Ben Schwartz Goes From TV to 'Turbo'

Hey, how are you?

Hi, Ben.

Hey, Nicki. Great to see you. Oh, come on now. We're so excited to have you here. Okay. I'm a bit of a fan. Uh just a tiny bit. Just a tiny bit. Not a lot. Some people say like when when I do something like, oh, you're pretty funny in that. I was like, oh, okay. I'm not really funny. I'm just like kind of like okay in it. I feel like you're that guy, and correct me if I'm wrong, that, and I think you've said this before, that you never thought you'd make a living in this business.

Yeah. Um, I was, it was always kind of like a, it was always like a dream that I didn't think was possible. When I I was a psychology and anthropology major in college. Which is two

Impressive.

Well, thank you so much.

Oh, thank you so much. Are you using it now?

Uh no, no, no. Uh, well, I guess kind of. I write a lot. I write a lot. So, I guess it combines all those things. In psychology, you can use everyday, I guess. Yeah. Uh but so it didn't feel like a real thing 'cause my family is like social workers and Bronx school teachers. And then when I graduated, I asked my parents if I could have a year to really try to do comedy. Uh and it has blossomed in ten years. It has. Yeah.

Well, you're a psychology major. We're on the couch. That's true. Confess anything you want here at Young Hollywood. That's true. Oh my God. It's talking about how you never thought that you would make money. You're supposed to do it again. At this, Steven Spielberg is now writing you checks because you are in Turbo, Dreamworks. Technically, does he write your checks? Does he literally, does he sign them?

This is going to sound weird. He comes to my place. He says, what up, Ben? I go, Spielberg. He comes over for a bit. We like, we just have some cheeseburgers, we hang out. We talk about his beard. And then, um, he gives me cash in like rolls of quarters he pays me.

He didn't even write you a check. He just

No, he comes with rolls of quarters for laundry for me. And then he's like, there you go. Think about that. That's actually amazing. Isn't that?

Oh, goodness, yeah. That makes me so happy. Yeah. Did it finally dawn on you that you're having success in this darn town? Or just the fact that some that I look up to so much could have maybe seen something that I'm in makes me very excited. Well, I'm sure you've seen Turbo.

Yeah. I think it is.

Okay, so you play Skidmark. Let's talk about that.

We all, um, we're all snails. The whole idea is there's this racing community of snails. But this one snail who joins our big racing community and by the way, the cast list is insane. It's Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds is Turbo, the snail. Yeah. Ryan Reynolds is Turbo, then Snoop Dogg, and Samuel L. Jackson, and Ken Jeong, it's it's very crazy that, uh, I'm a part of it. Um, and then the whole idea is he gets sucked into you gets turbo charged his thing and all of a sudden he's as fast as an Indy 500 car and he he goes towards his dreams of being a racer.

And you're part of the posse.

I am. Skidmark is a part of I play like a crazy. I'm like a crazy snail.

Now, have you voiced something before?

I have. I I'm the

Wasn't that Star Trek? You from Star Trek, wasn't it?

That was a joke. There I did do a short film where it was Star Trek. With J. J. Abrams who I'm a huge fan.

Oh. So he's giving you checks too.

He has. I did a TV show of his, so he has signed my check for real. And I do a bunch of then like I do stuff on the side like I've done Robot Chicken, and American Dad, and Bob's Burgers. And, uh, this is my first feature though.

Okay. So working with Sam Jackson and all these people, do you actually work with them or you're in the

Of course not. I never got to meet him but Uh, I mean, I wish I had. If I go to this premiere, there's a premiere in New York. If I have time, I'm definitely going to go to. Like, hey, I was in the movie with you. I'd be like, I'm one of these guys too. My my connection to them like, oh yeah, I'm one of these guys. Uh, but those guys I like so much. Ryan Reynolds when he was on that TV show, two guys, a girl and a pizza. I loved him and stuff like that. Um, and obviously Samuel L. Jackson. And come on. Me not, Snoop Dogg. If I get to meet Snoop Dogg on a level where I'm not being

Who would you want to meet the most? Out of all those guys, probably Snoop, man. How do you not want to meet Snoop? So, I want to talk about you as a writer.

Okay, let's do it. Anytime it's open, I steal it. Anytime you by mistake leave it open.

You have won an Emmy.

I have. Oh, thank you so much. My mom is in the audience clap.

For outstanding, I love how that was put outstanding. You don't know what I won for, do you?

Outstanding writing for Hugh Jackman, Academy Awards, for his his sort of like opening monologue. Yes. Yeah. I did So, so for the Oscars. I wrote for the Oscars one year and I was hired, me, Dan Harmon who created the TV show Community. This is before Community was on the air or it was even sold. And then, um, Rob Schrab and we wrote the musical opening that Hugh Jackman did. And, uh, it was like a big song about the recession, how who's gonna do a big musical number anyway and he's gonna use all these like bootleg items and stuff like that. And, um, wrote it, which was crazy and exciting, went to the Oscars and it was amazing and then we won Emmys for writing, We won Emmys an Emmy for writing for the Oscars.

For writing for the Oscars. Okay. So, I know you also, you wrote for Letterman.

I did. I freelance for him.

And you talked to about how the first time you saw I think his joke him say your joke, it was like a big thing. You gotta stalk me a little bit? I told you I was a little fan. Like a tiny bit. You should say if I was a big fan, it'd be really bad. It'd be really weird. So, Letterman and then SNL, I think Weekend Update.

Yes, I freelance for them. And so, I started my website. I have a website called rejectedjokes. com Because when you are a writer, a comedy writer, a lot of jokes are gonna get rejected.

That is absolutely correct. It has nothing to do with your talent.

No, yes. And so like I had thousands of jokes and I wanted to get them out there. So, I was like, if I if I film myself and this is before I really had a voice in comedy and how I figured out how to be good or not be good, just like be comfortable in front of a camera. If you watch those old videos, you can hunt them down on YouTube. I'm like, my clothes are like way too big for me and I'm like you can just tell I'm like learning I'm learning how to do everything. And I'm always learning but I was just learning for the first step. Uh so, it was me performing jokes that had never been aired before 'cause they're too weird to get them to air. And then I get some celebrity to do one. So like I try to get viewers to come to my website. And then once in a while do a short film. And my first short film was cheating, had 10 million views. No big deal.

Oh, my goodness. Thank you guys. Whatever. Whatever. What has been the biggest thrill? Is it is it Was it the SNL? Was it that? Was it

You find I find myself at the beginning. The biggest ones are at the beginning. Even just when I got on a house team, I performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. When I got on like one of the house UCB house teams, I flipped out. It was like the biggest thing and then when I booked my first, you know, voiceover commercial. All those steps at the beginning are so intense. And now it's like

You're jaded. See what I'm saying? I'm I hate it.

No. I'm jaded. I'm like, I don't know what's going on. I don't even care what's going on. You're lucky I'm wearing clothes. Um no, now it's like it's those things like doing a TV show with Don Cheadle and like doing a scene with him.

Yes. You're so filming it. I'm so thrilled. I just wrapped. We just wrapped as of yesterday. And I thought you were so filming it. Are you down? Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's called this is this is the Okay. Okay. This is where I leave you. This is where I leave you. It's based off a book by Jonathan Tropper. Yes. And uh the cast is insane. It's uh especially for me who's such a big comedy fan. It's Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Corey Stoll from House of Cards and Minnepolis and Mennett and Paris. Adam Driver from Girls, Katherine Hahn, Jane Fonda, Rose Byrne, Timothy Olyphant. And uh and Ben and Ben Schwart.

Guess what? That that you just rolled that off Oh my goodness. Thank you guys. Another one. Okay, so now that we've built you up.

to crash me down

It's time to take me down to talk about how I'm unattractive and not funny. That we brought you here to talk about Turbo. However, there's another reason we brought you here. You might want to take this one. Not snack it.

Yeah. This is actually an intervention. Oh, no. For what?

Somebody was just in here. I won't say who and they had a little message for you. Is this true? This is true. Behind you on the monitor.

Oh my god, I got like scared for a sec. You can turn your head.

You can let go of my hands. It just says my name. There's Ben, hi. Um, you haven't been responding to me or A. J.' s texts. Um, and I just wanted to say, um, I know that I'm the favorite sister between the two of us. So what she just in here? Um, we're really hurt and um you need to mention your brother. Okay, so step up to the plate, Ben.

Okay, that's Alley. That's Alley. That's Alley and her sister A. J. How could you not, the woman is, I mean, I the girl's flawless. Flawlessly beautiful. Insanely talented musically and acting-wise. Knows gymnastics. She was on a TV show where she had to be gymnastic. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't return her texts. What's wrong with you?

She's very sweet, by the way. And also very young. Isn't she like 22 or 4 something like that? I think 16. I don't know. Are we allowed to say this, 6 or 7?

I think she's 24. Okay, okay. Um, she is amazing. I met her at we 24. She feels like that. They're both very young. They're so talented. It's stupid.

'Cause you're so old.

I'm ancient.

I'm so ancient. I'm like, I figure any young girl that sees me that thinks I look like either Mel Brooks or Mr. Magoo. Or start. Like literally anybody. I just like come in there like, hey guys. Um, she's so sweet. That's so funny. I really haven't talked to her in a long time. We're not avoiding each other. We would send each other It's

No, she wasn't avoiding you. There's a group text message we have that when we met we met a while ago, me, her and her sister. And they're so sweet and they're good they're friends of mine. And uh we have a thing where we like talk to each other in a group text for a while.

Oh, I haven't talked to her in a while. That's right. That makes me so happy. Before I leave, I want to take a video of that and send that to her in the group text and then I will totally redeem myself.

You can absolutely do this. So, do you not return texts now that you're working for Spielberg? Is that what happened?

I'm I'm never said that. I wish I want to really be I want to be directed by Steven Spielberg. Can you make that happen?

Let's look at the video he sent you. Here we go. Steven left a message for you here. Is it coming? It's coming. I swear it is. It's fine. If he didn't he probably didn't. Uh, it's not coming. All right. I really apologize for that. All right. So awkward. It's been delightful having you here. It's so nice to meet you. Here. It's so nice to meet you. Oh my God. Will you return my text if I text.

I gotta go. So nice to meet you. Really nice to meet you. Uh, thank you, Young Hollywood. This camera, I've been loving 'cause I've been doing this the whole way. It's new. Yeah. It feels really nice. It's got that new camera smell. That you should edit there. That's the best joke. That's where you have to end the interview. I did a good joke. I did a good joke. It's your influence. Yeah.