Max Greenfield Interview

I recently sat in on a conference call with New Girl Golden Globe nominated Max Greenfield and he is delightful, like I wish we were BFF’s delightful. The quick witted funnyman talked upcoming episodes, a movie project and his possible past as an exotic dancer.

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATION:
“It feels wonderful especially in such a kind of odd category, where they have people from movies and miniseries and dramas. And all of a sudden they’re like well, the nominees are Ed Harris and Schmidt from New Girl. So, to hear that was kind of— I don’t know, it felt really nice. It always feels nice to be recognized for the work that you do”
“I like to dress up. I like to put on a spiffy outfit. So that I’m excited about. I’m excited about when the show starts to end, and you can kind of loosen up your bow-tie and unbutton like the first two, and let the bow-tie hang loose. That’s always a cool look. That’s exciting.”

THE SCHMIDT AND CECE ROMANCE:
“I think it’s every time they kind of make up, they get back to like—it seems as though he’ll go after her, he’ll totally screw it up, and then they’ll find a place in friendship, and once they get settled into like a normal friend/relationship, he feels the need to then go after her again.”
“I’d like to see them back together. You try to play the character and make it as personal as
possible and at this point, Schmidt is working so hard to get back with her that I think I
personally kind of want to just win already.”

HIS SEXY LAP DANCE MOVES:
“I was actually—I don’t want to say a stripper because that’s not the right word, but an exotic dancer for quite some time. That’s not only Channing Tatum’s story, but it’s mine as well. It’s a shame that he was so much more famous than I was at the time the story came out. And now it’s like, I don’t want to feel like I’m copying him so—”

THE DEFINITION OF DOUCHE-BAGGERY:
“I think it’s anytime you see someone out in life who is just trying just a bit too hard. I saw a guy yesterday driving around LA—and it’s on the cooler side out here. I mean, we don’t live in Minnesota but it’s not exactly 90 degrees out here. And I saw some guy driving around in his Porsche and he had the top down and his Marlboro was like billowing out of his car and I was like, just…Anytime you can look at somebody and go, “We get it” – that’s, I think, the definition.”

GUEST STARS:
“Nelson Franklin comes back and he’s always a joy. Dennis Farina came on to play Nick’s dad. He’s wonderful. We’ve been really lucky. The people who do our casting, Anya Colloff, is great. We end up getting some really good people.”

THE UPCOMING MOVIE THEY CAME TOGETHER:
“Oh my God. I’m very excited about this. David Wain and Michael Showalter wrote it. David directed it. It stars Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd who were about the biggest dream I could ever ask for to go work with. I would find myself in scenes with them and I would be like, just watching. I realized—I was like, you probably should pay attention to where you’re supposed to be in the scene and not just be going, “How are they doing this?” They just were two of the funniest people I’ve ever worked with. I played Paul’s brother, and it’s just one of the funniest movies. I had such a good time on it. It was a real blast.”

New Girl returns with all new episodes tonight 9/8c on FOX