Up next in 10
Flora & Ulysses stars Alyson Hannigan, Ben Schwartz, and Matilda Lawler join director Lena Khan to talk about how their movie encourages viewers to see the magic and the beauty that surround us. Actor Ben Schwartz talks with the Sway In The Morning crew about the movie.
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Ben Schwartz Talks New Disney+ Film 'Flora & Ulysses' | SWAY’S UNIVERSE
https://youtu.be/lPc_RRB8g88
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0:00
all right man listen i you know
0:02
sometimes i just say yes i see this
0:04
man's name come across the marquis
0:06
like he's available he's doing something
0:08
he's he's involved in something and i
0:11
really appreciate our friendship i love
0:13
it when this guy is
0:14
the only time i talk to him is when he
0:15
come on the show though we gotta we we
0:17
vow
0:17
to change this in 2021 you remember that
0:20
hb
0:21
my man i told him man we got to start
0:23
talking more about just you know
0:25
everything you're doing you know it's
0:27
like he only calls me when he's doing
0:29
something should i feel away about that
0:31
nah some people just don't like to
0:33
bother folks yeah no no
0:35
i don't know man i thought you know i'm
0:36
starting to recognize a pattern
0:41
i'm starting to see some consistency in
0:43
our dynamic here i bring it up to him
0:45
every time man he
0:46
he's come up to to promote everything
0:49
everything and i'm like in between time
0:52
ben what's the problem
0:53
ben is in my voice ben what is it what
0:56
is this assault
0:57
[Laughter]
1:08
and then two seconds later sway goes
1:10
this man will not text me i do
1:12
not understand what's happening terrible
1:15
he jealous of your hair ben it's all
1:17
good
1:21
nice nice chunk of hair he has hey case
1:23
you don't remember ben schwartz
1:25
db just breaking down some of the things
1:26
he's known for most
1:28
well he's been on another pad in front
1:30
of him hit him off go go go
1:33
yeah you know i think uh ben was one of
1:35
the
1:36
actually one of the last people that we
1:38
had live in studio with us
1:40
uh when he was talking about sonic the
1:42
hedgehog but um i mean he was on the
1:43
show again last year
1:45
via phone and he's known for his
1:47
multiple roles doing voice work as
1:49
leonardo and rise of the teenage mutant
1:51
ninja turtles of course sonic the
1:53
hedgehog we work with
1:54
uh one of the comedic greats jim carrey
1:56
he also worked with billy crystal
1:58
and standing up falling down and now
2:00
he's back we actually get to see him
2:01
on screen he's back uh ben schwartz is
2:04
back with us now promoting his new film
2:06
floor and ulysses
2:07
he's playing the role of george buckland
2:08
welcoming back ben schwartz
2:14
what a joy to be here really is man
2:18
um billy crystal
2:21
i remember billy crystal from soap uh
2:23
you know i feel like we touched on this
2:25
before man but
2:27
billy crystal man that dude was a
2:29
comedic genius to me
2:31
he's incredible and thank you for dating
2:33
yourself so soap was a show that came
2:35
out 150 years ago
2:38
by the way and this is cool to use
2:40
references that your younger audience
2:41
can understand is awesome so like yes so
2:44
um you know you know that movie that
2:47
black and white movie of just the train
2:49
coming towards the camera that was one
2:50
of the first
2:51
moving pictures we love when you talk
2:53
about that um
2:55
the silent movies he did oh my goodness
2:58
yeah remember
2:59
remember back when we used to watch
3:00
movies where there be a little piano man
3:01
in the front doing the music because
3:03
there's no soundtrack yet
3:04
that's the type of stuff those are the
3:05
type of hip references that sway like to
3:07
throw out there for people
3:08
um no but billy crystal i did this movie
3:10
with him standing up falling down and
3:11
he's a legend right
3:13
it was incredible i it was so incredible
3:15
because for me it was like
3:16
him uh hosting comic relief with a
3:18
whoopi and rob and williams and
3:20
him hosting the oscars and city flickers
3:22
so doing that movie was a trip i loved
3:24
being around him and learning from him
3:26
i i like your your role selections and i
3:29
especially like the roles you do that
3:31
that appeal to
3:32
to kids man all i think in this day and
3:34
age
3:35
uh you're almost like an essential
3:37
worker as far as actors go
3:39
uh because here's the thing man we
3:42
relate to a lot of
3:44
we talk to a lot of kids i do a lot of
3:46
programs in and around the youth and
3:48
in this past year especially these kids
3:51
have been going through it mentally
3:52
psychologically they've been really
3:54
going through it so when you see a film
3:56
called flora and ulysses
3:58
that's going gonna be on disney plus i
4:00
feel like this and even watching the
4:02
trailer
4:03
i feel like this is gonna be a great
4:05
escapism for kids and
4:07
uh some normality where they could kind
4:09
of just be creative and be curious and
4:12
and fantasize about things as well did
4:15
do
4:15
do you think about that when you take
4:17
these roles or how it's going to impact
4:18
the kid and in this case i think this
4:20
film
4:21
is going to be like medicine for these
4:23
kids that's
4:25
amazing everything you said is perfect
4:26
it's exactly that i like i grew up
4:28
watching disney movies like
4:30
slumber remember flubber back in the day
4:32
and like you know obviously
4:33
animated movies like aladdin and stuff
4:35
like that so for me
4:37
uh i get to do all these things like
4:38
these middle eastern sports things where
4:40
i'm cursing all the time
4:41
and then i also want to try to make
4:42
stuff for kids and you're right so we're
4:45
the girl in this
4:46
her name is matilda lawler and she was
4:48
10 or 11 when she did
4:50
the uh movie and she's incredible and i
4:53
remember we were doing these interviews
4:54
and they're like yeah so like how is it
4:56
and she was like it's hard we're in
4:58
school on zoom
4:59
every day it's so weird so this is like
5:02
uh
5:02
it's you're right it is kind of a
5:03
release for them as well to like get
5:05
caught up in the magic of imagination
5:07
stuff like that
5:08
and for the parents dude parents have
5:09
been working their butts off
5:11
uh with their kids at home all day so
5:13
like to give them something and outlets
5:15
for them to like
5:16
relax and stuff like that i i definitely
5:18
try to
5:19
do a little bit of this and then i try
5:20
to do a little bit of that just to try
5:21
to keep myself a little
5:23
well-rounded how you been like
5:26
how good i haven't been to new york in a
5:29
year
5:30
by far the most i've been away from my
5:32
hometown in my life so i haven't seen my
5:34
family i haven't seen my parents
5:35
in a year the last time i saw was when i
5:38
was on your show because i got to visit
5:40
new york to do press for sonic so it's
5:41
like
5:42
it's it's crazy it's uh it's a very
5:45
strange
5:46
thing i've been filming a tv show here
5:48
that just wrapped we got tested twice a
5:50
day
5:50
every day so i've had over a hundred of
5:53
these tests
5:54
um so that just wraps so i think i'm
5:57
trying to figure out how safe it is to
5:59
get in a plane and come back home that's
6:00
my next uh
6:01
that's my next try yeah man i you know
6:04
everybody's had to adjust i did one
6:06
plane ride recently it was the best
6:09
traveling i've done in years because
6:11
there's nobody in the airport
6:13
there's no lines there's nothing so
6:16
you know but i've been what did you put
6:18
on a mask you put on one of the face
6:19
shields
6:20
what did you do yeah i put the mask on
6:22
you know uh
6:23
the mask doesn't really help me like
6:25
it's you know people still
6:26
you know it's knowing you can't there's
6:29
no um
6:30
anonymity you know you still people
6:32
still recognize you and all of that
6:33
stuff
6:34
and that was great i was actually
6:35
walking up to folks do you know me
6:36
i just wanted to have
6:37
human interaction um i saw a picture of
6:40
you at the airport and your mask had
6:42
drawn on it i am swayed don't forget
6:49
very uncomfortable i saw the pictures on
6:51
tmz i was like he's really and
6:52
your shirt had a picture of your face on
6:54
it yeah man i was chasing the cameraman
6:56
like me
6:57
point point point here point here uh
7:00
you know you guys actually did the
7:02
post-production of this uh during
7:04
doing so this wasn't finished when when
7:07
the quarantine and the pandemic start
7:08
hitting so you guys had to finish this
7:10
during the pandemic
7:12
yeah so we were by the way you're the
7:13
first person to ask that very good
7:15
research whoever does your research sway
7:16
is great uh so
7:18
they um they we were supposed to do i
7:21
mean like you're great at reading it off
7:22
the screen for the first time
7:23
live on airplanes
7:26
but so we were supposed to go shoot in
7:29
vancouver
7:30
and we every like the planes were all
7:32
set the tickets were all set and then
7:33
the pandemic happened so then
7:35
we said it's not safe anymore so what
7:36
they did is they turned these little
7:38
pieces
7:39
because i i play uh the father is my
7:41
first father role
7:42
we put a little gray in my beard and
7:44
went after it and uh so
7:46
the things we couldn't do i'm a comic
7:47
book artist in the movie
7:49
so we they made like those little scenes
7:51
that we're gonna do into comic art
7:53
and that's the way they were able to
7:54
connect it and make it safe for us not
7:56
to
7:56
do these reshoots and so you'll see like
7:58
little pieces of
7:59
comic like like it's almost like i'm
8:01
drawing a little piece of the scene
8:02
and that's that's how we were able to
8:04
finish it during the pandemic which is
8:06
incredible wow hey uh ben if you don't
8:10
mind um
8:10
i was thinking about when when last time
8:12
when you came by to talk about sonic
8:14
and how you know we don't get to see you
8:16
in the film we just hear your voice
8:17
as sonic the hedgehog and it's it almost
8:20
parallels
8:21
what we've been going through because
8:22
people don't get to see us in the studio
8:24
live with our guests they just hear us
8:26
you know via this this new form of uh
8:28
doing the show
8:30
so is it more convenient for you doing
8:33
voice roles
8:34
where you're just you know you get to go
8:35
in you record your part and then you get
8:37
to leave you don't really have to
8:38
do the physical part of it in front of
8:40
the camera or do you prefer that that
8:42
live action form of acting
8:44
that's a great question and also i think
8:46
with you guys also especially with your
8:48
show because you guys are kind of family
8:50
when you get in that room
8:51
for people who listen when you get in
8:53
that room you're looking at each other
8:54
you're laughing with each other you're
8:55
making each other laugh
8:56
and so that element to take that element
8:59
away from your show it must have been
9:00
a hit you know what i mean i know you
9:02
guys are able to do it like this you're
9:03
doing it well but
9:04
i totally feel for that but for me i
9:06
love to do them both there there is an
9:08
aspect of like
9:09
like you know james marsden had to be on
9:11
set for probably 40 50 days
9:13
and then i don't i'm not on set for
9:14
sonic i just go into a room for like 20
9:17
days
9:18
so it's way less work for me to do but
9:20
um it's more
9:21
it's you know sometimes it's really i
9:23
love live at live action
9:24
for the same exact reason why you guys
9:26
are so good with each other if i'm
9:27
opposite someone i can find new stuff
9:29
with them and stuff like that
9:31
for sonic it's basically i'll do all the
9:33
lines beforehand and they have them and
9:34
they can play them whenever they want
9:36
but i can't create in the moment with
9:38
like how fun would have been to create
9:40
the moment with jim carrey
9:41
so afterwards i see his footage and then
9:43
i do my lines against his or i improvise
9:46
off of the footage they've already taken
9:47
so there's just so much i can do but
9:49
it's fun and it the process worked great
9:51
that's
9:52
by the way it's insane i did that tour
9:54
with you guys and then it became like
9:55
the number one movie which nobody was
9:57
expecting it became this thing so we get
9:59
to do another one and all that stuff it
10:01
was really exciting
10:03
yes we didn't get nothing you know by
10:05
the way we didn't get a royalty
10:07
a mention or you know just to let you
10:09
know i don't know if
10:10
if your publicist is listening um yeah
10:13
yeah you know not even a dinner invite
10:16
not even a
10:17
thank you letter uh passports like i
10:20
mean wearing a pandemic dinner invite
10:21
would be tough but i get what you're
10:22
talking about edible arrangements
10:24
like a really nice meal yeah well you
10:26
could have you could uber eat me do
10:27
something
10:28
it's easy i would have shot you there
10:30
it's easy
10:39
anytime he does an ubereat shout out
10:41
that's another free chipotle meal for
10:42
him
10:43
hopefully uh hey let me ask you this
10:45
i've i can't think of who is the actors
10:48
i've seen many actresses and actor
10:49
actors who have um
10:51
actually just been excommunicated just
10:53
basically been
10:54
uh fired you know they uh where
10:56
companies have severed their time
10:58
their ties because of things they may
10:59
have posted on
11:01
on social media or even statements they
11:04
may have made
11:05
publicly in interviews so on and so
11:06
forth i know when we did stuff with
11:08
marvel
11:09
you got a code of conduct clause that
11:12
sometimes you find in these contracts
11:14
you're with disney plus
11:16
like i can only imagine that you know
11:19
how much they might scour through
11:20
whatever you may say or post
11:22
uh when you're not when you're in your
11:23
own free time is that a concern
11:25
like do you have to be concerned because
11:27
you do these kind of movies
11:29
that appeal to kids of what you say can
11:31
you really be outspoken politically
11:33
or would that be a detriment to your
11:35
work i mean that's a great question not
11:38
let's put uh uh not even politically the
11:40
idea of like if if i tweet about
11:43
uh uh like sonic or children's movie i
11:46
won't use curse words because i know
11:47
that
11:48
maybe that tweet might be retweeted by a
11:50
children's like a handle that like deals
11:52
with family stuff
11:54
but um yeah but in terms of like
11:57
controlling my entire twitter account
11:58
they've never disney hasn't really said
12:00
anything or had
12:01
any problems or anything like that i
12:03
think uh but i am i am aware of that and
12:05
also when so i do improv i tour like you
12:08
know we did carnegie hall and stuff like
12:09
that
12:10
and when we're on stage now and provide
12:11
everything is made up on the spot but
12:13
when i'm on stage
12:14
you know i always want to be extra
12:16
careful i always want to like
12:18
learn you know what i mean stuff like
12:19
that and make sure that there is a sense
12:21
of that
12:22
especially nowadays to make sure let's
12:23
let's try our best to be
12:25
you know kind and everything um but in
12:27
terms of twitter stuff i know when i
12:28
tweet about the children's stuff
12:30
i keep it you know pg g rated and then
12:32
when i go back to
12:33
my own stuff uh i'd kind of do whatever
12:36
i want but it is kind of a new day and
12:37
in terms of politics
12:39
i have you know i come from you know my
12:41
parents are from the southern bronx i
12:42
grew up in riverdale
12:44
and we are jewish we are we are
12:46
democrats so
12:47
that stuff i'm allowed to talk about and
12:49
you know uh
12:50
support all the different causes and the
12:52
things that we've been supporting our
12:53
whole lives so
12:55
that that hasn't been a problem either
12:57
but um
12:58
i i wonder also i'm not super famous you
13:00
interview like super famous people were
13:02
you know maybe some things that they do
13:04
or say could really affect him but who
13:05
cares what the hell i'm talking about
13:08
yeah man until you say it yeah but
13:11
yeah i've been that's true by the way
13:13
that's true you have to be
13:15
you do have to be careful you have to be
13:16
smart and also i feel like the other
13:18
thing
13:18
is if something comes up that is
13:20
incongruent with people if you do
13:21
something on stage or
13:22
something happens uh where people are
13:24
like you know i this is the reason why i
13:26
don't like that you ha
13:27
i think especially now you should have
13:29
always but you listen
13:31
you then you you find information you
13:33
learn and you grow from it right so if
13:35
you make if you're able to make i'm not
13:37
talking about a big mistake but if
13:38
you're able to make like
13:39
a smaller mistake and you can listen to
13:41
the people talking to you
13:42
learn about why they're saying that it
13:44
hurts them this way
13:45
and then you grow from it and you hope
13:46
that you won't make similar mistakes i
13:48
think that's the thing that
13:49
should be blanketed throughout and you
13:51
guys are on live all the time
13:53
so my assumption is there's gonna be
13:54
things that maybe you say that you
13:56
weren't even aware of
13:57
that maybe hurt somebody's feelings and
13:59
i'm assuming you guys do the same thing
14:00
where you kind of learn you grow and you
14:01
keep
14:02
you kept moving on keep it moving man uh
14:05
i don't put no more logs in the fire
14:07
though once something sparked though you
14:08
know what i mean
14:12
yo ben when you're gonna have kids bro
14:15
i'll do it right now you want me to do
14:16
it this second i don't even care is that
14:18
what you want
14:19
right now right now man i don't care
14:22
whatever
14:23
i do by the way playing this father like
14:25
i've always wanted to have kids i love
14:27
my mom and my dad
14:28
uh who are both fans of the show now and
14:31
by the way they've gone
14:32
my dad and his friend have gone back to
14:34
youtube and looked at these
14:35
old interviews you've done with other
14:37
political figures or you know old people
14:39
in hip-hop and rb
14:40
and they've loved it which has been so
14:42
fun because it's like that introduction
14:43
to
14:44
hip hop uh to my dad but they're like
14:47
huge political figures that you
14:48
interviewed especially back in the day
14:50
and if my dad has been going nuts for
14:53
but uh i'm very close to my
14:54
my mom my dad so i couldn't like i'm
14:56
excited to have kids
14:58
i feel like you know probably i'm almost
15:00
turning 40 so it's
15:01
you know somewhere around this area i
15:04
feel like is
15:05
time i guess is that what the timeline
15:07
is i'm gonna do it now if you tell me to
15:09
do it now i'll do it this second
15:10
i think you might want to think about it
15:12
while you still got your knees
15:14
because you're going to my knees yeah
15:17
you're going to have to do a lot of
15:18
running around bro
15:20
he also got to get the lady the most
15:22
important part
15:24
okay i'm going to need i'm going to need
15:26
my knees for that too right you're right
15:30
i'd hope so i'm thinking about like leg
15:32
day when you say when you need your
15:34
knees i'm thinking about like kevin
15:35
mchale wearing those knee pads and can
15:36
barely move
15:37
walking up and down the court and stuff
15:39
like that
15:41
that's how i see it too tracy you want
15:43
to dive in there real quick yeah i
15:44
wonder
15:45
during this time have you been able to
15:47
get back
15:48
into um book writing oh my goodness
15:52
you're the best uh i haven't i haven't
15:55
i'm i
15:55
i sold a movie so i'm writing a movie
15:58
and then i'm just about
15:59
closing a deal on uh uh a show that i
16:02
i'm gonna
16:03
create uh which i don't know if i should
16:05
have said that but it's not done yet but
16:06
it looks like it'll all be done so
16:08
i've been writing stuff like that um
16:11
in the meantime but this this show so
16:13
i've been filming the show since october
16:15
we just ended two days ago
16:16
so i've been every day been going to
16:18
work so i haven't had much time and
16:20
we just finished two days ago so now
16:22
it's time for
16:24
sitting down and writing and for the
16:26
writers that are in that in this
16:28
who we're talking to right now there's a
16:30
aspect of like loneliness when you write
16:31
and you've got to get your brain
16:33
ready for it again because you're
16:34
isolated when you do it so i'm starting
16:36
to get back in the groove of that of
16:37
like
16:38
all right sitting down let's spend a
16:40
bunch of hours every day
16:41
creating stuff like that yeah and then
16:43
that could be your baby your book baby
16:46
okay sure i'll do that i'll write about
16:48
i'll write a
16:50
[Laughter]
16:55
and it's just about my knobby knees and
16:57
that's the whole thing
16:58
i like that that man was able to dig up
17:01
knobby knees man ben you're talented
17:03
brother you
17:04
are talented on the spot that improv
17:07
yo it's happened every time in every
17:09
interview
17:10
he he says great work great research
17:13
right in front of
17:14
man we know you now bro we don't
17:17
interviewed you so much
17:18
we don't even do research
17:20
[Laughter]
17:24
wait there's one you one time you one
17:25
time uh put out into the universe that
17:27
you like come for the whole hour and
17:28
hang out
17:29
and when this when the world starts
17:31
spinning the right way again uh because
17:32
of
17:33
quarantine everything that would be the
17:34
most fun because it's just like hanging
17:36
out you guys just seem like friends with
17:38
each other and
17:38
having a good time it seems so fun just
17:40
to be in that room oh man yes
17:42
this is family you know heather and i
17:44
were family before all of this happened
17:46
tracy came on board and became family
17:48
and so
17:49
it's nothing for us you know we don't
17:51
you know we just get into a space and
17:53
then we just start creating that magic
17:55
you know that happens and i think that's
17:57
what you like about what it is you do
17:58
you can meet up with a yeah exactly or
18:01
allison um um hannigan or whoever is
18:04
starting this movie
18:06
and just kind of kind of you know vamp
18:07
and see what it is man so when it when
18:09
it opens up
18:10
right now tentatively it'll be a few
18:13
months before that building opens up
18:15
but when it does man come hang out just
18:18
hang out i can't wait
18:19
you know i'll be there all right man ben
18:21
schwartz ladies and gentlemen
18:23
check them out as george buckman in the
18:25
film flora and elise is premiering
18:27
on disney plus today gather around the
18:30
family
18:31
yeah out right now get your family get
18:34
the kids make sure y'all go to get
18:36
disney plus
18:37
and rock with my man ben schwartz ben
18:38
always great to talk to you brother
18:41
love to you guys thank you so much i'll
18:42
talk to you soon okay man
#Arts & Entertainment