Despite starring in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” together, Ben Schwartz had never met Keanu Reeves or Idris Elba in person until the London premiere.
The trio spent all their time in voiceover booths recording lines for their adorable, yet powerful, video game characters. Schwartz has played Sonic, the blue, speedy hedgehog, since the original 2020 movie; Idris came on board as the super-strong Knuckles, a red echidna, in the 2022 sequel; and now action icon Reeves is Shadow, an evil, black hedgehog, in the third installment.
Shadow was first teased in the post-credits scene of “Sonic 2,” just like how Sonic’s flying fox buddy Tails (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey) was hinted at in the first movie’s stinger. The foil to Sonic’s childlike, happy-go-lucky character, Shadow is dark, brooding and up to no good. The evil hedgehog teams up with Jim Carrey’s Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his grandfather Gerald Robotnik, who’s also played by a heavily prosthetic-ed and aged-up Carrey.
“Sonic 3” is poised to be the No. 1 film at the box office this weekend, beating Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King,” and the blue hedgehog isn’t slowing down yet — a fourth movie is hitting theaters in 2027.
With Variety, Schwartz discusses his voiceover process, what’s in store for “Sonic 4” and where his new comedy special “Ben Schwartz and Friends” might land.
Take me inside the voiceover booth when you record your lines. Are you there with Keanu while he’s doing Shadow, or are you by yourself?
I’m totally by myself, like a little lonely boy. It is me doing lines blindly with someone else reading the other lines. Then it’s me doing lines with the footage and performances that they’re going to use. I do far more voice records than most VO artists do. I probably did 20 in this one. The goal is to always beat the thing that’s already there, and I get to see rough cuts and give thoughts and really be a part of the process. Anything I can do to make the movie better. It’s not even about making my role better, but if I can make a joke of Shadow’s land better by setting it up better, I’ll do that. If I can make an action scene better by giving more effort, stuff like that. So we’ll go through the movie a bunch of times until we feel like we got the best version.
Sonic is always bouncing and running around on screen. How animated do you get while you’re recording?
If Sonic is running, I’m running in place. If Sonic is punching, I’m punching the air. If he’s getting hit, I make my whole body move so the sound feels genuine. If he’s eating, I pop in a banana. My chili dogs are usually bananas when I’m eating chili dogs in these movies. I try to literally do whatever I can to make it feel realistic. I always want the movies to feel like you could really connect with it. It’s not this broad cartoon character; it’s a kid with heart who’s very funny, who just wants people to like him and who’s dealing with real stuff. The themes in this movie end up being a little bit more mature as we’re getting older with our audiences, but we can still be accessible to all the younger kids that love these films.
You’re a “Sonic” veteran at this point in the third movie, and now you’ve got Keanu Reeves.
A veteran, yeah. I was gonna say LeBron James, but I’m not as good as LeBron James. I am whoever the oldest player in the NBA is right now — I can’t even think of who it is. I think LeBron.
You kind of have Keanu as your Bronny James, coming into his first year in the “Sonic” leagues.
Yeah, a lot of people are saying that I’m LeBron and Keanu Reeves is Bronny James. No, I gotta think of something better. When I was a kid, it was like Olden Polynice, Otis Thorpe, Craig Hodges, the guys who are around forever. I’m like that. I don’t want to give myself superstar status. I give myself good role player status. But I do like the idea that you called Keanu Reeves my child.
You’re kind of shepherding him into the franchise. Did you give him any pointers? How much of a “Sonic” fan was he before doing the movie?
I didn’t even get to meet him until the premiere. I hadn’t met Idris Elba until yesterday, and I’d done two movies and a TV show with him and I still hadn’t met him. We’re pretty solitary in our booths, and it was so good to meet him because I am a huge Keanu Reeves fan. I’m a huge Jim Carrey and Idris Elba fan, so the fact that I get to work with these people who I consider legends and the LeBrons — I’m the Bronny to their LeBron — that is very exciting.
What was the first thing you said to Keanu when you met him?
I literally handed him two pills, and I said “red pill or blue pill.” One was Lactaid, and one was an Ibuprofen, and he took the Lactaid.
I didn’t know he was lactose intolerant.
That’s canon. Real fans know that Neo is lactose intolerant and he needs to grab that before he drinks any milk or has ice cream.
You mentioned this movie is more mature than the others. Would we ever see Sonic grow up or become an adult?
You wanna see, like, divorced Sonic in a bunch of years? He’s growing up through his youth. I don’t know if he’ll ever become — that would be kind of weird — to be, like, “My healthcare benefits suck.” It’s more a matter of seeing a child grow and go through these things that children are going through. I play the core of him always the same, but some of the situations he gets himself in take a bit more maturity, and you get to see the things that he’s learned be applied. But if you want to see a Walter Matthau Sonic, I can make that happen.
I’d love to see Sonic navigating a divorce and alimony.
How many rings does he have to pay for alimony? I don’t know if that’s a movie we really want to see.
Without spoiling anything, this does set up a fourth movie. What characters from the video games would you want to see in it?
The exact things we tease at the end of this film is the exact thing I hope we would do for the fourth. There is a beautiful storyline that can be used, and it takes our movie in a whole different place. That’s what makes these exciting. Every one of these movies almost feels like a different genre. The first one’s kind of a buddy comedy. The second one’s kind of like an adventure, “Indiana Jones” movie. This one brings the darkness in Shadow, and the next one can have a totally different vibe. It’s just heaven. Also we can get incredible people to play new characters and stuff like that, which is very exciting.
People love the “Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games” video games, and we just had the Paris Games this summer. Is there a “Sonic” crossover movie you’d like to see?
There’s two things I would love. I love Chris Pratt. I think he’s amazing, and he plays Mario — which we probably shouldn’t talk about in this interview — but the “Olympic Games” is great. What I really think could be bananas is if we get a “Super Smash Bros.” spinoff, but that would take so many different studios being kind to each other at the same time. But the idea that we get to build our own franchise that lives on its own, and we have so many characters within this franchise, that we can do three, four, five, six — that’s what I’m concentrating on and that’s what I love. If you want to have a battle royale with a bunch of people we all love in video games, because I’m a video game nerd, I would not be against it. I would see if Paramount would let me go play. But I think that right now, it’s “Sonic 3” and if we can get to “Sonic 4” we have so much stuff we want to explore.
Nintendo is making a “Legend of Zelda” movie, so that’s one more piece of the puzzle toward a “Super Smash Bros.” film.
We’re getting closer. There’s a “Pikachu” movie that already exists. So if you can get all these studios that oftentimes compete with each other to make the same movie and somehow split the profits, that would be wonderful.
I’m a big fan of your comedy and your “Middleditch and Schwartz” specials on Netflix. When are we going to get more comedy specials from you?
“Middleditch and Schwartz” is one of my favorite things I’ve done. I have a show called “Ben Schwartz and Friends” now that I’ve been lucky enough to sellout at Radio City and the Sydney Opera House and Royal Albert Hall. I’ve secretly been working on something with “Ben Schwartz and Friends” that we are currently — we’ll see what happens. It has been in process for a while, and we’re at a place now where we can start talking about it with some people to see if anybody wants to jump on. It is very, very exciting if it works out, and I think you would be so pleased if it worked out. I’ve been working on it for months now, and the hope is that people can see how special and unique it is and maybe want to put it on their networks. I’m secretive about it now, but I have been working on some fun stuff and we’ll see if it works out.
English (US) ·