If The Politician were released a decade or two ago, the main character likely would’ve swatted away assumptions about their sexuality. Payton, a tenacious student who believes he’s destined to be US president someday, then calls Astrid “a raging bigot who's very uncomfortable with her own bicuriosity.” The student caught between the pair barely reacts to either of them. Platt’s character, who is equally riled up, cuts in: “Okay, that was your idea! And if you wanna make this race into a referendum on sexual fluidity, you're gonna lose.” “He seemed more interested in my boyfriend than me!”
“He had sex with me and my boyfriend,” Astrid blurts out. The two characters are practically shouting at one another in what turns out to be an unsuccessful attempt at winning over one undecided voter as they each campaign for student body president.
“Payton's possibly a homosexual,” says Astrid Sloan (Lucy Boynton) during a particularly heated moment opposite Payton Hobart (Ben Platt) in the new Netflix series The Politician.