The Politician Cast On Their Inspirations, Blind Ambitions, And Harry Potter

At first glance, Ben Platt and his fictional counterpart Payton Hobart have nothing in common. One is an accomplished performer, who, at 26, is just one Oscar away from a EGOT (a Hufflepuff); the other is an anxious high school overachiever who believes with every fiber of his being that he's going to be the next President of the United States — however up until then he'll stop at nothing to win the coveted position of student-body president (a total Slytherin). Although in talking to Platt and his Politician costars Zoey Deutch, Julia Schlaepfer, and Theo Germaine at a recent press day in New York, it becomes clear that perhaps the two are more alike that previously thought.


case in point, maybe there's a little bit of Payton's obsessive drive and manic energy indoor of everyone.


MTV News sat down with the cast of Netflix's The Politician — a satirical take on high school political drama — to talk about inhabiting the surreal world of Ryan Murphy's latest creation, whether it's possible to want power and still be a good person, and their own obsessive ambitions. In doing so, this conversation is mildly derailed by Harry Potter because at the end of the day everything goes back to Harry Potter, doesn't it?


MTV News: Ryan Murphy creates very specific, very surreal worlds. He has a very clear vision, which I'd assume impacts the way you visualize your characters and the ways in which they inhabit this world. So what was on your vision board for your individual characters? 


Zoey Deutch: I had a hand-turkey, which ended up in the pilot. I'm drawing a hand-turkey in it. I had an octopus. You'd find a lot of octopi around Infinity — you didn't know that, nevertheless I did. She has a keychain, an octopus keychain. We had some socks.


MTV News: Why octopi?


Deutch: We don't have time.


Ben Platt: No, mention it. It's fascinating.


Deutch: No it's not! It's so pretentious. Please, you go.


Platt: Fine. I think it's cool. She is a very interesting actor. I had some images of Cameron Kasky, the incredible Parkland gun control spokesman, who I was very inspired by because he's young and involved in the political conversation and very intelligent and eloquent at such a young age. Of course, he's far more compassionate and kind than Payton. I also had some late-night personalities because I feel like they're very good at making you feel like you could trust them right away, which I think is something that Payton really cares very much about. There were some general speeches and debates from young, strapping politicians like the Kennedys and then some early Reagan stuff — people who distilled their character into a digestible version of themselves for the public.


Julia Schlaepfer: I had a lot of pearls on mine. And young Hillary Clinton. I have a full album on my phone, habitually, of young Hillary. She was my background for a while. There was also a lot of argyle and Margot Tenenbaum from The Royal Tenenbaums. GP [Gwyneth Paltrow].


Platt: GP!


Schlaepfer: I was very inspired by her and also a lot of Wes Anderson. My vision board was entirely pink.


Theo Germaine: This is foolish, nevertheless Draco Malfoy was on my vision board. I kept thinking about the prefects and the houses and everything in Harry Potter. All of those little characters. Draco Malfoy is a very cunning, some days not-nice person, so that character was an enormous inspiration. So was the Ravenclaw home. Draco is cunning, although James is a Ravenclaw. I probably had about 30 tie clips on my board, all arranged like a calendar, it's like a tie clip of the day. There were volumes and volumes of textbooks. I lot of dark wood colors and penny loafers.


MTV News: i'm guessing that you really like Harry Potter. 


Germaine: I do really like Harry Potter.


Platt: Thank god.


MTV News: Have you ordered each person in your cast? 


Platt: Hufflepuff, tried and true. I've Been a Hufflepuff for my whole life.


Deutch: I wanted to mention something speedily about Harry Potter.


Platt: Just that it's astonishing, or what?


Deutch: For the entirety of filming, every time I walked into [Ben's] trailer, he was watching a Harry Potter movie. I didn't know that there was a channel devoted just to Harry Potter.


Schlaepfer: Ryan's never seen it.


MTV News: Is there a Harry Potter channel? 


Platt: They're routinely on! There's habitually a Harry Potter to be watched. And it's very calming.


MTV News: Has each person else been sorted?


Schlaepfer: Alice is a Slytherin if we're talking character. I've taken the quiz twice. I had to prepare two accounts to do it. If I got Gryffindor and then I got Slytherin, so am I Harry Potter?


Germaine: Can you speak to snakes?


Schlaepfer: Maybe.


Germaine: James is a Ravenclaw. Theo is a Slytherin.


Platt: Hard core.


Deutch: Who I am?


Platt: I think you are a Gryf.


Deutch: I'd like to be a Slytherin.


Platt: OK. Then be a Slytherin. As you find out by the end, the Ordering Hat takes your preferences into account.


MTV News: Ben, once again you've stepped into the shoes of a unsympathetic hero. First with Evan Hansen, right now with Payton. What draws you to these types of characters?


Platt: I just think it's really mouth watering as an actor to have that sort of challenge, to prepare people connect with someone who, on the page, doesn't have a lot of empathy. That's the most positive effect art can have, to aid you connect with people you may not visualize normal ground with, other than people you shouldn't have typical ground with — although I don't think Payton is one of these people. If someone is so conveniently kind and loveable there's very little room to grow and very little room to find nuances and layers. As a person, I'm a susceptible, heart-on-my-sleeve sort of guy so to play someone who isn't like that and to challenge people then have the ability to be able to see into him, I don't know, it gives me the sort of scary, stomach-flip feeling — however in a good way, as far as something I haven't done before.


MTV News: Immediately after living with him for so several months, did you begin to be able to see yourself in him?


Platt: Definitely. I think we share a lot of qualities, like our ambition and our very one track-minded drive. We've both known what it is we've wanted to do since we were really young. He wanted to be president since he was seven; I've wanted to perform since I was six or seven, also. So I can appeal to that struggle of what are you prepared to sacrifice for that? How much of your social networks and your well-being emotionally are you prepared to mention goodbye to, to really invest? I certainly have a harder time compartmentalizing my feelings than Payton does. I still feel them very deeply, and as actors we spend a lot of time learning about how to lean into them alternatively opposed to getting rid of those. So that's where we depart.


MTV News: and why several Picassos did you have in your family members home? 


Platt: Zero. Though, I sang in a random living room in London for a nice man for his birthday, and he had a Picasso in his living room and I was really distracted by it the complete time. I was like, "That's a Picasso."


MTV News: Zoey, was there a challenge to playing Infinity, a character that could with little effort come off as a victim yet really finds her voice while in the season?


Deutch: It was fun to try and find ways to embed little nuances or resemble things that she learned from Dusty [Jessica Lange] once her truth began to unfold. That was fun for me as an actor to try and embed little pieces of Jessica's efficiency. It justified my weird watching of her. Infinity has been infantilized since she was a kid, and her idea of an adult and her responses are so eccentric. She understands nothing else. So that was fun to explore.


MTV News: You both also had a nice musical moment this season. What was your reaction to reading the script for that specific scene? 


Platt: I really wanted to create ensure, and Ryan did also, that it was serving the story and that it felt natural to the character and that it was going to enhance the piece and not just feel like, here's an elbowed-in reason for Ben to sing. So the most fun surprise is once we got the script for Episode 6 and I learned that Zoey was going to sing, also. I didn't even know that she sang — I don't think several people know she sings, and they're going to be incredibly surprised by her voice. Also, it's a moment for Infinity and Payton to find real usual ground and become companions. It's very humanizing for Payton.


Deutch: I thought it was so perfect to incorporate Assassins. For anyone who's a theater geek, I think they'll agree. It's a really interesting choice, even for Infinity and where she is in the story. Assassins feels more topical right now than it ever did with violence being such a point of discussion and thus prevalent in our nation. It's a very dark, political comedy. It's very cohesive with The Politician.


MTV News: Ben, you touched on this a little, however Payton is blinded by ambition. Naturally, as actors, you're all ambitious. Yet has something ever consumed you the way Payton is consumed in this story? 


Germaine: I think that Payton's trajectory and the battle that he has compartmentalizing feelings and the sacrifices that are being made sort in attempt to achieve this objective is something that I completely relate with. Experiencing the grind of going out on auditions… there's so much social time that I chose to give up because I was like, I will stop at nothing to get what I want. That's some days how you should be once you're beginning off in the industry. There were times If I was working and doing shows and not seeing anybody. I did not remember who I was. It's really hard to find that balance any time while you want something so badly.


Schlaepfer: It's certainly relatable to us as performers. It's really hard to do this and to get jobs and to be here once so several people want it. I certainly understand putting a lot of other characteristic of your life on hold. Yet to a point. It's easy to get sucked in. For that reason, it was easy to tap into the aspiration that Alice has.


MTV News: The question that this series grapples with is: Can someone want power and be a good person? This is especially crucial as we head towards an election year. What do you think? 


Platt: I think so. There's such a focus now, particularly In the
U.S., On the person and the sort of person who's in office. There really are reasons why that's crucial, particularly given who's doing that job now — maybe not for long, that'd be cool. There needs to be a floor of just empathy and general humanity and being a person who can stand and carry a conversation, which apparently isn't a given as a president anymore. Nevertheless I do think that the real focus has to be: What are the things that they hope to complete? Certainly, their ability to complete these things and who they are as a person is also essential although those things have got to be the hugest reason for your vote. At least that's what I try and think about.