Max Greenfield Speaks On 'The Neighborhood's' Focus On Race, His Optimistic Character and His Break From 'New Girl's' Schmidt

When Dave Johnson and his white family move into his new, traditional black neighborhood, he's caught off guard by his neighbor's quick judgment of his intentions. Johnson is a conflict mediator, an optimistic guy and a family man on CBS's The Neighborhood. Max Greenfield, who plays the character, finds him a joy to personify.

"This guy is totally optimistic and excited to move his family into this neighborhood and start a new life," Greenfield told Newsweek. "I am enjoying the direction the character is going: a guy that genuinely in his heart is positive and optimistic and is looking for the good and purity in the situation even though he might overlook some of the realistic aspects that go with something that might happen.

"Playing that has been really nice. It's not like you take these roles home with you in any way. But I often find myself in a really great mood playing this guy," he says.

In the show's pilot, Johnson is immediately challenged when the family next door assumes he might be racist. In moments of humor and distraction, The Neighborhood is very much centered on the idea of race.

"I think the show is really about these two families and their differences as human beings, but the racial element will always be there," Greenfield said.

"Even when the show has nothing to do with race, it'll always have to do with race," he continued. "That's what I think really makes it interesting. It's about representation, and it's about having more of an understanding of why we feel certain ways about certain things, where those feelings are coming from. And a lot of the time, it feels like we don't really take the time to really explore the origins of the different emotions that we have toward situations."

Greenfield is well known for his role as Schmidt on the Fox sitcom New Girl. He compares Johnson's optimism to Schmidt's whimsical persona. Though both are open and personable, he sees Johnson as more trusting.

"There was a level of cynicism with Schmidt," he said. "I think he was easily excited about things, not unlike the Dave character, but he was much more aware of the cynicism that exists in life and was very skeptical of other people's opinions or their ideas, specifically if they were not his own. Whereas Dave is not like that. This guy is very open."

As The Neighborhood advances, Johnson's relationships with family and his new neighbors will be tested. From the skeptical Calvin Butler to [Dave's] son Grover, Greenfield expects Dave's conflict mediation skills will be useful but challenged.

"Obviously, no one is gonna be that cheery for that long, but I think to start off that way, it's gonna show you [that] obviously somebody like that in this situation is gonna be tested over and over again," he said. "I think we'll see him, at some points, really having to stand up for himself, where at the same time understanding that there are real delicate boundaries, ones that he is really unaware of. And having to navigate that."