Emmy-winning comedian and actor Ben Schwartz is here to remind you to update your voicemail with a special Topo Chico Hard Seltzer campaign. Having first found stardom with his recurring role of Jean-Ralphio Saperstein in the beloved NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation, Schwartz has seen his career steadily skyrocket on both the big and small screens in the 15 years since. The actor would go on to be one of the lead stars in the Showtime comedy House of Lies, being a voice consultant on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and co-creating the acclaimed Netflix improv show Middleditch and Schwartz.

More recently, Schwartz has become a prolific figure in the world of voice acting. Between co-leading the DuckTales reboot as Dewey, Nickelodeon’s Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Leo and Hulu’s M.O.D.O.K. Arguably, his most popular role is now that of Sonic the Hedgehog in the movie franchise based on the iconic SEGA platforming video games, having led the first two movies and made a guest appearance in the recently released Knuckles spinoff show on Paramount+. Schwartz is currently gearing up for the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 later this year, which will reteam him with James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Lee Madjoub, Idris Elba, Colleen O’Shaughnessey and Jim Carrey.

Before the beloved blue hedgehog races back to the screen, Schwartz is teaming with Topo Chico Hard Seltzer for a special voicemail campaign. Entrants will be invited to select their favorite from a list of pre-recorded messages, with the first 50 entrants of legal drinking age each weekday leading up to May 13 receiving a hard seltzer reward in the form of a $36 payment, while also being entered for a chance to win the grand prize of Schwartz recording a special new voicemail for the winner.

In honor of this unique campaign, Screen Rant interviewed Schwartz to discuss the Topo Chico Hard Seltzer voicemail campaign and how he infused his own brand of comedy into the messages. The Emmy winner also reflected on Parks and Recreation in time for its 15th anniversary, including his thoughts on a Jean-Ralphio-led spinoff, shared exciting teases about what’s to come from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, including which games he played in preparation for the threequel, and his upcoming return in Invincible season 3.

Schwartz Said “Yes In An Instant” To Get To Improvise Voicemails For Topo Chico Hard Seltzer

When Schwartz was approached by Topo Chico Hard Seltzer for their voicemail campaign, he was not only thrilled by the opportunity to partner with a brand he keeps in his house all the time, but particularly for the chance to get to improvise the messages for lucky fans who win. With his own background in writing, the Emmy winner also confirmed that he worked with the company on their script for the pre-recorded messages for some “hilarious” options for fans:

Ben Schwartz: Grant, my friend, lovely to see you again. Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, the campaign itself, when they came to me, was such a fun idea. Basically, go to Hellotopochico.com, you refresh your voicemail. We all have the same old voicemails all over. I mean, for decades. I’ve had the same one for decades. And the idea is Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, if you refresh your voicemail, you have the chance to win a summer supply of Topo Chico Hard Seltzer.

And the fun part is there’s some grand prize winners where I personally will redo your voicemail. What will I do? Who knows? I mean, you have to win. You have to go refresh that voicemail to find out. And first of all, I love Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, to begin with. We have it in our house. So when this opportunity came over, and I got to improvise voicemails, of course I said yes in an instant. I think it was really fun. This campaign, which will start, you’ll hear that I recorded some stuff for that.

And then also, while we were playing around and playing with the script a little bit there, we’re like, “Oh, maybe when we do the voicemails, I’ll play, if we learn a little bit about people.” So it’d be great. So my hope is I get to play a little bit, and if not, we already have hilarious scripts to do it, but if you ever wanted me to be your voicemail, you’re going to fall in love with Topo Chico Hard Seltzer. But now you get a little added bonus of either free Topo Chico Hard Seltzer or a voicemail from me. There’s really no losing in this contest, if we can even call it that.

Given many people toy with unique voicemail options to tease those leaving a message, a running gag Archer became well-known for in most of its run, Schwartz admitted he never “had it in me to do” that with his own voicemail. The star does, however, tease that for the grand prize winners who get him to record a voicemail for them, he could very well lean into his own catalog of characters to create something fun:

God, that’s such a good question. I don’t think I did it. I don’t think I had it in me to do it. What I have right now, because I really do care about voicemail stuff, I feel like I’ve changed it. Same with ringtones. I have different songs for different people still. I must be very, very old. But my voicemail right now is Milhouse from The Simpsons telling you, “You’ve reached Ben and everything’s coming up Milhouse.” But I had refreshed that recently, and I had to. So, basically, I won that contest for me. And now this is a contest, where people can do the same thing, except I’m the one doing their voicemails.

I don’t know if I can do actual characters I’ve done, but if you think I’m afraid of doing a weird voice, you’re crazy. [Chuckles] If you think that there’s not a chance, even a small chance, that Topo Chico Hard Seltzer is fine with it, for me to do a silly voice as your voicemail, great. But if not, this is what you get, the silky tones of this is what you get as well.

Parks & Recreation’s Legacy Is “Amazing” For Schwartz (Particularly The Idea Of A Jean-Ralphio Spinoff)

Even as the star has gone on to play unique and fun characters over the years, Parks and Recreation‘s Jean-Ralphio remains a fan-favorite in Schwartz’s filmography, with people still approaching him to share their love of him. With the show celebrating its 15th anniversary after first premiering in April 2009, Schwartz is moved that it is “still resonating with people“:

Ben Schwartz: Yeah, it’s so funny. My aunt the other day said she was in a store, and she was like, “It’s you yelling, ‘The worst!’ or ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’,” or something like that. It’s crazy, and it’s amazing that it’s still resonating with people. I think the thing out of everything, even when I do my live performing and travel around the world for that, people [mention], I think, Jean-Ralphio first, and then maybe Sonic, and Afterparty and some fun stuff after that. But it’s always going to be, I feel like, the thing that people recognize me from the most, because the character always thought that he was nailing it, and clearly was not, but he always thought he was crushing it.

I miss that show a lot, I miss those people a lot. And the older you get and the more you work, the more you realize how lucky we were, that we all were on the same show. All the funniest people, all the funniest writers, and it was just very special. So the older you get, you realize how much of a unicorn that show really was.

When it comes to the idea of revisiting the show after the pandemic special, Schwartz does note he still gets asked about a Parks and Recreation Jean-Ralphio spinoff including his sister, Jenny Slate’s Mona-Lisa, though he admits that co-creator Mike Schur’s feeling the characters are best “in tiny little bursts” is probably “right“:

Ben Schwartz: Yeah, and then we did a pandemic episode, I think, too, because I remember I had to be Jean-Ralphio in my home. [Chuckles] But I think people have asked me the question of, “Do you think Mona-Lisa”— Mona-Lisa is my twin sister on it, played by Jenny Slate — “and Jean-Ralphio would have a spinoff?” I mean, listen, how fun [it would be] to play in that world again.

But I remember Mike Schur saying when we were doing interviews during one of the seasons, he loves Jean-Ralphio, and he’s like, “But I think you got to have him in tiny little bursts. [Laughs] If you have 30 minutes of Jean-Ralphio, that is far too much Jean-Ralphio.” And I think he may be right, but also listen, maybe it’s time to do something crazy and try it out. But I do think it’s just the energy of Jenny and I in a full episode just on us would be overwhelming, probably. But it would be so fun. Of course, it would be so fun. I love that whole team.

Schwartz Had To Find Another Way To Dive Into Sonic Adventure 2 For The New Movie For 1 Hilarious Reason

With Sonic the Hedgehog 3 properly introducing Shadow the Hedgehog to the franchise with Keanu Reeves voicing him, the threequel is set to be pulling from the Sonic Adventure games for inspiration for its story. In Screen Rant‘s previous interviews with the star of the original Sonic movie, Schwartz had admitted to not having played either title. He has since tried to in order to prep for the third movie, though he found himself struggling to do so for one hilarious reason:

Ben Schwartz: Oh my God. Grant, this is great. Okay, so this is what happened. I think I downloaded it on Xbox. I started playing it, and I found the controls to be so hard to play that game. To me, it wouldn’t work. So I played it, I got to one of the Knuckles rounds where, for hours and hours, you’re searching for little things, you fly around searching for stuff. And I found the controls to be so — I just didn’t find them to be easy in that version of it. I wish I had the original, it must’ve been Dreamcast, right?

I wish I had Dreamcast, I had that controller. I feel like it would’ve been so much easier. It’s the same thing when I play Switch and I play N64, it’s too hard. Even playing Mario 64, it’s like I find the controls to be so difficult as opposed to when I had that old controller. But so what I did is — I’m not even calling it cheating, because I didn’t beat the game — I watched a playthrough of the entire thing, to make sure I watched the entire thing. But I gave it my all, and then I was like, “I think this will take me so many days just to figure out how to handle these controls.”

So I did a playthrough and got to watch the whole game, and it’s amazing. Also, there’s so many specific things. Like, sometimes the audio mixing is bananas, sometimes the voices are over each other. [Laughs] And the music is so loud sometimes, and the music is amazing. And the story is — I mean, if you’ve played that game, Sonic Adventure 2, the story is — I don’t want to ruin it if people haven’t seen it, but there are twists and turns in that story that are not evident in other Sonic stuff before it, I would say. So, I loved it, I got to watch it all, it was like watching a movie. I was like eating popcorn and loving every minute of my life, but I wish I had a Dreamcast, so I can kind of play it myself.

When asked whether the LPs he watched for the Sonic Adventure games came from the YouTube channel Game Grumps, Schwartz didn’t say explicitly one way or the other. But he did confirm that he will be appearing on their Guest Grumps show in order to promote Sonic the Hedgehog 3, even teasing which game he hopes to play during his appearance:

Ben Schwartz: By the way, so it’s funny. So, for Sonic 3, I’m obviously going to do another Game Grumps. I got to pick which game I want to play. There’s a part of me that kind of wants to play Back to the Future on Nintendo. I like games that have a beginning and an end and I can beat in under an hour or something like that. If I start Sonic Adventure 2, I’m there for three weeks. [Laughs] You give me a side-scrolling SNES game, you’re in trouble.

If you give me QuackShot on Genesis, any of these things, I’m going to take it down. DuckTales on regular Nintendo, what are we trying to do? Come on. I think also me going through just the most, the hardest levels I remember as a kid, like the battle toads jet ski level was impossible. The Ninja Turtles’ swimming level, impossible. I think doing all that and just watching us slowly lose our minds would be wonderful.

Though not sharing any specifics for just how much the movie will pull from the games, Schwartz teases that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is “definitely influenced by” Sonic Adventure 2, pointing to the logo reveal as a big sign of the homages already brought over from the 2001 game. Schwartz also hyped just how big the threequel will be in comparison to the first two movies, saying the creative team is “swinging for the fences“, particularly with the introduction of Shadow:

Ben Schwartz: I’m not going to give you specifics, but I will say the movie’s definitely influenced by, at the very least, that game. You can also see it even in the logo, you kind of already see that, or the music that was playing during aspects of that logo reveal. So, there’s definitely influence from Sonic Adventure 2, as well as other games. I can’t tell you how excited I am about everything. Jim Carrey is going to be extraordinary, Jeff Fowler has brought it times 1000 directing it. I can’t confirm or deny who Shadow is, who knows who Shadow is going to be, but from what I’ve heard and gathered, he’s awesome, and it’s going to be great. It’s going to be great.

I’m so excited with this movie. I finished all my lines, but what I basically do is I do the script first, then they film. Now, they’re going to bring me back all the footage, and we play with the lines, we improvise, we do it. The good thing about having a voice actor or an animated character be the lead, or one of the leads, of the movie is that whenever we need to edit scenes or something that we can just keep recording my voice and have me say different things over and over again, that part doesn’t cost money. It’s animating my mouth that costs money, so we’re going to tinker and make this the best thing we can do and make it the funniest thing and make it just the coolest movie. It is enormous, this film is enormous. Toby, Neil, and Jeff, man. You’re going to be blown away. This one is swinging for the fences. It’s a really special film.

I think it’s also exciting for me when you get to introduce another character from the video games. For me, it’s gratifying and lovely, and also, Shadow, to me — people have the rankings of which is their favorite Sonic characters, but to me, I think we’re hitting all of the A-sides. We’re hitting all the big hits, like all the ones that are just extraordinary, and these are characters that, in different games, you could play as. So, it’s pretty remarkable.

I love the intro to him in this film, and I think fans are going to be excited. And I think fans understand how much we care about them, think about how much we changed the film from the response to the first trailer, which I think was the very right move. I think fans will feel like they’re being taken care of, I hope, because we always do it for them, and it hasn’t failed yet. We get to make a third one, there’s a spin-off, so the idea that we’re still doing this, man, you think about where we started and where we are right now, it’s pretty remarkable. So we’re very excited.

As to what the future of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise holds after the upcoming third movie, Schwartz does not yet have any insight into what’s to come, indicating that he and the team wait until after a movie comes out to see how it performs, but is ready to play the titular character until “people stop coming to movie theaters“:

Ben Schwartz: So I think — and by the way, this is me swinging — we never know until the movies come out and we see how many people see them. When the movie comes out, and the studio gets to see how many people are coming to watch it, the passion that the fans have, then I think all those decisions get made. It’s the same way that 2 got made after 1 did so well, same way that 3 got greenlit because 2 did so well, and the same way that they’re like, “Let’s spread it out to Knuckles.”

And Knuckles also became a huge deal on Paramount+, which is great. It’s one of the most-watched original programs, at the start of it at least. So, we have to wait and we have to hope that people show up to the movie theater, buy tickets and show that there’s enough support that we can keep doing this. I will do this character until people stop coming to movie theaters. I love it so much, so I’m here until the fans are like, “All right, this was amazing, but let’s move on.” But right now, I think we’re giving them all the things that they would want to see in order to have them keep coming back and get excited.

And the movie’s getting bigger and bigger, and introducing more characters from the video game. There’s going to be beautiful scenes where so many gorgeous CG characters that you remember as a kid come to life and interact with each other. Just from the beginning, you have Tails, Sonic, Knuckles, and now we have Shadow, it’s like a dream come true.

Schwartz Is Thrilled About His Invincible Season 3 Return (But Can’t Share Anything)

In addition to Sonic the Hedgehog, Schwartz recently found himself joining another iconic property with Prime Video’s Invincible, starring in season 2 as the new Guardians of the Globe member Shapesmith. The star found it a dream come true to be a part of the show as he is a “huge fan“, and though he confirms that he will be back for season 3, he doesn’t want to share anything out of fear of being fired:

It was amazing. I remember when Robert Kirkman told me what the character is — I wasn’t aware of him in the graphic novel of the comics, but I’m a huge fan of that show, I think Invincible’s so good — he said, “Hey, do you want to play this character?” He told me kind of what it was, I was like, “Oh my God, this is so fun.” Not only does he have these “Plastic Man abilities”, or Elastic Man, or Mr. Fantastic-type of stretching abilities and morphing abilities, but he is hiding that he’s really an alien who’s trying to pretend that he’s a human.

So, he’s trying to fool everybody, but 100% doesn’t fool. The second you hear him talk, he just overdoes it. So, I get to play comedy, and I also get to play these beautiful scenes of saving the day. In the last four that they released, there’s this gorgeous fight scene where you see Shapesmith really stand up for the team. I’m excited to keep going too. He’s still around, he hasn’t bitten the dust yet, so I get to keep playing him until whatever part of the storyline takes him to a place where maybe he’s not around anymore, but hopefully he stays for a long, long time.

Yeah, they have already started recording and I’m not allowed to say anything. Simon and Robert would kill me. My God, Sonic, I can’t tell anything about Sonic and I can’t tell anything Invincible. Those fan bases are so gorgeous and amazing, and I love that they want information, but if I’m the one that gives it, I’ll probably get fired. So I can’t say anything.

About Topo Chico Hard Seltzer’s Voicemail Campaign

Let’s be real, when was the last time you refreshed the voicemail greeting on your cell phone? Our recent online survey of 1,000 21+ respondents showed that 76 percent do not regularly update their voicemail recording and nearly half (44 percent) haven’t updated their voicemail recording in years.

Topo Chico® Hard Seltzer and actor and comedian Ben Schwartz are here to refresh and spring-clean your likely neglected phone greeting by renting out your voicemail message to receive Topo Chico Hard Seltzer this summer.* And the best part? 10 lucky fans of legal drinking age* who’ve rented out their voicemails to Topo Chico Hard Seltzer will also win a personalized voicemail greeting from Ben Schwartz.

Now through Monday, 5/13, visit hellotopochico.com to select your favorite pre-written message to record as your new voicemail. The first 50 entrants each weekday will receive Topo Chico Hard Seltzer this summer (in the form of a $36 payment) and will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize of the Ben Schwartz voice recording.

Source: Screen Rant Plus