Ben Platt ‘overwhelmed’ watching himself in The Politician

The Politician star Ben Platt has said he was “overwhelmed” the first time he watched himself in the Netflix series.

The Broadway actor plays a wealthy student – who has known from the age of seven that he is destined for the White House – in the new series, which also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Lange and Zoey Deutch.

Talking about reading the script for the first time, he said: “I was immediately the good kind of scared – the scared I chase as an actor, the little stomach flip where it’s something you’ve never done before and you feel like you’re going to be stretched in a way that you never have.

“The voice of Payton was incredibly clear in the script and it wasn’t really a voice that I had ever played before, somebody so aggressive and assertive and who walked into a room and wanted to be seen and take up space.

“And someone who had so much confidence and was somewhat self-serving and borderline sociopathic.

“It was sort of daunting in a good way – and totally also the whole piece was spectacular,” he added.

Platt said watching his performance for the first time was “very daunting”.

He said: “The world took on a life of its own that you just can’t feel…

“Even though we felt like we were all in the same tone and really understanding the world we were in, it takes on its own character.

“And when it’s all put together and there’s a score that really mashes in and camera movement and symmetrical aesthetic, it becomes a different universe, and I was a little overwhelmed by it.”

The Politician was created by American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy and Paltrow’s husband Brad Falchuk.

It is the first show by Murphy to launch on Netflix since he signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the streaming service.

The Politician will launch on Netflix on September 27.