Ben Schwartz Tells Billy Crystal Why He Was Never Allowed To Be In His School Musicals - But He Finally Gets To Sing In 'The Afterparty'
In a recent interview for Interview Magazine, two Bronx-born Jewish actors sat down to swap some words; Those two actors being Ben Schwartz and Billy Crystal.
They were there to talk about Schwartz's new show The Afterparty, a hilarious whodunit on Apple TV, but they did get sidetracked pretty quickly, as the two are chums from the time they spent together for 2019's Standing Up, Falling Down. They ended up talking about Schwartz's parents careers, which actually yielded an interesting tidbit:
"My mom was a Bronx school teacher...[she taught] music. I was one of her students, and I wasn't allowed to be any of the big roles in musicals when my mom was a teacher because they considered it nepotism."
It's a fair point, but it's hard to imagine an actor as talented as Ben Schwartz be sidelined on a technicality. (Most schools don't have a lot of outlets for actors besides those plays.)
Still, at least, Crystal pointed out, Schwartz gets to sing now - in fact, his episode of The Afterparty has a lot of that.
"My episode is a true movie musical. I have original numbers, I have choreography, and it's the first time I've ever had anything like that before. It was incredible. a woman named Kat Burns gave me choreography, and to learn it is so difficult when your brain doesn't quite know it yet. And then it feels so fulfilling when you pull it off."
The actors also spoke briefly about Schwartz's upcoming vampire flick Reinfeld, also starring Nicolas Cage. Though he couldn't give too many details, we do now know that at some point, the Sonic the Hedgehog star will wear a harness, and he will, in fact, throw punches.
Schwartz has indeed been busy lately - on top of the projects we've already mentioned, he also appears in the new season of Space Force, and has done voiceover work for both The Boys Presents: Diabolical on Amazon Prime, and as Leo on the upcoming TMNT movie, The Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When Crystal asked about why his schedule is so jam packed, Schwartz had a simple answer:
"I'm trying to be good at saying yes to the things that make me happy."
That's just solid life advice, right there.
