Renfield's Ben Schwartz On His 'Bad Guy Era' And Taking The F-Bomb To The Next Level [Exclusive Interview]
Nicolas Cage as Dracula is grabbing all the headlines for director Chris McKay's vampire horror/comedy "Renfield," and deservedly so. But while Nicholas Hoult acquits himself very well as the subservient title character with pitch-perfect comedic timing and Cage steals the show through his penchant for hamming it up, Ben Schwartz also shines as the picture's secondary, foul-mouthed antagonist: a mobster named Teddy Lobo who gets himself mixed up in the Dracula and Renfield drama.
Everyone likely knows the actor from his meme-worthy role as Jean-Ralphio in "Parks and Recreation," his turn in Showtime's "House of Lies," or a plethora of voice performances in projects like "DuckTales," "Sonic," and more. But after charming viewers in the murder-mystery series "The Afterparty," Schwartz returned to live-action with the R-rated "Renfield" and embraced his newfound niche as the bad guy. I recently sat down with the thoroughly entertaining and larger-than-life actor to talk all about the joy he took in dropping F-bombs left and right as Teddy Lobo, juggling the many disparate tones of the movie, making full use of his improv and stunt skills, and much more. (Warning: If you haven't seen "The Afterparty" yet, there are spoilers ahead for season 1 of that series.)
Note: This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
'My hope is that I'm really taking the F-bomb to the next level'
First things first. Were you cast in "Renfield" specifically for how much oomph you put into every F-bomb?
[laughs] My hope is yes. My hope is that I'm really taking the F-bomb to the next level. Yeah, I think it was the idea that I could bring a little bit of comedy to this crazy, criminal character. But, I think, second is that I throw a mean F-bomb.
Between this and "The Afterparty," these are two roles where you're the typical goofball, but they're both just plain bad guys, too. Do you relish that?
I do. I'm kind of getting into this bad guy era. I love it. It's very fun to play Dewey Duck [in "DuckTales"] and then play a killer [laughs]. It's very exciting. So the idea that I can keep doing all these things in my career and not just do one thing the whole time, I'm over the moon.
I asked Chris McKay about the challenge of keeping track of the tonal side of things, between comedy, action, and everything. As an actor, I know you have to focus on the scene in front of you, but do you keep the larger picture in mind, too?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I think it's a big thing, and I think it's a good question you asked Chris, because this is gore, comedy, action, horror. There's so much to juggle. And then you brought up "Afterparty" — "Afterparty" is like every genre. We literally do every genre. So you have to see the full scope of things and see where that scene, in the full scope of things, is. Especially for my character [in "Renfield"]. It's like, "Where am I in my evolution?" It's really important, and you need a director that can handle all of it. So, McKay and Chris Miller are people that just have it in their head.
'I think a lot of people are going to be talking about me looking like Chris Hemsworth'
Was there a lot of improv on set? Considering your specific background, were you able to play around?
Yeah, Ryan Ridley wrote an incredible script. So we always did his script, and then Chris would always be like, "Okay, now Ben, go have fun for a bit," and I would just go bananas. There was a cut that was over two hours long. Now, it's a tight 90 minutes, which is great. But, there's a lot of crazy bananas stuff out there. I don't know if there's deleted scenes or bloopers one day.
He did mention there was a cut dance sequence. Were you part of that?
No, but Kat Burns, who did all the dance sequences in "Afterparty," did this huge one for Nicholas Hoult. And I saw a little cut of it and it was amazing. I only saw a tiny bit of it. So, they must put that on the DVD. They have to.
This role also ended up being a little more stunt-heavy than I thought it would be. I heard you did a lot of your own stunts. How was that for you, preparation-wise?
It was so — I had to work out. Isn't that terrible?
Like the Marvel diet. Did they put you on that Chris Hemsworth workout regimen?
I think a lot of people are going to be talking about me looking like Chris Hemsworth in this movie [laughs]. Oh yeah. I tried not to take off my shirt because it's so intimidating to see one, no-muscle body.
No, but I did. I had to work out for it. I had to figure it out. Then also, I had to learn how to fight, and learn how to fire guns without being afraid of them, which was a very funny thing. My first day of shooting a gun, being like, "Whoa," and then the last day, where I'm like [mimics blasting with both hands] going bananas. It was very fun. Same with the fighting thing. At the very beginning of fighting, I would go [makes punching sound effects], "Pshh, pshh, pshh," and the stunt director's like, "You can't say, 'Pshh, pshh.' What are you doing?" So, I learned, "Okay, this is what I'm going to do."
'You could take inspiration from anything'
People may not know that you've written and directed before in the past.
I have, yeah!
Did you ever take those instincts and be like, "Hey, this is kind of what I want to bring to my character?" Did it ever go beyond the usual actor/director collaboration?
Oh, interesting. ["The Afterparty" creator] Chris Miller was amazing with that. He goes, "Any ideas? Anything you want to jump in?" And it's amazing. And McKay was awesome too, where if I had things to add, he was always down. And he knows I write and knows I direct. So he would ask me questions, I would ask him questions, and it's really fun. But doing all these movies, you kind of collect, like, "I like the way this was done. I really would like to do this." So, when I'm writing my movies, you could take inspiration from anything, which is really fun.
Are you thinking of going back to that at all? Writing your own stuff?
Right now I've got three things in development. Two that have been announced, maybe one. I don't mind announcing it here — who cares? One is a movie I'm writing for Sam Rockwell and I, and I'm on the third draft of that. I just handed in the third draft two days ago, that's why it's in my head. That's for Searchlight. And then, one was by mistake announced [laughs]. There's one live-action TV show that I've been writing for a bit with my dream company. And we're getting near the end stage, we'll see if that happens. If it gets greenlit, everybody will find out. If it doesn't get greenlit, you and I can have an interview in six months about me crying about what it was. And then, I wrote an animated television show that I'm the lead voice of and we're still developing it.
So, a lot of writing. Ever since "Afterparty," I've been writing three things at the same time. So I'm ready to be like, "Let me do some acting now. If I write another word, I'll lose my mind."
Do you have to balance that out, between your animated voice roles and live-action, too? Is that part of the reason you joined "Renfield"?
Yeah, I always have done voiceover because I love animated shows, movies, I love video games. So, to me, animation was always something I could do. And the idea of being Dewey Duck or Sonic, I loved doing it all just because I used to watch them so much as a kid. So, that part was amazing. I try to always do a little bit of everything. I'm writing, I'm doing VO, I'll try to direct sometimes. And then I'm doing this live-action stuff. And then, in that live-action stuff, I'm not just playing Jean-Ralphio [from "Parks and Recreation"], now I'm playing Yasper [from "The Afterparty"], you know what I mean? So I'm trying to do the breadth of as much as I can do.
"Renfield" hits theaters on April 14, 2023.