Ben Schwartz On Relishing The Villain Role In Renfield

In Renfield, Dracula’s long-suffering henchman has a change of heart after serving the vampire for years. A chance meeting with Rebecca Quincy, a traffic cop in modern-day New Orleans, changes his perspective and spurs his desire to do the right thing and create a life for himself outside Dracula’s control. This insubordination creates potentially deadly consequences when Renfield is forced to go up against Dracula in the hopes of earning his freedom.

Renfield is not the traditional Dracula tale, instead focusing on his henchman and their toxic employee-boss relationship. Renfield is directed by Chris McKay from a script penned by Ryan Ridley based on Robert Kirkman’s story. Renfield features a star-studded cast led by the legendary Nicolas Cage, Nicholas Hoult, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, and Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Screen Rant spoke with Ben Schwartz about playing Teddy Lobo in Renfield. Schwartz revealed how voice acting helped him and why he enjoys playing a villainous character. Schwartz also discussed working with McKay, Ridley, and Cage.

Ben Schwartz On Renfield

Screen Rant: Ben, this is my favorite movie of the year. It hits on every level. You got horror, action, and a lot of heart. Teddy feels so over the top and cartoonish, so did your work in animation help your approach?

Ben Schwartz: I think the idea of getting yourself to a crazy level, this guy is on drugs a lot, and is supposed to be very heightened. The whole idea is he’s a heightened version of what a criminal is supposed to be. It absolutely helps. Doing cartoons for so long makes me feel like I can go a little bit more bananas and I can find my levels if they want me to push a little bit higher. So I think, yeah, it does.

I don’t see you playing the bad guy very much. What is it like playing a villain this time around?

Ben Schwartz: Heaven! It’s heaven because I play and I love playing them because it’s more me. I love helping people and all that stuff, but the idea to be just a total opposite of what I am. I don’t know how to handle guns, I had to learn how to do that. I don’t know how to really fight somebody outside of like, push someone on the basketball court. So learning all those things was amazing and then to flex that into like, “There’s a lot of comedy that can be had out of these type of characters.” So it’s fun to start playing with that world.

You to chew up that scenery, my friend. I love comedy, but there’s a surprising vulnerability to your character. Can you talk about infusing that in your performance in this film?

Ben Schwartz: With all my characters, I try to show you enough heart and I try to show you the weaknesses that they have, so you can feel them and people can relate to them. There’s a lot to the idea that he’s vulnerable, the idea that maybe he’s a mama’s boy. When he fails, I think you then connect with the character more [he] becomes more of a real character. I try and do the same thing when I improvise. I try to give you moments where I’m down to earth or something sad happens. So you can play with both levels.

I love the blend of practical effects and digital effects. It’s brilliant. What did Chris McKay bring as a director to this film?

Ben Schwartz: One of my first or my first ever writing job outside of freelancing was Robot Chicken. And Chris McKay worked on Robot Chicken, which is amazing. And I think LEGO Batman Movie is one of the best directed movies so I was a huge McKay fan beforehand. McKay really pushed the idea of practical effects, which is amazing. When Hoult punches a head off, it’s literally, he’s punching a head off and blood spurts everywhere. I had contacts that were yellow. It’s just great to physically touch.

I remember, we’re doing a scene where I’m running through a street, and I’m throwing bags of cocaine at cops. [Chris’] like, “Yeah, maybe you could run through this.” He gets in the car and he does it. He’s so passionate about what we’re doing, that you just want to make him proud, and you want to do all the things. He would run in the car and get on the floor and get dirty. He was great.

Nicolas Cage’s version of Dracula is probably the best. Can you talk to me about working with him as a collaborator?

Ben Schwartz: To do scenes with him is amazing. He’s so in it. He’s early. He’s ready to go. He’s a professional movie star. You get on that thing, and he’s really in it. He allowed me to play a little bit in those scenes and the idea that I’m playing with Nick Cage. It’s heaven. It’s amazing. Doing all that stuff was the best and then afterwards to be sitting next to him when he’s fully dressed as Dracula just talking about the movies that are out now. What’s better than that?

I was just in a room with him, and he was looking at me like he was stealing my soul. What did you want to bring to the role of Teddy that wasn’t necessarily on the page?

Ben Schwartz: I tried to push the comedy a little bit because Ryan Ridley wrote a really funny script. I was like, “I think I know how to make this where I’m not too over the top.” I wanted the moments when I robbed the store, robbed the restaurant, I want that to feel real. I want those moments like when I’m about to shoot Akwafina for the first time, I want you to see, “Oh my god, I’m really scared, but I’m going to do this.”

We really tried to zone in those moments of realism and the moments of letting me go bananas. So the editing room has a choice of what to do. That was my big thing to push on comedy, but I’m really going to find these dramatic moments to dive into to do some real acting.

This film actually has a lot more heart than I expected. When you first read that script, what was your initial reaction to it?

Ben Schwartz: Ryan Ridley used to write for Rick and Morty. I think he’s brilliant and he wrote for those Rick and Morty years, the very beginning, when I was like, “What is this shows? ” His script was amazing. It was so funny, it was so dark, and it was so like bloody that you could just read on the page this is gonna be amazing.

You’re like, “Oh, I can’t wait to say it’s fucking Dracula. I can’t wait to do this. I can’t wait to get in this fight” You start thinking about all these roles like “Oh, I gotta do this movie this is gonna be too fun.” His script did it. It was before Nick Cage was attached and I was like “This. It’s too good.

About Renfield

Renfield has been Dracula’s loyal henchman, but he longs for a life separate from the narcissistic vampire. He finds a new lease on life in modern-day New Orleans when he meets traffic cop Rebecca Quincy and decides to stand up to his creator. However, his rebellion does not go unpunished, and Renfield will be forced to face off against Dracula in the hopes of breaking free from the endless cycle of death and bloodshed.

Check out our other Renfield interviews here:

• Nicolas Cage & Nicholas Hoult
• Awkwafina
• Red Carpet
• Chris McKay & Robert Kirkman