Max Greenfield on Reuniting With His New Girl Costars: ‘It’s Really Scary’ How Schmidt Slips Back In
On a crowded airplane, Max Greenfield found himself policing a fellow passenger’s meal with the same clipped authority his character once used to impose order — a quick, involuntary drift back into Schmidt. The actor says the pull of new girl remains surprisingly strong: a handful of seconds with former costars and old rhythms reappear almost automatically.
What Max Greenfield Says About New Girl
Greenfield describes a continuity of chemistry that outlasts the cameras. “If you put us together in any circumstance, we go right back, ” he says. “It’s really scary. ” The connection, he adds, is not only theatrical but personal: he keeps in regular contact with the show’s core group and often messages them between days.
He recounts a recent, mundane exchange that highlights how seamless the reversion can be: “I was texting with Jake this morning, ” he says, noting that those private lines of communication have kept friendships alive. Time away from shooting has not dissolved the patterns they built over seven seasons; instead, reunions tend to revive the old dynamic almost immediately.
Why the Schmidt Habits Persist
The actor points to moments both small and staged to explain why the character feels so close to the surface. During an airplane trip, Greenfield admits, he behaved like Schmidt without intending to: “I’ll say to the flight attendant, ‘Oh, excuse me — he can’t eat this, ‘ and start organizing his food, ” he says. The reaction from fellow actors can be bemused — “We’re not on the show anymore, ” he recalls being told — but the impulse to arrange and direct is familiar, and often instantaneous.
Revisiting the character recently for a campaign reinforced how much Schmidt and Greenfield’s performance remain intertwined. “It’s so connected to the character and who that character was, ” he says, noting that stepping back into the role revived old tendencies and a renewed affection for what the part allowed him to explore.
Reunions, Family Reactions and the Possibility of Return
Off set, the Schmidt persona meets a different audience: Greenfield’s children. They have seen parts of the show, but their response is tempered by proximity. “I don’t think they think it’s as funny as America, because they live with it, ” he says. Their familiarity turns the performance into a domestic reality rather than a novelty — “They’re like, ‘Ugh, I know. ‘” — which alters how he experiences the character at home.
When asked whether he would ever play Schmidt again, Greenfield frames the possibility around creative continuity. “For sure, it would always be fun to jump back in, ” he says, adding that he would want the original creative team involved. He prefers to discover the character’s future through the writers who defined him: “I would always just be really excited to see what the writers thought — where they think Schmidt would be — and then I’d jump in and do whatever that was. “
He also singled out a hallmark moment from the series that still resonates: season 1’s episode “Control. ” He calls it his favorite and highlights its focus on small certainties. “It really, truly was my favorite episode — the one we submitted for the Emmys, ” he says. “It just dialed in exactly this idea of these little things that we can control in our lives. ” That theme helps explain why Schmidt’s insistence on order has endured for Greenfield personally.
Back on that plane, with the tray table and the packed overhead bins as silent props, the moment felt less like a lapse and more like proof of a lasting creative bond. Greenfield’s readiness to slip into Schmidt — and his openness to revisit the role if the original writers were at the helm — leaves the question unresolved and electric: when the writers decide where Schmidt belongs next, will the actor step back into those old, familiar shoes? “For sure, ” he has said, suggesting an answer that keeps the possibility alive.
