Dear Evan Hansen is, regrettably, out in theaters today and while the movie is just straight-up not good, at least one great thing has happened because of it: this interview from The Drew Barrymore Show.
Barrymore interviewed Ben Platt (who plays Hansen) in her studio, in front of her live audience. But she also cut to a pre-recorded junket interview with the whole cast, which she conducted in character as Josie Geller, her role from the 1999 movie Never Been Kissed. And not adult Josie—no, this was high school Josie, complete with a replica of her outrageously 80s pink satin prom dress.
This is an incredible and extreme choice. Josie (Grossie if you’re a hater) Geller is an awkward, painfully enthusiastic mess—a full cringey delight of a human. The decision to have Josie interview this cast specifically is also pretty brilliant, though. Never Been Kissed is about a journalist (a grown-up Josie) who returns to her old high school, posing as a teen for a story. Dear Evan Hansen is about a teen, but played by an actor who also looks way too old to be hanging around a high school—a fact so glaring, it’s basically the only thing anyone watching the movie can talk about.
I don’t know if that was the reasoning behind the interview choice or if it was just an incredible happenstance. (Josie has made appearances on the show in the past, after all.) Either way, this is some weird, beautiful art:
(image: screencap)
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