Max Greenfield is one of those fan-favorite character actors. Most people remember him as Schmidt in New Girl, but I’ll always remember him as Sheriff’s Deputy Leo D’Amato in Veronica Mars. Max is currently starring as the adorable, lovable Lev Levenson in Running Point. He plays the fiancée of Kate Hudson’s character, Isla Gordon. Max has always seemed to be someone who runs under-the-radar, but is generally jolly good fun when approached by fans in the wild. He’s strikes me as a decent guy, and I enjoy following his career.
Max is also a brand partner for STEM bug repellents. As a part of their spring ad campaign, he has a new commercial out with Queer Eye’s Jeremiah Brent. It’s a fun commercial and they have good chemistry together. While talking to People to promote the campaign, Max confirmed my reading of him. He shared that he misses the New Girl cast and experience. It was such a fun time for him that he even loves when fans randomly yell the show’s lines at him on the street because it makes him feel like he has “friends everywhere.”
Just like fans, Max Greenfield is feeling nostalgic for New Girl. Greenfield misses the cast and the laughs they shared, he tells PEOPLE while promoting his partnership with STEM bug repellents for a new ad campaign.
When he thinks back to his character, the lovably over-the-top Schmidt, Greenfield, 45, says there are so many moments that still make him crack up.
“Shooting New Girl felt like shooting one long seven-year episode, so I don’t remember much of it. People will send me clips that go viral on TikTok, some of which I have no recollection of,” he says. “I’m experiencing them for the first time, and I’ll watch them, and I’ll be like, ‘This is really funny.’ I’m often so pleased with it. I go, ‘Gosh, this show was really good.’ ”
Greenfield confesses that he doesn’t tire of people quoting essential Schmidt lines at him, like the infamous “29!” or “All Day!”
“I love it,” he says. “New Girl fans are so great and nice and connected to that. What I feel is the spirit of the show. Whenever somebody yells at me, sometimes from a passing car in New York, it’s fun, because it’s usually from across the street,” he says. “It’s great. I love it. It makes me feel like I know people. I have friends everywhere.”
Though the series ended almost seven years ago, Greenfield says that he and the New Girl cast are still very much in touch. Many even reunited recently to celebrate Greenfield’s wife, Tess Sanchez, at her book launch.
“I saw the guys. Zooey [Deschanel] was out of town, but we all saw each other the other night. We then went into a corner, and my wife yelled at us and said, ‘Don’t just talk to each other!’ ”
But looking back on the old times is easy, he says.
“When I watch it I’m always so pleasantly surprised. I go, ‘I get it. These are really great,’ ” Greenfield shares. “It’s very quintessentially nostalgic too, in a really great way, because now there’s some real time between when we made the show and now, and I miss it. I miss everybody.”
In his campaign with STEM, the Running Point actor taps into a version of Schmidt, as Queer Eye’s Jeremiah Brent is walking through a beautifully designed space when Greenfield shows up and disrupts the tour, making a mess as an unwanted visitor.
“STEM came to us with this funny concept, and I knew Jeremiah would be involved,” Greenfield shares, adding that his family already uses STEM products in their home. “I felt so bad yelling at Jeremiah, so we switched up the concept a little, which made my character charmingly annoying to him.
It is hilarious that he does not remember a lot of those scenes that people send him via social media. I also find it fascinating that he’s so welcoming of the fan-shouting-lines-on-the-street encounter. As someone who has gone to almost 20 years of Comic-Cons, I know that that aspect of fandom can become exhausting. I love that Max is so into fan experiences like that! That’s just as awesome as him discovering that the show he spent seven years making was pretty good, lol. Hopefully, fans always remain respectful when talking or yelling New Girl lines at him. I would honestly kind of love to be in the room just watching and listening during one of their reunion dinners. I feel like that would be so funny.
Photos credit: Robert Smith/INSTARimages, Nicky Nelson/Wenn/Avalon, Derek Reed/Shutterstock via Netflix Press, John P. Johnson / Netflix, Martin Sloan/Avalon
I can’t find my driving moccasins!
He was iconic on New Girl. I saw a video a fan shouting some of his lines from a car and he was cackling while walking on the sidewalk. Now I am thinking, maybe he didn’t even remember those were his lines 😭😭 My favorite character was Nick Miller though.
Gosh I loved that show, and Schmidt was my absolute favorite. It was really something special, and so funny!
Good, because that is exactly what I’d do if I ever saw him out in public! (Not kidding!) For some reason, I often think of the exasperated way he said “Youths!”
Yeah this is not true, I’ve run into him twice at my farmers market and I’ve never met a nastier person. The first them he walked right into me and almost knocked me over and then gave me a nasty look and didn’t apologize, was walking down the street the second time I was in line for coffee and he was annoyed and nasty that others were there.
A lot of celebrities are at my farmers market much more famous than him and I’ve never encountered someone so horrible.
My husband and I still call yogurt “kosh’ yog’s” thanks to Schmidt.
Schmidt has the best lines in this show and Greenfield’s delivery is always so unhinged that it’s just perfect. “I will scream-sing every last word to Les Mis”, is such a good one.
I do use Winston’s “Saturday is a day for sleeping !” like every Saturday but there are so many other quotes from that show that are iconic.