Ben Schwartz is having a busy 2020, and it’s off to a tremendous start, with his latest film, Sonic the Hedgehog, scoring a record-breaking opening weekend at the box office. But for Ben, it’s just the tip of the iceberg: this Friday sees the release of Standing Up, Falling Down, a new indie film which pairs the Parks & Recreation actor with Hollywood legend Billy Crystal in a hilarious and heartwarming story about two men trying to find their way in New York City’s Long Beach community.

In addition to these films, Schwartz also has numerous television roles across animation (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, DuckTales) and live action (Space Force), to say nothing of his ongoing improv adventures with Thomas Middleditch, which are slated to be immortalized via the simultaneous release of three Middleditch & Schwartz improv comedy specials on Netflix. Simply put, 2020 is his year.

While promoting… Well, everything, but Sonic the Hedgehog and Standing Up, Falling Down in particular, Ben Schwartz spoke to Screen Rant about his busy 2020 and gave a rundown on what fans can expect from many of his current and upcoming projects. He talks about Sonic the Hedgehog and how he managed to score the title role after impressing with a temp voice on a proof-of-concept video, and explains his feelings on the controversial redesign of the beloved video game character.

Sonic the Hedgehog is in theaters now, and Standing Up, Falling Down releases on February 21.

This is cool, because I got to do an E-mail interview a few months ago when you did that pop up store, with the towel jackets.

I wrote all those questions that you read and answered, but now it’s time for the real one-on-one.

Oh my God, yes! Yes, of course!

I’ve followed your career particularly closely because I’m from Woodlawn in the Bronx, and I know you’re from Riverdale.

I’m ready.

And I’m currently speaking to you from my parents’ place in Yonkers, which is right next to Edgemont.

Oh, nice! Yeah.

That is where I work! When I’m at my parents’ house, I literally just walk over to Nathan’s because it has great wi-fi and I’ll spend all day there, working and drinking free refills on soda.

Yeah, and right next to Riverdale, too. You’re literally in between the two places that I grew up. We used to go to Nathan’s Hot Dogs. We used to go there and play video games all the time.

It’s actually on the other side of the street from where it used to be. And no, no more video games.

Is it still the same as it used to be? Does it have a ton of arcade games and all that stuff?

Well, I’d love to talk to you about growing up in the greater Yonkers area, but we should probably get around to talking about your movies.

What an age, 2020, man! We used to love Nathan’s.

You’ve got so much going on in 2020. You’re on tour a million weeks out of the year. You’ve got two movies coming out. You’ve got Ninja Turtles and Ducktales. It’s hard for me to say these two words without wanting to hold my breath so hard my head explodes, but you’ve got Space Force.

Okay, let’s do it!

You’re prolific!

(Laughs)

So I guess I should ask you the same question they ask Sarah Jessica Parker in all her movies: how do you do it all?

It’s a very crazy… 2020 is so surreal. All these things I’ve been working really hard for seem to be culminating this year, which is so exciting.

I know Standing Up, Falling Down was shot a while ago, it played at the festivals last year, so it must be a relief for it to finally be out in the wild.

I mean, I guess I marry Matthew Broderick, and I really lean into my hit HBO show, which was fantastically written with a great supporting cast.

Yeah, I got to interview Matt Ratner about it, and that will be published a bit closer to the movie’s release date. But it’s funny, because they shot that movie in Long Beach, and I live in Far Rockaway, which is just a jog away from there.

Yeah. It’s so exciting because that movie was made for very little money, and I got to work with Billy Crystal, who’s been a hero of mine for so long. We really like the way it turned out, but the way independent movies go, you’ve got to get into a festival, and then you’ve got to get distribution. That process takes time, so I love that it’s finally getting out there, and people will be able to watch it. Billy’s performance is so wonderful, and it was a really nice chance for me to be the lead in a movie with Billy Crystal. It’s a very fun and exciting movie. And because you’re a New Yorker, you understand how it has that very New York feel. It all takes place in Long Island and stuff like that.

I’m going to take over your life. I’m going to Single White Female you.

I think we actually filmed in… I wonder if we were in Far Rockaway… But you’re slowly finding ways to live my… Are you stalking me? That’s very disorienting to hear over the phone.

I’m your Shadow the Hedgehog.

You’re going to take my face off, and put it on your face. Classic John Travolta/Nic Cage story.

Yes, exactly! This interview is over! Okay, enough making this about me, or my editor’s gonna kill me. Okay, so one movie, you get to work with Billy Crystal, and the other you get to work with Jim Carrey. Two titans, two legends in their field. But did you get to spend any time on the set of Sonic, or was it all in the booth?

You’re the dark version of Sonic!

One of the greats. And at the same time, you get to do this other movie with Billy Crystal, who is… I suppose he may be a bit more New York specific, but also a full-on legend.

I did everything in the booth. I visited the set one day, just to do another table read, record my voice, and to get a series of shots so we can do all my expressions and put dots on my face and stuff like that for facial capture. I met Jim, you know, at lunch on one of those days. He was lovely and kind and connected with me. When I asked him questions about Ace Ventura, he was very lovely and answered them. He was the best. Since then, for press, we’ve been doing press, so I’ve gotten to be with him four or five times, and he’s been lovely! And to watch how… Look, we went to London and all these different places, and to see all these countries just go crazy when he walks in the room, you’re just reminded how big of a force he is, and how big of a deal he’s been in people’s lives. He shaped so much of the stuff that I love about comedy. And then you look around, everywhere we go, and you see he’s done the same thing for so many other people, too. It’s beautiful to watch him effect people.

You said earlier that Standing Up, Falling Down was something you had to wait for because it had to do the festival circuit, and I’m just now realizing that it kind of happened to Sonic, as well.

He’s also… As enormous. He’s the generation just before him. If you think about Billy, when he did When Harry Met Sally, when he did City Slickers, when he hosted the Oscars countless times, what he created with Whoopi (Goldberg) and Robin (Williams), Comic Relief. Like, these are groundbreaking things. To be around someone like that… His generation made it possible for people like Jim, and Jim’s generation made it possible for people like me. It’s crazy to be anywhere, to touch anybody that’s really affected the lineage of what comedy is. The idea that I get to work with somebody like that twice? I really try to pick projects that allow me to do stuff like that. Like, working with Amy (Poehler) or Don Cheadle… I did a movie with Jeremy Irons just because I was, like, I wanted to act with Jeremy Irons! I love those guys so much that I would love to learn from them and just be around them to see what I can learn.

In that e-mail interview we did a while back, you say at the very end, Sonic’s release date, but it was the old release date! And, like, literally the day after that interview got published, the movie got pushed back.

At this moment, I am 100% confident that is exactly what happened.

Do you think… Do you think your interview is the reason? Did you push that movie back?

I’m a mover and a shaker.

(Laughs) The power you have! This is unbelievable.

Something like that. One might say that. Exactly one person might say that. And that would be me. Anyway, what was the attitude when that happened? Was it like, oh my God, the sky is falling! Or was it like, oh well, I guess these things can happen?

Yes. One might say you’re a trend-setter.

The legend about your casting is that you were brought in as a temp voice and some guy in a cigar was like, “We love him, keep him!” Is that how it went down?

What happened was, like… It was amazing, because before doing the trailer, we were like, “Boy, I sure hope people care about this movie, man! We put a lot of time into it, I hope people respond!” And we immediately found that a lot of people cared, and are very passionate and have ideas and thoughts. It was amazing for us to see that there’s really an audience who cares about this, and if we do it correctly and nail it, we can make a lot of people happy. And maybe we can bring people back to the franchise, too. That trailer release was huge for us to learn that. I’m really excited with how it came out. So I think Paramount did an incredible job with Jeff and Tyson and everybody who helped out, really finding a nice way to work with the design, to make everybody happy.

Uhhhh, yes. Yes I did.

Wait, you said, “Some guy in a cigar.”

…Yes.

So in this story, there’s a man dressed as a cigar walking around Hollywood, if I heard you correctly.

Did you get to meet with Roger Craig Smith or anyone who ever voiced him in the past? Or was that never really a factor in your performance?

So some guy in a cigar, who has wrapped himself in a cigar and is smoking himself, I believe, made the decision. But no, it was up to a gentleman named Tim Miller, who directed Deadpool and was the producer on Sonic. I had a meeting with him about a different project, and when I was there, Sonic came up, and we did a test animation, a proof of concept, and I did the voice for that. And they just kept coming back to me and were like, you know what? This is the guy. It was amazing, but it did start as, like, “just do the temp voice and we’ll see what happens.”

Yeah, Into the Sonic-Verse.

No, I never met with them. But after I had done the movie, I had to record for DuckTales or something, and Roger Craig Smith was there, and I was so excited to meet him. He doesn’t just do Sonic; he does so many voices in so many different things. I was very excited to meet him, and he was so lovely. We talked about how exciting it is for both of us to be part of this legacy. He’s such a kind, wonderful person. It was lovely. We took a picture, like that Spider-Man meme where one is pointing at the other, so we took a picture of one Sonic pointing at the other. But he’s the only Sonic VO actor I’ve gotten to meet so far. I hope I get to meet some others!

Sonic 2, bring it on! I’ll take my Executive Producer credit, thank you very much.

Yeah, why don’t we do it?

That’s me, baby! Okay, your reps sent me a sheet with everything you’re doing right now, and it is crazy. There’s really so much. Rumble. It’s a WWE animated movie… What?

Trend-setter, mover and shaker.

Yes it is, Ben Schwartz.

What? Is that your question?

M.O.D.O.K. with Patton Oswalt, a Marvel cartoon. Same question: what?

It’s an animated movie Paramount is making. I play a character in that. I’ve only done one recording for that, or maybe two recordings. I can’t wait to see what that looks like. Because when they pitch the movie to you, when they show you what it is before you say yes or no to the role, they show some animation to get you interested. It looked beautiful and it delves into the world of what wrestling feels like, and it can be really fun, but I know so little about that. I know the recording that I did, and the director has been lovely, and everybody’s been so kind on it, but I don’t know a ton about it yet. Okay, I love this, let’s go through all the stuff on my IMDB!

Space Force. What?

It’s great! I’m a huge Marvel guy, I really like comic books, and I’m a huge Marvel guy. M.O.D.O.K. is a supervillain that’s kind of a big floating head with little arms and little legs, and they did this comedic (animated) show, and I play his son. It has his whole family, dealing with what a supervillain does in his daily life, and it’s so funny. Patton Oswalt is in it, Sam Richardson’s in it, Melissa Fumero’s in it. There’s so many good people in this show. It’s so funny. I recorded all my stuff for it already. Now they’re doing their thing to bring it to life. I’m excited to be part of anything Marvel. I think Kevin Feige is a genius, and those comics meant so much to me. Even the video games. Remember the X-Men video games coming up? I used to love those. I’m excited to be part of that.

Was it, like, the second that… That person first said the phrase “Space Force,” Greg was like, a lightbulb went off in his head?

Yeah. Me, Steve Carrell, John Malkovich, Tawny Newsome, Diana Silvers, Don Lake, Jimmy O. Yang… We’re doing this show for Netflix called Space Force. It’s created by Greg Daniels, who created the American version of The Office. It’s so funny. I hope it comes up pretty soon, too. It almost feels like, as real-time stuff is happening to the real Space Force, our show will be on the air, kinda! I don’t know how often that’s ever happened, before. It’s a pretty crazy thing. It’s very exciting! But it’s amazing. Because Greg is a genius, and Brent Forrester is one of the writers. We have a great writing staff. We have incredible directors, like Paul King, who directed Paddington and The Mighty Boosh. We have all these great directors and stuff like that. I’m very excited to see how it all turns out. I haven’t seen it yet, but it was very fun to film.

Let’s do one more. You and Middleditch on the road, what?

I have no idea. I don’t know. I learned about it when I got the e-mail about going in for it. But I had no idea. I mean, Greg is a genius, so anything he handles, he handles with care and love. He’s amazing.

Oh, I didn’t know you were doing Netflix! Hype!

Middleditch & Schwartz is doing three specials for Netflix.

I can’t even imagine the high-wire tension that comes with doing long-form improv. That must be so intimidating!

That’s huge for us. That will probably be one of the next things that comes out after Standing Up, Falling Down. It’s really cool because long-form improv really hasn’t gotten a lot of play on television. There’s been a couple of specials, but… Ours are a couple of times they recorded it, and this is going to be Netflix’s first long-form improv specials. And we’re releasing three at the same time. We’re hoping that people dig it, because it would be a huge step for long-form improv to get that. Just like stand-ups, when they get big enough, they can get these specials with big theaters. We’re trying to show that long-form can do that, too, if people check it out. We love it so much. Me and Thomas Middleditch are releasing those in a little bit. They should be coming out, not too far away.

This has been a real treat. You’re a treasure. A national treasure, a New York treasure. It’s you and Billy, man!

That’s something that… I’ve been doing it for 20 years, now, man. We’ve been doing it for a long time, and it’s something that brings me so much joy. We started doing shows for nobody in a team called Hot Sauce, and nobody would really show up. Slowly, people started coming out, and we started doing other shows. Then Thomas and I met, and we started doing two-person, and then performing to 120 people. Then we played a place called Largo, where we did monthly shows for 280 people, two shows a night, so 560 tickets a night. Then we started selling out Carnegie Hall, which was insane, and then The Chicago Theater, and Philly… It’s been such a thrill because long-form improv, especially two-person long-form has not really been able to do this kind of stuff. We’re thrilled that we get to be the people who… Hopefully, if you’ve never seen long-form before, and you’re not in a place where you can go to a show, any of the big improv theaters all across America, this is the way you can learn about it and develop a passion about it, and start doing it. Honestly, it’s a thing that we still love very much.

Me too! They sent me a screener, and it’s just so great. It’s like All in the Family, where it’s so funny while tackling real life drama, but it doesn’t go from one to the other; it does both at the same time, all the time. I love that.

I’m so excited for people to see Standing Up, Falling Down. It’s about a stand-up comic, a failed stand-up comic, who meets this dermatologist who’s really had a rough run of it, and they put their messiness on each other. They lean against each other and figure out the s*** they’re going through. I really enjoyed it. I think Billy gives an incredible performance. I hope people watch it!

It’s a really special movie, and I hope it gets the audience it deserves.

That’s so cool, that’s awesome of you. I’m excited. It made me really happy.

More: Sonic The Hedgehog – 10 Easter Eggs You May Have Missed

Thank you, brother! Hey man, New Yorkers, we’re looking out for each other wherever we can.

Sonic the Hedgehog is in theaters now, and Standing Up, Falling Down releases on February 21.