Director Stephen Chbosky says his new film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical \u201cDear Evan Hansen,\u201d opening Friday, offers a critique of social media\u2019s \u2026<\/b>
\nDirector Stephen Chbosky says his new film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical \u201cDear Evan Hansen,\u201d opening Friday, offers a critique of social media\u2019s cancel culture. \u201cI don\u2019t remember a time of less tolerance in my life,\u201d Mr. Chbosky told The Washington Times. \u201cBecause young people are under so much pressure to be perfect and say the right things all the time, I think it\u2019s important for us to say that it\u2019s unsustainable and it\u2019s not fair. Everyone deserves a second chance.\u201d The Pittsburgh native,51, said growing up without the internet gave him the luxury of learning from his mistakes as he wrestled between his public face and private self to grow into his own identity. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s like [today], and I feel a great deal of sympathy for kids whose mistakes often have a permanent record on video and audio. Hopefully, we\u2019re all evolving through our whole lives,\u201d he said. Mr. Chbotsky\u2019s film version of the coming-of-age teen drama has Ben Platt reprising his Tony Award-winning stage role as the isolated Evan, an anxious teenager whose therapist tells him to write letters to himself as a self-help exercise. The exercise spins out of control when Evan fabricates a friendship with a fellow student whose suicide becomes a cause celebre at his school, bringing Evan long-sought-after popularity. But, unable to live with the lie, Evan confronts the cancel culture when he posts a vulnerable online video confession about suicide. \u201cThat was one of the themes that attracted me the most about the original Broadway show. We actually added that confession scene because, we felt with film, we had a chance to talk about the other side of it,\u201d Mr. Chbosky said. The director said he felt drawn to export the Broadway musical beyond traveling theater shows because its message of hope seemed to resonate with young people and their families. \u201cWe celebrate people whose online celebrity gets overblown and then their fall from grace gets overblown,\u201d Mr. Chbosky said. \u201cI think the pressure put on this generation, and the pressure this generation puts on itself to be perfect all the time, is cruel.\u201d Mr. Chbosky is no stranger to filming theatrical musicals and dramas. He wrote the screenplays for the 2005 film version of \u201cRent\u201d and Disney\u2019s 2017 live-action \u201cBeauty and the Beast.\u201d In addition, he directed 2017\u2019s acclaimed \u201cWonder.\u201d \u201cMuch more importantly to me, when you talk about these issues directly in a successful and entertaining way, it provides a sense of comfort to millions of young people,\u201d he said. Early reviews of \u201cDear Evan Hansen\u201d have been mixed, with some critics who screened it at Toronto calling it a bomb. \u201cThe truth is, the knives being out feels very strange to me and it feels personal, not like criticism at all,\u201d Mr. Chbosky said. \u201cMaybe this is something akin to what you call \u2018cancel culture.\u2019 To me, I didn\u2019t make the movie for critics, I made it for young people and their families who are desperately trying to understand and help them.\u201d He said advance screenings have been met by thunderous applause and tearful confessions, with people coming up to him afterward to say they had lost their loved ones to cancer. \u201cI don\u2019t think the audience is here for the movie, no matter how many tickets are sold. I think the movie is here for the audience,\u201d he said. \u201cNot everyone has access to Broadway or a traveling company.\u201d Filming started last September in quarantined Atlanta with a couple of false positive COVID-19 tests that the director said really scared the cast and crew. \u201cWe would film and go home. We didn\u2019t see anybody. It led to a lot of anxiety and depression among people making the film,\u201d he said. Mr. Chbotsky first achieved fame for his 1999 novel \u201cThe Perks of Being a Wallflower,\u201d which he adapted and directed for the screen.<\/p>\n