DEAR EVAN HANSEN Q&A | TIFF 2021

we are here with the team from tiff's opening night film dear evan hansen we have uh ben platt amandla stenberg julianne moore and director stephen jaboski in new york we have stephen levenson not far away in brooklyn he's a screenwriter and executive producer in la we have amy adams one of the stars of the film and danny pino who plays her husband these are the murphys and dear evan hansen and way over in rome we have caitlyn deaver who plays their daughter zoe murphy welcome to all of you and thank you so much for bringing dear evan hansen to the toronto film festival thank you thanks for having us thank you thank you and and you get to talk to each other across you know a continent and oceans as well um stephen i want to start with you you brought your debut feature the perks of being a wallflower uh to toronto in 2012 it premiered here and it really showed the world the skill you have with getting inside the heads and the hearts of young people uh you then had a sleeper hit with wonder in 2017 again focused on a young person going through some stuff uh and i wonder if dear evan hansen was a kind of a clear choice for you and kind of continuing that exploration of the lives of young people what was your path to making this film well the path i i really made the film as a fan i saw the show three years ago in new york i i didn't know anything about it i knew the title i knew that it won some awards but that was it i i knew the song waving through a window that was it and i was i just fell in love with the writing i thought steven's book was brilliant i loved the songs and i was just swept away and then now as i'm older as a parent of two young children i related to the parents as much as i related to the young people so it felt like a very natural fit it's funny i've made three studio features all of them have had terrible first days of school i'm looking forward to ending this trilogy on a high note and my next film i promise you will not have a first day of school i promise all right we may just hold you to that um ben you have been with dear evan hansen from the beginning uh playing the role on broadway winning awards left right and center for your portrayal um and and the film version though has got to be still a leap in terms of bringing that story to the screen making it work cinematically with all of your collaborators here um and making the character uh as powerful in the intimate world of cinema as it is in the grand scale of broadway can you talk a little bit about what you might have done to uh evolve your performance and your your characterization uh from stage to screen absolutely you know i think for me it was a lot about maintaining the essence of what the performance was on stage in terms of the emotional life and evan's anxiety and his internal struggle and the ways in which that manifests physically and all the components of the performance that are still sort of instinctual and somewhat second nature but um putting that in a much more sort of naturalistic and kind of grounded and a bit more of like a subtle palette sort of a world i think uh relying on again the intimacy of the camera and the kind of uh ability of very little to go a long way in that regard to to be my kind of guide and to uh make sure that all of those same kind of fraught emotions and worries were very much present but that i allowed them to remain just a bit more internal in in this iteration um and apart from you know stephen's wonderful direction a huge help in that was all of these very gifted screen actors that are in the ensemble with me because their performances were so deeply grounded and authentic and human and existed in such a real space that just responding and meeting them where they were did so much of the kind of demodulation and translation for me so i was very grateful to be with all of them it is an incredible cast stephen congratulations to you and your casting director on putting this team together um i want to go to some of the uh the other high schoolers uh now uh or playing high schoolers in the movie anyhow [Laughter] caitlin i i want to ask you and maybe then you amandla uh about the the characters you play and and what you brought to your performances you're both known for you know a bunch of different things you've done but including some defining uh high school movies uh in book smart and the hate u give and i wonder if you could talk about um creating uh performances that are gonna resonate with high schoolers now because high schoolers can be very uh cynical about you know the representation of themselves on screen and all of you i thought gave really authentic performances um of that time in people's lives can you talk about making sure that it felt real to high schoolers now yeah i i loved playing zoe murphy the iconic role of zoe murphy i i think my main focus was just one doing all the zoe murphy's before me justice because i felt coming into this project i was feeling some pretty large shoes and i was very nervous and put a lot of pressure on myself to um just do do it right and get all of those nuances correctly and and make sure i was i was keeping it grounded but also bringing um something of my own to it so i really just wanted to i i did revisit a lot of my my anxieties and and fears that i had in high school and i i don't know if those ever really go away they're still very much there but i think a lot of it was just about you know staying true to to what zoe was on paper and then having a lot of discussions with stephen about making sure that the levity was there and because it can get so it can sort of like it can be really tragic and what zoe is going through is so it's really unthinkable um but she what's so inspiring about her is that um she's a very very strong woman and she's a very very very um powerful girl and i loved i i wanted to keep in mind like the whole time um her resilience in the movie which is something that i i that inspired me throughout the film and amandla um yeah there definitely was like a re-visitation of feelings that i had when i was in high school uh as like a part of trying to get into alana's head and trying to do this this piece justice especially because it is so beloved by so many young people because the themes are so cathartic and necessary for young people to to feel seen and heard in this way i remember in high school caring a lot what people thought about me and that being like almost soul crushing at moments um and so that i kind of wanted to to bring to alana um because i feel like when you are that age and you're going through like the awkward process of fumbling into becoming a person um oftentimes you're kind of so concerned about the image you project outwards because you're still forming it and and so that felt important for alana that she's like fumbling through figuring out how to be a person too um and i don't know i i hope that that feels real to young people watching this because that's just a normal part of of being a person and becoming a person and and as you get older and you have more context for for your life and your sense of identity it becomes so much less important um and yeah i hope that they're able to feel while watching this movie and seeing these characters that um not knowing how to engage with the world at large or struggling with mental health is completely normal and just a part of growing up um amy and danny i want to go to you next um you know when you're a teenager you often feel that parents just don't understand but um but you know and you your characters are going through a lot in this film and yet you still have to give the impression that as much as you're going through that you are a family that there is still that connection uh between you and your daughter um can you talk about first of all how you create the fiction of these actors coming together to play a family that's lived together for you know many many years and then the the emotional uh depths you have to go to to to portray what this family goes through in the film please i think it it really speaks to the process we were able to go through the time we were able to spend together and the talent of the actors i got to work with this it during um the pandemic and shooting this we had all been so isolated so to have this moment of intimacy for me felt very profound and very it felt like such a gift and i was so grateful for it so i really like really um i really clung to my cast members in a way that i felt i ended up really using a cynthia because she is really clinging for intimacy for connection and yet the same time hiding from herself and not revealing herself to her family so so it is a she's on a journey and it's a process and and um i was just really grateful to the entire cast for for um the environment that was created on set and to stephen it was it was very special time to me i echo exactly what you're saying there was one moment i feel that uh brought all of that to the forefront that was when stephen chubowski uh asked us to to all show up at uh you know the more uh murphy house uh to feel the space out to get to know one another to uh to kind of immerse ourselves into this family and just like amy said we've we were also isolated for so long kind of preparing uh our characters in in a bubble in a way that when we were all finally able to meet uh in our house and to feel that environment uh you know it all started to settle from that moment so you know if if there's uh a feeling in the film that these characters are married and that they have a bond uh and that they're their children are bonded to them it all started there with with that meeting at that house um i want to ask uh now because we're talking about very serious subjects which the film is about but this is a musical and is anybody forgot i just want to ask you about favorite songs and um maybe i'll start actually stephen you haven't spoken yet and and you had the responsibility of bringing this from stage to screen uh as the writer um as you're writing this and you've got the whole musical in your head are there songs that for you just popped out that just were the ones that were your favorites yeah i mean my favorite song is the saddest song so i'm just going to bring it right back down i love the song words fail for me has always been an incredibly special song um i remember when benj and justin wrote it um and working on it we worked on it in dc we had an out-of-town production of the musical before it even went to new york and they i just remember being up in the rehearsal room in this theater in dc like trying to hash it out and ben came in and ben sang it and and so it's like it's very for me that song like so much of that process is embedded in that song for me um and it's just a beautiful song too it is um julianne i want to go to you next uh i think for both you and amy you know a lot of uh moviegoers will know you for you know award-winning dramatic roles but both of you can sing we know that and uh julian want to ask you about um the song you sing and just about you know your approach to the musical side of dear evan hansen well you know my singing was news to me let's put it that way i the last time i sang was um in high school and the music man and it wasn't very demanding at frankfurt american high school um so this was a this was a big this was a tall order and with with musical giants so i was excited and challenged and terrified um but also so so gratified to have this opportunity and as stephen was saying we talked about world war words fail every single song in this musical moves the story forward this is not the kind of musical where somebody's like let me tell you about this thing that happened to me right yes it's like you you're telling a story and you're moving you're communicating something to the character in front of you and and you're moving the story along so it's really very special kind of dramatic singing that that is uh it's just exquisite i mean and certainly you know with with ben platt at the helm of it i mean he's he's he's the one who's the master of that kind of musical storytelling so i it was an amazing experience for me to to work with these people to be supported in this way and to learn something so very very new and to get to communicate these beautiful thoughts in a song and ben stephen i mean as the the lead and the the director what were your favorite songs or just favorite moments of bringing the music uh forward in the movie oh i have two answers one is uh i really loved performing for forever in the context of this film because um in the in the musical it's a very beautiful and intimate song already but to get to sing it in the reality of the dining room sitting across from danny and amy and caitlin and watching them receive this kind of healing information and as evan allowing their reactions and their slow opening up uh encouraged me to keep going and keep talking and keep singing it was just very um it was very gratifying to see that image that i had always kind of imagined in my head in all these years of developing a musical come fully to life in a real space um and it's just always been my my favorite song and my other answer is anonymous ones which is the fantastic new song that amandla sings and also wrote with benj and justin um because i think it fills such an important hole in the in the stage piece of of really understanding the internal emotional life of alana and also where the relationship and deep friendship and connection between ilan and evan comes from and i think it's representative of a whole new group of people uh that the film is very specifically speaking to in terms of the people whose mental health struggles and emotional struggles don't present in the classic kind of more obvious ways that perhaps evans uh do um so i really love watching that song i agree go harvard westlake [Music] he's a college dropout listen to this kid it's unbelievable god bless you sir i will say for me uh i i could never pick a a favorite song just like i couldn't pick a favorite cast member uh they're all fantastic um for their own reasons um i will say though that's in terms of as the film director as as the when i saw it three years ago for the very first time the the song that changed it for me was actually requiem because i thought you know up until that point waving was great they're all great anybody have a map which we we ultimately didn't use was great it's all great for forever was was was revolutionary in its own quiet way but requiem i i gave huge props to um um benj and justin for dealing with the anger that people feel after suicide i've lost people that way i think a lot of us have and i thought that was very brave to just be very unabashed of like i'm not going to mourn you and i thought what a profound thing to say and the fact that in those brilliant lyrics that they're all saying i will sing a requiem tonight for three entirely distinct reasons um that inform their characters uh and show just how much they had to grow as as characters i i thought that was master class i'd never seen anything quite like it and so yeah i would say i would say requiem because it changed my perception of what the show was and um and but then working on every song like i said i could never pick a favorite they're all brilliant in their own way and as is every member of the cast thank you the last thing i want to ask and you've touched on it a bit is just what conversations did you have to strike that balance between the very serious themes of the movie in terms of bullying and anxiety and suicide and just the joy that comes across through the music these are just beautiful songs soaring music and ultimately you leave uplifted but you have to strike that balance because you can't you can't discount the seriousness of the themes in the movie either and that must have been a fine line to walk i'm wondering for all of you maybe starting with you stephen just what what kind of conversation did you have to make sure that you were always uh walking that line in the right way um well i'll be the first stephen that answers i hope mr legend i would say you know it starts with the writing for me um that's what i was gonna say thank you exactly you know what that you know what you start no no no no all right all right so um look steven levinson is is an amazing writer i love his writing so much i'm so this is the first thing i've ever directed that i did not write uh and it was it was so easy because of the quality of the writing and the quality of the songwriting of course um look we all we all are in the show uh we all show like show people and there's a reason why um the the drama mask is a happy face and a sad face i think it is the most um profound reflection of reality we're trying to go for something that was real not sad not this not the word was real we kept going for it over and over grounded and real you think about any funeral you've been to i guarantee you when someone gives a eulogy which is probably the most profound expression of what that person's life was there's always laughter because to remember someone uh with laughter and then with tears is the most profound way to see them that's how i see the world it's kind of how i live it and so with this incredible script and these wonderful songs and and these wonderful performers all of whom are funny all of whom are profound and they can play every color of the rainbow emotionally it was very very easy i know to me it was a celebration of life much like amy was talking we were all isolated for months and months and months before we even got to atlanta when for a lot of us we couldn't see our families for like in some cases four months so imagine all that isolation you're trapped in your house you can't go anywhere you can't hug anybody you can't see anybody's face because of the mask and the visors but then once they come off and these amazing people got to interact with each other we got to see faces in person which hadn't happened for any of us for months the combination of of the isolation and the depression anxiety that comes from it then with the joy of being able to take off the mask quite literally and and uh be grateful just to work something that we took for granted you know every crew member every cast member we all got to work again after a half a year of just sitting there it was profound that's what the movie is and that's why the movie feels the way it does wow fantastic thank you anybody want to add anything else to clothes but that was beautiful that was a mic drop [Laughter] evan levinson wrote it for me you're welcome i will just then thank all of you for taking the time to be here to talk about dear evan hansen for making the movie for taking us through some deep powerful emotions at a time when i think we just need to feel something and to connect with each other again so thank you all stephen levinson caitlyn deiver amy adams danny pino amandla stenberg julianne moore uh stephen jaboski and the star ben platt thank you

Channel: TIFF Originals

Views: 3,732

Rating: 5 out of 5

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

Id: nhPMjmDgsKQ

Length: 21min 27sec (1287 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 09 2021