With Dear Evan Hansen arriving in theaters on September 24th, I recently got to speak with director Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Wonder) about bringing the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical to movie screens. During the wide-ranging interview, he talked about why the film ending is different than the stage version, how they figured it out, why they cut certain songs and added new ones, the way the story deals with mental health, figuring out the three-act structure, and more. In addition, he talked about what it was like watching Ben Platt cry while singing on set and the way he worked with him on finding the right times to film the emotional scenes.
If you’re not familiar with Dear Evan Hansen, the high school-set film is written for the screen by the show’s Tony-winning writer Steven Levenson, with music and lyrics by the show’s Oscar, Grammy, and Tony-winning songwriting team of Benj Pasek & Justin Paul. The story is about a high school outsider who gains friendship and fame by falsely claiming that he had a tight bond with one of his deceased classmates. The film and play is a powerful look at isolation, social anxiety, and grief and shines a light on the importance of talking about mental health. Dear Evan Hansen also stars Kaitlyn Deaver, Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Amandla Stenberg, Danny Pino, Colton Ryan, and Nik Dodani.
Watch what Stephen Chbosky had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.
Stephen Chbosky
- What would he make if he could get the financing for any project?
- What would he like to tell himself on the first day of filming that he learned during the shoot?
- How many people were calling him during the casting process wanting to be in the film?
- The way the story deals with mental health.
- What it was like moving the story from the stage to the screen and figuring out the three-act structure.
- The way he figured out where to take the cast off and why Evan needed to confess.
- How they figured out the new ending would work.
- What it was like watching Ben Platt sing while crying and figuring out when and how to shoot the emotional scenes?
- What song came closest to being in the film but ended up getting cut?
- What will he direct next?
