to not relate to so big so small because it's the ultimate mom's song right i mean to be able to to tell your child that you'll never leave them ever and so so for me it's of course really personally you know really really resonant and it feels like a monologue which i understand it was initially and then that stephen wrote then they turned into this song so that but i also want to say if i could tell her because my daughter when she hears that song always looks at me because she's 19 years old and i think it's really resonant for her that someone is singing about how much he loves a girl and it's really it really touches me that she looks at me that way because she feels seen when she hears that song and i love that i love that about it [Applause] all right i think it's probably the hardest question for the two uh i've left to the last stephen and ben is there one song that you feel touches you the most for me in this experience you know i had a lot of time with these songs over the years and they've sort of seeped into my skin but for me the discovery of this experience was a little closer which is the last song that conor sings i think i deal with a lot of anxiety myself and things can feel very overwhelming and sort of insurmountable and there's something like kind of revolutionary in the hope of that sentiment of that song of just like all that matters is that it's a little bit just a little increment of positivity or hope or forward movement it doesn't need to be leaps and bounds you don't have to tackle everything at once and i've found that you know in the months since then if there's ever been times when i've needed a message like that i've returned to that song and i think it's particularly powerful as danny was saying because it's from the most unlikely source of this character who we know eventually reached a point where they had no hope left and there was they were full of despair to know that someone like that can even feel those sentiments at some point and can offer that message of hope for the people that are left behind i feel like is incredibly powerful and it's my probably my favorite addition um in terms of the difference from this from the stage to the screen so i'd say that song and colton sings it so so beautifully yes he does you know i i was thinking tonight when i started working on this musical with benj and justin i was much closer to the age of evan than i am now um and in the process of making this musical and making this film i now have two kids of my own and i i feel like there's something i've gone from really understanding the kids in this into feeling like that's who i am in this story to sort of understanding the parents better and there's something about not to make it sound too grand but i think with art in general there's something about how it can reach you at different points in your life and you can connect with it in different ways and there's something really powerful about that and the circle of it and the cycle and um that's just really profound and so yeah thank you stephen [Applause] um you know what's great about making a movie is you know in editing you watch it probably 300 times and every time it's a little bit different and so it's impossible to pick a favorite song they're all great um it's it's like impossible to pick a favorite actor they're all great or a favorite child both of mine are great um but uh but i will say but i will say i i'll share a moment it's really a moment and every actor here had something akin to this moment whether it was funny or was moving or whatever it was um you know because i could go on and on about crying when caitlyn auditioned with only us which was amazing or watching them sing in the bedroom but i'll take it down to this one moment so it was day two of shooting and the song was words fail which no one's mentioned um and words fail got me tonight i was up there uh watching and i was just like oh god this poor kid he's just like confessing and he just i remember i remember being in the woods um and i'd heard because i'd never seen ben perform it uh perform that song live i'd heard it but i'd never seen it and i heard this remarkable thing about him it was kind of legendary in broadway already i was like oh yeah this guy man you know i heard it's like i didn't know anything about you it was like oh this guy he can like have a breakdown and then sing with an open throat and then he can like cry and then he can sing delicately and it's like it's like physiologically impossible with this he does and and so i i heard about it and so i was like well and i talked to ben i was like what do you need how can i make it a nice atmosphere how can i be supportive what do you need so we we kind of scheduled the day to be a certain way to sing that final part where he does a thing of the tree and when i saw it for the first time and the and the crane went backwards and it was like i was like thank god i had the bottle in the right place because here comes the lightning right and it was remarkable so for me even though there is no favorite song like there is no favorite actor i like in terms of like a moment that i'll never forget as long as i live was watching this young man sing that way live in those woods because that's what you guys saw you know you saw take four for whatever it's worth that was take four but eve from the very first moment it was so remarkable and i think it'll probably always be my favorite moment um in the movie um it's and forget about the fact that you know you will be found which is another amazing song and when when he finally finished performing it that you gave me your cast i'll never forget as long as i live anyway so there is no favorite song they're all wonderful these actors are wonderful and ben platt you are a physiological anomaly thank you stephen i want to just ask you we're out of time but please join me in thanking this amazing team behind dear evan hansen director stephen chubowski writers stephen levinson colton ryan danny pino nick dedani amandla stenberg julianne moore star ben platt and joining us remotely amy adams and caitlin thank you all [Music] [Applause]

Channel: TIFF Originals

Views: 1,116

Rating: 4.8947368 out of 5

Keywords: TIFF, Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Film Festival, TIFF21, TIFF Bell Lightbox

Id: fL3kY82AibA

Length: 47min 38sec (2858 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021