New Girl returns from its holiday hiatus, with the first new episode in nearly a month, "Cabin", airing Tuesday, January 8 at 9 PM ET on Fox. Max Greenfield, who is up for a Golden Globe Award this weekend for his portrayal of Schmidt, recently held a conference call to discuss the show's return. He first spoke about his Golden Globe nomination, how odd it is to be nominated alongside mini-series actors, and where he was when the news broke.

"Well, it feels wonderful especially in such a kind of odd category, where they have people from movies and miniseries and dramas. And all of a sudden they're like well, the nominees are Ed Harris and Schmidt from New Girl. So, to hear that was kind of- I don't know, it felt really nice. It always feels nice to be recognized for the work that you do, and especially in such a kind of cool and big awards show like the Golden Globes, it's going to be a lot of fun just to participate in an event like that. As far as where I was, it was five in the morning and I was very much asleep."

The upcoming "Cabin" episode deals with Schmidt's ill-conceived "white guilt," and how Winston (Lamorne Morris) plays along.

"I think he sees Winston out and he's hanging out with a bunch of other African-American guys and I think Schmidt, in his own naïve sort of way, somehow assumes that he's being held back in the loft and is not feeling comfortable around white people, such as Schmidt and Nick and Jess, and doesn't feel like he can fully be himself. So he tries to, in his most idiotic of ways, tries to give Winston an opportunity to really spread his wings within the loft and Winston quickly realizes what he's doing and how stupid he is, and kind of plays along with him and gets Schmidt really riled up and it turns into quite a wild adventure."

He also spoke about the possibility of Schmidt and Cece (Hannah Simone) getting back together.

"I think there's always a chance. And personally, yes, I'd like to see them back together. You try to play the character and make it as personal as possible and at this point, Schmidt is working so hard to get back with her that I think I personally kind of want to just win already."

When asked about the lap dance he gave Nick (Jake M. Johnson) in "Bathtub", the actor revealed his own Magic Mike-like past.

"I was actually, I don't want to say a stripper because that's not the right word, but an exotic dancer for quite some time. That's not only Channing Tatum's story, but it's mine as well. It's a shame that he was so much more famous than I was at the time the story came out. And now it's like, I don't want to feel like I'm copying him. You're the first to hear that so if you want to break that story, that's on you."

You can watch Golden Globe nominee Max Greenfield as Schmidt in New Girl, which returns from the holiday break with "Cabin", airing Tuesday, January 8 at 9 PM ET on Fox.