Hollywood Insider

‘The Politician’ cast weigh in on the relevance of the show and coping with COVID-19

Los Angeles — We recently interviewed the cast members of "The Politician," the new satirical melodrama from the creative mind of Ryan Murphy.

On Virtual call, Ben Platt, Lucy Boynton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judith Light and Bette Midler all weighed in on the relevance of the much-talked-about TV series during these times and how they are all coping with COVID-19 and self-isolation.

Below are excerpts of our conversations with them:

Ben Platt (Payton Hobart)

Talk about working with Bette Midler and Judith Light on the show.

It was such an extraordinary experience. With Judith, I’ve watched her recently on so much fantastic television, obviously especially in the Ryan Murphy zone so I was expecting her to be fantastic. And I think the surprise for me there was what a beautiful person she is, she’s just so generous and still loves the work so much even though she’s been doing it for so long. She still appreciates it so much and wants every day to be fun and full of energy and to make choices. And she never takes it for granted. And I think I was just so inspired by her as a human being.

And then on the other end, I did know Bette a little as a person because she was with “Hello Dolly” with my best friend Beanie Feldstein and we’d gotten to know each other just in the theater community. So I knew what a wonderful person she was but I never had the opportunity to work professionally with her.

So to see her have all of the life and comedy and hilariousness that I’ve seen it growing up and also in “Big Business” and “Hocus Pocus,” to see that that’s all 100% still there, it was just very exciting. And it was very humbling and it made me want to do my best work because when somebody like Bette Midler is giving a fully formed performance you have to really step up to be next to them. I loved it.

How are you coping with this lockdown?

I’m obviously in a position of privilege and I’m incredibly fortunate in the sense that I have a place to be and space to be in when I’m at home, quarantined. I have family to be around and I have work that I can still do from my home and music that I can still write.

But a lot of people don’t really have that option and it’s a lot more of a detrimental moment for some than for me. But speaking personally, I certainly was as fearful as everyone and I think I was very daunted by the idea of the isolation and the idea of limiting ourselves so much and not being able to socialize, not being able to perform with other people, perform in general. That’s my favorite thing to do and that’s what fills me up the most, so that really scared me.

I think at the beginning, I put a lot of pressure on myself that I needed to have this be a productive time and I think that pressure was very counterintuitive and I would force myself to sit down and try to write and write music. And I think that pressure didn’t allow myself the space to grieve the moment that was happening in the world and just be a little kinder to myself.

But once we got to the middle of this period, and I got a little more used to that and allowed myself the space to be lazy and allowed myself the space to lay around and just be a little overwhelmed and just take it all in and process it, that’s when I really started able to be productive and writing music and trying to release music and trying to involved as an activist.

I think by giving yourself the space to be kind to yourself and allow yourself to be overwhelmed and move through those feelings rather than trying to avoid them, that allows you to hopefully open out to the other side where you can continue to live as a person and find ways to fill yourself up even though we’re kind of stuck.

I hope it remains relatively temporary, but for now I think I found a good niche of making sure there’s time that I spend staying calm and just enjoying the stillness like you said but also finding ways to keep moving forward and keep being productive and let life go on because we can’t just stop everything.

I watched your show at Radio City Music Hall. How scary was coming out on stage and people applauding you, and getting several standing ovations?

It was incredible. It was kind of like my bar mitzvah because everybody from my life was there. My family came and all of my “Evan Hansen” friends and all of my friends from “Pitch Perfect” and some friends from all of the projects along the way. It sort of felt like a culmination.

So when I first came out there, I was very scared at the huge room of people but then I looked at the first few rows, where I had my friends sitting and I had familiar faces and that made me feel a little safer.

And I just love New York City too so the energy was just very welcoming and it was a very special night. And I’m glad that we now have this professional home video forever.

Have you started new hobbies because of this lockdown?

Yes, I’ve gotten into Legos quite a bit. I have a lot of nephews and they all do Legos whenever I visit them and so I’ve kind of caught onto that as a way to stay calm, sort of therapeutic to listen to a good podcast, do some Legos and pass a little bit of time.

I’ve also gotten really into “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which I never watched before. And now during this pandemic I watched all 13 seasons. And I got a little bit obsessed with that. But other than that, it’s mostly been playing piano, trying to write music, trying to exercise, cooking a little bit, and the usual.

You are spending the lockdown with your boyfriend Noah Galvin and your brother Henry. Are you composing songs with Noah during this lockdown?

Yes. I’ve been writing a lot with my cowriters because Atlantic Records has been setting me up on Zoom to try to work on a second record. But Noah and I certainly love to sing together all the time, we’re big musical theater fans so we love to cook and put on Broadway music and sing along. (Laughs) But Henry and I as well, we love to sing together, all the brothers.

Do you think there will be a Season Three of the show?

I do. I don’t know when that will be. I know that Ryan is really interested in letting us all age a little bit, grow up a bit so that we’re ready for the triptych.

I know that the current concept is for the third I think to be the final season. I think it’s sort of a Payton’s upbringing and his backstory and then Payton’s growth as a politician and the Payton’s arrival point, which hopefully we’ll find out what that is. But I certainly think that the intention is at some point to get together and make one more. So I would certainly love to.

Gwyneth Paltrow (Georgina Hobart)

What type of conversations do you have with your peers and family regarding politics? Because everything we were brought up about, it seemed to be thrown out of the window in the last three years?

Yeah, I think that’s true. I think we’ve become — unfortunately, it seems like we’re becoming so polarized as a country that we can’t even hear, we can’t even listen with an open heart and an open mind. We’re so threatened by an opinion that’s not our opinion and we’re so enraged by somebody else’s point of view. And that to me, nothing good can ever come from that.

And so I always look for — I think a politician’s job is to bring people together, bring communities together, look for common language, and look to cultivate an environment of togetherness.

How are you coping with the pandemic with your teenagers?

I think I’m very proud of not only my teenagers but all of the teenagers I know in my life. I have to tell you that, especially for teenagers this quarantine circumstance has been — I was worried it would be very, very difficult for them. And I was reminded of the resiliency of children and human beings.

We get so used to having our lives and our freedoms the way that we’re used to having them and for teenagers to be told ok, no going out, no parties, no skateboarding and skate parks, anything like that, it’s quite a change. And honestly, they took the lead. I was thinking, 'oh my goodness what do we do? How am I going to manage this, keep them engaged? And my kids were so wonderful during this time.

They were very responsible with their schoolwork and what I love the most was these long lingering dinner conversations that we had every night. And they really kind of embraced the circumstances. Now that school is out, I think they’re ready to go out into the world and I don’t know exactly what will be available for them this summer. But it’s been a good lesson for all of us in being present and I think also really listening to what comes up. Because when you’re stuck in the house with people, even if you love them, or even if you’re by yourself, the inner voices get louder so it’s a good opportunity to tune in to the inner voice and see what needs to be taken care of.

What have you been doing to pass the time in lockdown? How are you taking care of your mental well-being?

I think for the most part, I’m coping pretty well. I think the first couple of weeks of quarantine felt like a bit of a shock and then there was the period of time where I think we all tried to get used to the new reality.

And for me it’s been a great opportunity, even though my work at Goop has been very intense, more full time than ever. It’s been wonderful to not have to set an alarm early every morning in order to get everybody up and drive everybody to school and make food. It’s been nice to sort of let the body reset more to its natural rhythms. I’ve been trying to meditate every day even if it’s just a short breathing meditation.

I had been going on a lot of walks but then there were lots of people following us around so now I’m doing a lot of yoga (Laughs) in my house. And I found some great online exercise classes. And so I’ve been also cooking a lot, just really focusing on the family and the quality of our relationships. 

Lucy Boynton (Astrid Sloan)

Talk about the relevance of “The Politician” during these times.

I think “The Politician” is very timely, especially as we approach the coming elections. In terms of investigating politicians and the political stances they take, and then how they back that up with actions.

Throughout this season, we very much explore how Payton Hobart and Dede Standish attempt to do that. And how they're held accountable for their actions and promises.

You found your voice when you posted on your Instagram about racism.

It's an incredibly important time. I'm trying to understand how better to be an ally in this moment. And with that, how, as you say, to use my platform in order to share my education as I find it, as well.

In this age of so much being documented online and on social media and such previously, we've been quite critical of it, I think it's really interesting in holding people accountable to the promises they're making and the commitments they're making to ensure that this is an ongoing conversation.

You are in New York self-isolating. How are you maintaining your health during this period?

I'm lucky because my job is able to continue in some way online throughout all of this. So I've been able to handle myself well. Unfortunately I'm not someone who got involved in the banana bread-baking. But my form of escapism is always reading. So I've got a healthy stack of books that I've got through, a lot of Netflix shows that I've got through, and a really deep appreciation of the parks in London where I would engage in my hourly walk of freedom. Yeah, so I have a great appreciation for the world that I really miss.

Judith Light (Dede Standish)

Talk about Ryan Murphy’s women. They are very sexual and so alive. Talk about how he does this.

He, you know, it's funny when Ryan was first talking to me about this character and telling me how she was going to be relating sexually, I wrote him back after I read the first couple of scripts. I said these are fantastic.

He said this is my holy grail basically, how I talk and write to women as they evolve through the years and he is our champion. In this show, how much he knows that women and their sexuality is vitally important. It's part of our energy, our life blood, who we are and the way he and the team write to it and the way, of course, all the producers are and the way everybody on the set relates to it is all part and parcel of a piece. 

He is the leader of that and that is at the forefront of his speaking to women not just in our country but around the world and I adore and appreciate him for it.

Your character is a 30-year veteran and suddenly she finds young competition. Talk about your relationship to competition. Are you competitive yourself?

That's an interesting question. I really believe that I used to be much more in the very beginning of my career, when I was starting out and there was this drive to get something.

As I evolved over the years, I realized there's nothing to get. It's like there's only what you give so there was a real shift for me, a very potent shift.  

Competition gets us nowhere. It keeps us from each other. From us communicating with each other, for us in the world. It's a dynamic that doesn't work. It keeps us from each other and the idea is that we are one human family.

If we're in competition with each other, we denigrate ourselves and we denigrate any relating that we have with anyone. So I find myself in a very different place around it having come to this, as the years have gone on.

And yes, I have competition in the show in my absolutely adorable Ben Platt who I am crazy about. But it just shows you the dynamics between generations and how they are different with each other and how they compete with each other, but then there is not giving anything away. There is a surrender in some way on both of our parts that allows for a real shift to happen.

How are you coping with the isolation?

I am fine. When my husband just had his first novel published and we had an event here in New York at the Strand Rare Books Room at the beginning of March, before everything exploded. And if any of you are reading or interested, it's quite a fascinating book. It's called "The Occurrence" and Robert was here for that event, went right back to L.A. and I stayed here because I was going to finish shooting “The Politician” and I was going to finish shooting or start shooting sorry – start shooting a movie for Lin-Manuel Miranda called “Tick Tick Boom” and I was supposed to have a camera test on Friday, March 13th and then Robert had flown back to L.A. and I was here in New York so here I stay, and he's in L.A. For all of this time, we've just been Face Timing every day and we just sort of figure we're holding up both ends of the country so but we're both safe and well and thank you so much for asking and how are you?

Have you done anything unusual while on lockdown? Bette Midler told us she was learning to play the guitar and making soap.

God, I love her. I love her so much. I know she's doing that (laughs). No, I haven't been quite as expansive or adventurous as Bette. I have been expanding my producing. I have several projects that I'm working on that I am very excited about and when I can talk about them I want to come back and talk to all of you about them.

I am working on a couple of things that my husband is actually writing and we have some other producers that we're working with so it has taken up a tremendous amount of my time because I am looking for writers, I am working with other producers, I'm looking at the scripts that are being written and it's terrifically exciting for me. 

Producing for me is about putting people together and joining people in family and in connection and so that's a lot of what I've been doing, plus I've also been doing a lot of extended charity work for organizations that are near and dear to my heart like the Actors Fund and Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS so I've been doing a lot of that and also doing a lot of reading and I'm looking into maybe doing some kind of podcast and so it's like there's a lot on the plate.

Bette Midler (Hadassah Gold)

Has social media been cathartic for you?

Yes. It lets you express yourself but often times you get so enraged by it that sometimes it becomes uncontrollable. 

And I also think that it is built to be addictive, so you do have to be very careful about it. You can’t let it run your life. You should express yourself when you feel you need to but I don’t think you should get up every morning and start to tweet.

I don’t think you should have that be your entire day in your whole life.  Unfortunately that has happened to a lot of people.

Are you optimistic that politics can get more inspiring and better in the future or it will always be murky like now, where it couldn’t get worse?

I think that politics is about interest, about self-interest. As long as human beings are interested in themselves, it will always be that way. 

And what I do hope is that people, when they say that they work for everyone, I do hope that that becomes a feeling that is more general. I think the marches that we have seen in the last two weeks have shown us that it is possible. 

The problem is that human beings are human beings and until human beings as a species change, their politics won’t change. We are what we are and we don’t really get along with each other. 

I think one of the reasons that Jesus was such a force in the world was that he said something that no one else had said, which was “Love Thy Neighbor,” instead of get everything that your neighbor has. 

I mean the Jews tried too with “Don’t Covet Your Neighbor’s Wife, Don’t Steal, Don’t Kill,” all that, but Jesus actually said love people.  Now people have been trying for 2,000 years to get people to love each other and I think we are at a low point. So until people actually see other people, other races, other creeds, other cultures, other ideas, when people’s minds are open, that’s when politics will change. 

But until that time it’s a struggle, it’s just a struggle against what we are. — LA, GMA News