WGTC: Can you tell us a bit about your experience working on Coffee Town?
Schwartz: Coffee Town was fun. We filmed the whole thing very quickly. Me, Steve (Little), and Glenn Howerton worked almost every day single day of the movie, which is so fun and so great. It was very intense too. It was also with College Humor, who I’ve been doing shorts with for years and years. When they came to me, I really wanted to be a part of the first feature film they did just because I’m such a fan of what they’ve done so far.
It was also very interesting because you do something like Turbo with a premiere in New York and people around the world watching you. You feel so special to be a part of it. Then you do something like Coffee Town which is live-action. Turbo takes maybe a year and change to record, Coffee Town we did 20 days and then it was edited for whatever. Two totally, totally different experiences. I love them both very, very much though.
WGTC: I thought Coffee Town was really good for the first College Humor feature. Do you have any plans for another one with them?
Schwartz:Â I don’t know. I’m not sure. I’m hoping they’ll do more. I’ll have to see how well this one did for them, but if it did well my assumption is that they’ll do more. I would absolutely do more. I’ve written some movies for Universal and one for Paramount, I’d try to put one together for them to do, because it’s so collaborative and stuff like that. I would totally be down to do another movie with them. Absolutely.
WGTC: Now for my token Parks and Rec question…
Schwartz: Ooo here it comes. Is it a J.R.R. Tolkien thing. Is it a Hobbit type question?
WGTC: Yeah of course! That sort of Tolkien. But how was it working with Henry Winkler?
Schwartz: Oh my god. Let me tell you, if you want to meet the nicest Jewish man in the universe, you could just take a seat next to Henry Winkler. I mean, the first day of filming he was so nice. He’s an idol in everybody’s mind, to me as well, I mean he’s the Fonz! He’s done so much great stuff in children’s hospitals.
He was so kind and I remember the second day I shot with him my neck was hurting me, and he goes, “Ben, do you want to sit down? I’ll give you a massage.” And I’m like, “Are you the best person in the world?” And he literally uncranked my neck which was hurting me for like a day. He massaged it out so it didn’t hurt any more.
Just the most lovely man in the universe. And so happy to be working. I just hope to be as happy as he is, because he’s done so many episodes of so many things, you’d think he’d get sick of it, but he doesn’t at all. He’s so joyful and so good on set and so funny. He hits every beat and he knows his lines. That was a joy. That was an absolute joy.
WGTC: So he’s as good of a masseur as he is an actor?
Schwartz: He is as nice of a human being as he is an actor. I can’t express to you how nice and kind this man was.
WGTC: Do you have anything else exciting coming up that you can tell us about?
Schwartz: I’m writing a movie for Universal called No Hearts Club. Oh and I’ve got House Of Lies which premieres January 12th. Then I have This Is Where I Leave You, it’s a movie I did coming out next year, which will be really fun.
That concludes our interview, but I’d like to thank Ben for taking the time to talk with us. Be sure to pick up Turbo on Blu-Ray as it’s now on store shelves.
