On Showtime’s “House of Lies,” which returns for its third season tonight at 10:00, corporate consultant Clyde Oberholt, played by Ben Schwartz, is a lethal bro, the kind of guy who has no problem not only hitting on his best friend’s new love, but continuing the flirtation through the friend’s pre-wedding toast.
So it was little surprise when, at the end of last season, Clyde responded to what he saw as a betrayal by his boss, Don Cheadle’s Marty Kaan, by screwing him right back, revealing the secret plans for his new firm to the people he was ditching at the old one.
While the show is a joy for its cutting wit and wicked betrayals, the Upright Citizens Brigade-trained Schwartz, who also plays madcap dunderhead Jean-Ralphio on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation,” sees depth to the role as well.
“From my character’s point of view, he longs for almost a father figure, and Marty is that figure,” says Schwartz, 32. “Clyde f- – – ed Marty over because he felt emotionally abused. When he’s by himself, he realizes how much he needs those people in his life.”
“Those people” also include Kristen Bell as the determined Jeannie van der Hooven, and Josh Lawson as the naive, far-too-chipper Doug Guggenheim. Together, the four were a consulting group that had perfected the art of separating corporations from vast amounts of money, whether for legitimate reasons or not.
As Marty prepared to leave their firm in order to start his own, last season’s finale blew up the group amidst a sea of bitterness, with Jeannie reeling from Marty’s rejection of her love, Doug taking the safe road and staying at the old firm, and Clyde, having wrecked his relationship with Marty, joining Marty’s volatile rival and ex-wife, Monica (Dawn Olivieri).
The beginning of Season 3 shows the four grappling with the uncomfortable truth that they can’t seem to live without each other.
“They function so beautifully together as a group, almost like a dysfunctional family,” says Schwartz. “When they’re separated, they realize how little [else] they have in their lives.”
As the new season unfolds, we see how Clyde’s dealings with the insufferable Monica — who berates a female employee for not giving oral sex to enough CEOs — collapse almost immediately, a failure Schwartz says is just the start of a story that could be the end of Clyde.
“My character goes to places he’s never been before, struggling and scratching to try to get back in Marty’s regard,” Schwartz says. “Clyde gets dark — very dark — and tries to find his way through to some sort of light.”
On the much lighter side of things, Schwartz got a tremendous thrill just before the new year, when he produced an improv special for Showtime starring him and his castmates.
Schwartz, a Riverdale native, trained in improv and sketch at UCB in New York, alongside other future familiar faces such as Bobby Moynihan (“SNL”), Adam Pally (“The Mindy Project”) and Ellie Kemper (“The Office”). He’s also written several screenplays for major studios, and won an Emmy as one of the writers of Hugh Jackman’s opening number at the 2009 Academy Awards.
Now living in LA, Schwartz hosts a regular show at the UCB Theatre there called “Snowpants,” where improv pros perform with celebrities who have little to no training. Schwartz’s guests have included Cheadle and Bell as well as Jane Fonda, J.J. Abrams, Craig Ferguson and Rashida Jones.
Showtime asked Schwartz to put together a version of “Snowpants” using his “House of Lies” co-stars. The special was taped in mid-December, and aired on New Year’s Eve.
Schwartz executive produced and hosted the half-hour show, and was joined by Cheadle, Bell, Lawson, and several of the show’s newer cast members.
“Kristen had [done improv] once and Don [had done] it twice,” he says. “When I said there was a chance we’d be filming this, the fact that they said yes was amazing, because there’s that chance that you could have a bad show, and people are always afraid [about whether] improv will translate well. They were so wonderful to take that risk.”
Given his performance as the easy-to-hate Clyde, Schwartz knows a thing or two about actors taking risks. He’s got great things coming up this year, including roles in the films “Better Living Through Chemistry,” with Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde and Jane Fonda; and “This is Where I Leave You,” with Tina Fey and Jason Bateman. But as his star rises and the roles and writing gigs keep on coming, the horrible depths Clyde gets to sink to — depths that Schwartz can barely imagine in real life — will continue to make him a blast to portray.
“I could never f- – – someone over. The Jewish guilt would absolutely kill me,” says Schwartz. “You almost have to be a sociopath to be any of these people.
Seeing how they’ll do anything to get money, like how I screwed over Marty, it’s such sociopathic behavior that I can’t relate to it. But it’s fun to play that stuff, because it’s very foreign to who I am and what I do.”