From left to right: Theo Germaine, Jeff Mitchell, and Laura Dreyfuss.
2019 is not a presidential election year, but political discussions are dominating news cycles and hovering over the nation. Leaping headfirst into today’s tribal divides can be tricky, but Netflix offers a reprieve through an enjoyable and thought-provoking slant on the aforementioned topic in its new, eight-episode high school comedy/drama “The Politician”.
Ben Platt plays Payton Hobart, who feels destined to win his high school’s presidential election, but the road to capturing the top student government post at Saint Sebastian in Santa Barbara, Calif. is not an easy one. He needs a campaign team for support, and McAfee Westbrook (Laura Dreyfuss) and James Sullivan (Theo Germaine) are his biggest backers.
Laura and Theo champion their new show “The Politician” too, and they arrived in Phoenix to sit down and chat with the Phoenix Film Festival and other movie outlets for a welcoming and insightful group interview. We talked about McAfee’s and James’ relationship with Payton, working with several supportive directors, the show’s parallels with national politics, and much more!
“The Politician” – from the creators of “Glee” and “American Horror Story” - is currently streaming on Netflix, and Dreyfuss, Germaine, Platt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Lange, Zoey Deutch, and David Corenswet star.
Q: James and McAfee are loyal to Payton and his candidacy. Were they friends first, or did they gravitate to Payton because of his presidential ambitions?
TG: James and Payton have been friends since the second grade, and when they got to high school, they probably started to take stuff more seriously. Maybe they began working together, and it just got more and more intense, but it did start off as a friendship, a long time ago.
LD: I think McAfee came in a little later, but it’s still a friendship. They were kids, when they met. They had a very common goal and shared that interest.
TG: I feel they probably all found each other because of their similar drive. A sense of: “We’re going to move mountains.”
Behind the scenes of “The Politician” starring actress Laura Dreyfuss.
Q: There’s a recurring theme throughout the show where a handful of characters question if they are authentic people, or if they are solely defined by their actions. A number of times the answer is: Does it matter? So, my question is…does it matter?
LD: I always equate it to volunteer work. If you are (volunteering) but doing it for a self-serving purpose - because it makes you feel good - does it really matter? You are making a difference. You are still doing something. You are helping, (and) just because the intention feels a little false to you, it doesn’t negate the work.
TG: It feels like that question itself is one of the show’s themes, and I hope when people watch it, they will constantly have that question in their heads.
LD: When we are electing leaders, what are we looking for? What qualities are we looking for? Are we electing them, because we think they are good people, or are we electing them, because we think they can get the right things done?
Q: I loved “The Voter” episode, because it is such a departure from everything we had seen up until that point. Do you think that episode was a reflection on the American voter? Are there any lessons learned? The more one specific voter was pushed to vote, the less he wanted to step into the booth and pull the lever.
LD: I think it’s such an interesting comment on apathy.
TG: In that episode, both candidates are doing whatever they can to get the undecided (voters) to pick a side. It’s not a good thing, because you see them (operating) for personal gain.
LD: What I took away from (the episode) is every vote does count. It’s easy to feel that your vote doesn’t matter, but it does in the end.
TG: It’s important to not be apathetic. If you’re apathetic and then you get pushed, you still are not going to care. Even if you don’t want to be invested, we can’t afford to not be invested.
LD: It’s also very funny, because it kind of zooms out of the world that is so tightly created in the first couple episodes, and so you almost get a chance to see how ridiculous these people are. That’s what makes it so funny to me, because you get to really laugh at these children, who are so hyper-focused on this one goal.
Ben Platt acting as Payton Hobart in the series “The Politician”
Q: Scandal is one of the recurring themes of the show. With most political TV shows, there’s always a scandal of some kind, but in this show, there’s a scandal in almost every layer of the cake. Does it reflect our current political climate, or is “The Politician” heightening scandal for dramatic effect?
LD: Very early on, we learn that Payton reads the biographies of all the presidents, and he starts with Ronald Reagan, because he believes that he created the modern presidency. He did that by the use of television and making it entertaining. So, we now ask ourselves this question, when we are invested in politics: How much has become entertainment, and how much is real?
TG: The Romans killed people and had gladiator battles for fun. That was their entertainment, and we’re not doing that obviously, but politics can be entertainment, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing.
LD: I think it’s an interesting reflection on how (political) scandals have become like a TV show.
TG: Humans love scandal, and that makes us not pay attention (to what’s important), because we are excited about the televised scandal.
Q: I’ve been reviewing movies for several years and hardly watch television, so binging “The Politician” is a new experience, and I noticed that several directors contributed to the first season. By working with multiple directors, did you have opportunities to look at the same material differently, episode to episode?
LD: Absolutely!
TG: Yes, it does!
LD: Ryan (Murphy) directed the first (episode), so that was wonderful, because we were able to set the tone with him and understand the world that he created. As we started to move on, we got to work with these brilliant, brilliant people. The women, in particular.
Janet Mock, Helen Hunt and Gwyneth Horder-Payton. Ryan gives such a voice to so many people, and a very diverse group of people, so it’s really important to have them tell the story. We got that with the directors, so it really did change our view and our perspective, and also our level of comfort. We felt incredibly comfortable to have these brilliant women using their vision to tell the story.
Jeff – a member of the Phoenix Critics Circle – has penned film reviews since 2008, graduated from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and is a certified Rotten Tomatoes critic. Follow Jeff and the Phoenix Film Festival on Twitter @MitchFilmCritic and @PhoenixFilmFest, respectively.
