Ben Schwartz on Sonic the Hedgehog 3: ‘I haven’t seen a shred of darkness in Jim Carrey’
“I’m not allowed to say anything,” insists Ben Schwartz. To emphasise his point, or perhaps swept along by sheer verbal inertia, the comedian and Parks and Recreation star says it three more times. “I was told not to say anything. I don’t know anything. I’m not allowed to say anything.” It seems he really isn’t allowed to say anything. I’ve just asked Schwartz about Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the forthcoming capper to a trilogy of popular video game movies, in which he voices the lead character. Specifically, I’ve asked about last month’s widespread reports that Keanu Reeves had been cast as Shadow, a sort of moody, goth-black invert of Schwartz’s famous blue hedgehog. Schwartz shutters his face with poker-tournament blankness. “I saw those reports too!” he says. That’s as much as I’m going to get.
I am receiving this good-natured stonewalling over video chat,, cracking wise with Billy Crystal in the two-hander , and John McClaneing with Kevin Hart in the Netflix thriller . The list goes on: John Malkovich; Jeremy Irons; Don Cheadle; Eminem. Schwartz never seems like a name-dropper, but chat to him for even a few minutes and the names start to silently pile around our feet.
