- What's up guys, my name is Darren Barnet.
I play Paxton on Never Have I Ever.
- I'm Jaren Lewison,
I play Ben Gross on Never Have I Ever.
- And today we're reading, durrunrum, thirst tweets.
(upbeat music)
- "I'm weirdly attracted to Jaren Lewison's arm hair
"and I hate that I've made this discovery about myself."
(laughing)
- That pan down, after the kiss,
you're a full on man.
- I do have a lot of arm hair that it is, I don't know.
- Genetics man, you know, it's funny like,
yeah, like I've had very self-conscious moments
because like girls in school would always be like,
"why do you shave your arms?"
Cause I've never had like arm hair, and I'm like,
I don't shave my arms, they're coming in soon.
"Probably the best thing that happened in 2020
"was Darren Barnet casted as Paxton Hall-Yoshida
"in #NeverHaveIEver."
All of 20, I mean, 2020 has been kind of a crap year so far.
- It's kinda been rough.
So you're, you're definitely up there.
"All men are gross, except for Ben Gross."
Dude, I feel really good about that.
That's such a sweet compliment to start off with.
- Devi does say that you're gross, Gross.
- She does do that.
- "Imagine not finding Darren Barnet attractive.
"How's the lack of taste."
I wake up some mornings and I feel like,
whoa, do I have a lack taste.
- I think that's a fair assessment.
Sometimes you don't recognize,
I've seen your hair get real poofy, it's uh-
- Shut up, don't tell them that.
- "I just finished Never Have I Ever on Netflix,
"and I must say that Ben is astronomically more attractive
"than Paxton, I have a huge crush on him. Oh-."
- Yeah, I like it. I mean, I agree man.
You handsome, you know
and your dad's hot, you say it in the show.
- Dude he is, he is man, that's a good point.
It's good genes.
- "Darren Barnet is about to be the Internet's boyfriend
"and you know what? Sure.
"I'd still want him to slice me with the jawline anyway."
That's violent. I like it though.
I mean, the Internet's boyfriend, that's a lot of pressure
because Valentine's Day is gonna be like crazy expensive.
- "Ben gross in Never Have I Ever,
"he's totally hot as,
"and I can't take my eyes away from him.
"Argh Jaren Lewison, you deserve to be recognized
"and appreciated."
You know what,
you deserve to be recognized and appreciated too.
- I still don't know how they found my creeper account
and found my tweet.
- Was this you? It sounds like you.
- It might've been me.
"Paxton Hall-Yoshida could break my heart
"into a million pieces and I would thank him for it."
(laughing)
This reminds me of like, mean girls where they're like,
"One time, Regina George punched me in the face.
"It was awesome."
(laughing)
- Yes.
- I love it, but like protect yourself, protect your heart.
You know, you got to respect yourself a little bit there.
Don't let anybody break your heart.
- "Just finished watching Never Have I Ever,
"and I'm sure we're all in agreement that
"Ben is 10,000 times better than Paxton, right?
"LOL, I'm so relieved that Devi ended up with Ben."
- 10,000 times better, that's just-
- That's a lot of times.
- And they really put thought in that.
Like there were he's 10 times, he's 100 times, no, no, no,
he's 1,000, no, no, he's 10,000 times hot.
- That's a big number dude.
And she's so relieved, and I tell you the truth,
I mean, I was pretty relieved too for Ben,
but I don't know, that voicemail,
Paxton's calling, so...
- I'm gonna be doing crazy crunches
before season two to try and get my title back.
Hold on, let's touch on a topic here.
- Yeah.
- On a controversy.
You have a girlfriend while you're kissing her bro.
- Dude I don't know.
I thought, I saw a really interesting
fan theory the other day.
There was like a picture when I opened my,
when Ben opened his locker in episode 10,
the picture of Shira is gone.
It's there the entire time, and then he opens his locker
and the picture's gone,
and it's just a picture of Ben holding pizza.
- "I'm sorry to anyone out there
"that believes otherwise, but it's #teamPaxton, Sorry Ben."
The tweet said that, I didn't say sorry Ben,
but also sorry Ben.
Paxton you know, doesn't have a girlfriend, which is steady.
- "Yes. Yes, my ship is sailing. Paxton Hall-Yoshida who?
"I know only one man, and that's Ben Gross."
- I mean, you do check all the boxes man,
in terms of like, you're rich, you're handsome,
you got a house to yourself all the time.
Like how do I beat that?
- Dude, yeah, the house to yourself,
I don't know if that was really by choice or not.
I think just my parents, just weren't really
wanting to hang out with me ever, but ah.
- It's cause they're jealous.
"Devi's dad would love Paxton
"especially for basically saving her life from the coyote."
Unless the coyote is your dad.
And he was just trying to give her a hug
and I broke it up.
Coyotes have a different love life bro.
He's just trying to figure it out.
- "Yes I like Ben and not Paxton
"from Never Have I Ever. Yes, we exist."
Whoa thank you, way to show up.
Team Ben does exist. It's a real.
- You're pretty excited about this.
- Yeah. I like having the team Ben over here.
You know, we love it.
- "Soo, I was all about team Ben,
"but watching them kiss did not give me
"the same vibe as #teamPaxton.
"Paxton had me screaming, Ben had to be saying,
"oh now I get what last episode is going to leave us with."
I think the way the music was hitting
while we were driving through driving through the Boulevard.
- Dude that was a great scene.
- I been listening to that song on repeat, since that day.
- That is a great song.
- Such a good song.
- The soundtrack too,
for the show like I bomb to that when I go in the car.
And I didn't know any of the songs too, you know.
- A bad soundtrack can ruin a show.
Definitely hit the mark
in terms of getting great soundtrack.
- "If you think about it,
"no one has ever put Ben Gross first.
"Not his parents, not his girlfriend,
"not his friends, no one.
"Yet this abandoned boy dropped everything for Devi.
"He put her first. He gave her a place live,
"someone to talk to."
Wow, that was super deep and I am really in the fields.
He peels back some of that,
that layer of being rude and stuff,
and he is a kind boy.
He just gotta, he's gotta show that side a little bit more.
But thank you for putting that in perspective, I like that.
- "Y'all gotta admit, with Daxton,
"Paxton waited for her to be ready, meanwhile Devi,
"Ben tried to kiss Devi twice at a party,
"even though he has a whole girlfriend."
Oh snap. (finger snapping)
"Not to mention Paxton let Devi into his life cautiously
"because he was protecting his sis."
How'd you like that mouse.
No, he comes off as a jerk
and then you realize it comes from a good place,
but it's the same with you.
- That was also a cool thing about our show,
is you see two different guys,
with two different backgrounds,
handling things in a different way
and figuring it out with themselves too, you know,
everybody's got insecurities.
- I like that highlight, you tried to kiss her twice,
even though you have a whole girlfriend.
The thing that redeems it,
I'm not saying it's ever okay to cheat,
but like your girlfriend, Hanna Stein,
she's awesome, but her character is absolutely horrible.
She's the worst.
- Shira is not the best girlfriend.
- Yeah.
"I just watched the entire season
"of Never Have I Ever, and I'm just saying,
"if she doesn't want Paxton I'll take him."
At least someone wants me.
(Jaren laughing)
- Darren, I do. I do.
- Hey you know, so I guess I got options.
- "Re-watching Never Have I Ever,
"and I can't believe they gave us Paxton Hall-Yoshida
"and I fell in love with Ben Gross."
- Damn.
- It's not who you think sometimes.
You know? So that's okay.
You know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
You got different choices.
- Yeah.
- I mean, potato-potatoh you got two potatoes.
You just pick whichever one.
Is that a metaphor? Did that work?
- I think Shakespeare said it.
"Do you work effectively?
"Or are you unable to stop thinking about Paxton
"from Never Have I Ever?"
I can't do anything without thinking about Paxton,
the guy changed my life.
You know, it's crazy right now because I know,
I feel like the show would have obviously done well
without quarantine, but like being in quarantine,
people have watched it so much more attentively.
- It's great I think being, a source of joy,
like during quarantine, you know-
- Yeah.
- And having people, like be able to watch a show
that they can really relate to
and put a smile on their face
and watch it as many times as they want.
"Okay, so I'm watching Never Have I Ever,
"and I'm confused how I'm supposed to root for Paxton?
"Like he's sweet, but the enemies to lovers arc
"with Ben and Devi is flame."
Flame.
I've never used that before, but I'm going to.
- I like it. I just want to like flash forward 10,
20 years with, you know, Devi and Ben,
when they're looking back like,
you remember in the hallway, Devi when I used to
comment on your mustache,
(Jaren laughing)
and you'd make fun that I didn't have one.
Look at it now.
You guys, still just probably roasting each other
in the future.
- It's a good dynamic dude.
- "Unfair that boring ass Ben got his episode,
"and now has everyone feeling bad for him.
"Where's my Paxton episode?"
I'm therefore at season two,
ending of season two.
Be doing sit-ups and skating the whole episode.
And that's the entire theme.
But I really enjoyed your episode man.
And you killed it, you crushed it.
"Look at the name Paxton Hall-Yoshida
"and the name Ben Gross.
"Now tell me what you notice."
(Jaren laughing)
- You do have a cool name though.
And that story is awesome, that you got the hyphen Yoshida,
I love that story, dude.
- Yeah, but that was a, that was a crazy thing,
because as you know, Jaren, originally,
I was Paxton Hall,
a typical, preppy,
white, hard drop kid.
- Right.
- And so I was speaking in Japanese with Yuko,
and I knew by her name, she was Japanese.
So I asked her if she spoke Japanese,
and we started conversing and then
Sal got winded as wardrobe designer, told Mindy,
and then Lang came up to me being like,
"Hey, were you speaking to Japanese with Yuko?"
And I think I've told you this Jaren,
I thought I was in trouble for a minute.
I knew that not many people knew I was part Japanese.
You know, I'm like ambiguous, but they're like,
she came up to me and she was like,
were you speaking to Yuko and I'm like,
yeah, but like she said, it was cool.
Like I don't know, and she was like,
you know like it's chill.
- She said it's fine, like I swear.
- Yeah, she said it was cool.
But then she know, she goes, oh are you part Japanese?
I was like, yeah I am.
And then immediately she's like,
do you mind if we made your character part Japanese?
And I didn't know they were gonna run with it.
And so we went to the next table read
and I saw hyphenated Yoshida at the end of my name.
But it's interesting, man
I was really nervous about it.
It's an identity I've always had a struggle with.
And it's kind of a pocket, that I'm filling
and like representing in terms of like
there's many people like me
that you can't tell what they are.
And they're very proud of their heritage.
And know when they say it,
people either don't believe it or they're like,
they question it, you know?
- Yeah.
- So it was cool because I feel like that's a pocket
that I'm somewhat representing.
I will tell you Jaren,
the best thing you know in Japanese.
- Okay.
(speaking Japanese)
It means, yeah you gotta do that (speaking Japanese)
It means, I don't know.
- I don't know.
That's all I'm using.
I'm going to Japan baby, Let's go.
Let's go to Japan.
(speaking Japanese)
(chilled music)