Adam Scott
Appearances
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
How you doing? How are you? Great, actually. I'm just learning how to make a calzonesa. or as you Americans like to say, calzones. Do you want one?
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Devin, what are you doing? You remember I identified her, right?
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
I saw her body. Yeah, I know.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Yeah, I don't know. Mike and the writers were just so great. It was so fun every week getting to crack open Parks and Rec script and see what was in store for all of us because it was always something fun. And Ben was the straight man for a lot of the show and his quirks. ended up being really strange and really fun. One of them was he's deathly afraid of cameras.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And whenever he gets on camera, he starts losing his equilibrium. And that was sort of, I guess that was the first one. He just gets really freaked out if there are cameras around and thinks there's like a bird in the room. And then another one is his love for calzones and his massive depression that comes on if he has nothing to keep him busy.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And his Star Wars and Game of Thrones obsessions were other ones. I don't know where those first couple came from, but I was just delighted to play them. It was always just so much fun.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Oh, my God. It completely did. I have Adam McKay and Will Ferrell to thank for that, and Allison Jones.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
The casting director, Alison Jones, she's great. She cast me in this pilot in like 96 that really kind of kept me afloat for a while. Anyway, she's great. She's like the best. And if you look her up, you'll see she's responsible.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Yeah, but she was my wife.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Oh really, it affected you?
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
How about her students? How about this? Did your sheets smell like her four weeks afterwards?
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
I don't know. I've always thought that those guys are so funny. I love watching an overconfident idiot, but an overconfident idiot who's also deeply unpleasant just gets me excited. I think it's So funny. Also, I feel like too often those are the guys running the world and making fun of them in a movie or a TV show is kind of a fun poke.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Entering into the world of comedy, that was a new thing. Like, ooh, this is going to be really fun and silly and stupid today. I can't wait. But the thing that – the real value I got out of working with those guys at that point that I hadn't experienced before was the sort of anarchy of how they work. And I hadn't seen anyone do it before, which was –
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Let's turn the camera on and let's do a couple takes where we do scripted versions, where we play out the scene as scripted. But after one or two of those, we're just going to let it go. And who cares? Let's just try a bunch of stuff. And if it doesn't work, fine. We won't use it. And that was just so freeing and fun.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And I was terrible at it for, you know, four fifths of the filming of Step Brothers. And it wasn't until the very end that I was finally starting to get the hang of it and how those guys work. But that was a game changer just in my brain. And I tried to bring that energy to other stuff I did from there on out, whether it's dramatic or comedic.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
As far as just trying stuff and trusting that the best option wins, it just loosened me up and I needed to be loosened up.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Yeah, I think that we all on the show, the entire cast had similar feelings as our characters. We all kind of felt a little beaten down by show business in a way. We were all, you know, making a living doing this, but had kind of had, you know, a series of near misses and just kind of made our way through and
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
and all kind of really felt the show, uh, pretty deeply, I think, um, and immediately connected with it, the material and with each other and just had the greatest time. And I think, uh, At the time when we were making those first two seasons, no one was watching it or really even knew what it was. We couldn't really even get reviewed. It was so sort of invisible. But we didn't care.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
We just thought what we're doing is special and just did it for ourselves and for each other and everyone. And it was so fun. And part of it was we kind of thought no one would ever see this. That's the overall feeling that we had. And so we just went for it. And, yeah, it was a really special time making that show.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
It was so strange at first because it's a significant amount of time, 12 years. Good Lord. And we're all there in our wardrobe and looking at each other. And I remember shooting a scene in that first episode back and looking at Megan Mullally and Jane Lynch and
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
ken marino and and martin star and ryan hansen and just kind of marveling at how much i miss these people but also how much i miss these characters they're so crazy and funny um it was just such a happy we'd made six episodes and did it you know six weeks it was just the the happiest time it was so much fun we just finished like two weeks ago um It was just a blast.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And I think the episodes are really special and fun and people are going to enjoy them.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Yeah. You know, while we were making Severance, we shot it in New York. My family is in Los Angeles. So, you know, it was right in the heart of pre-vaccine pandemic. So it was tough. I didn't get to see them very much, but it was sort of the Wild West as far as. just trying to make this show and keep everyone from getting sick. And so everybody was really sealed off and isolated.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
I would shoot the show, get in a van, drive for 40 minutes to this apartment I was staying in, sit there by myself and eat, sleep, get up, get back in a van, go there, shoot this crazy show where there's all this isolation and it's sort of about this separation from work and life. And so it all started from... forming into this one thing in my head and in my memories of it.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
It's really interesting. Just as far as that first walk down the hallway in the first episode, we shot that near the end of the very end of the shoot. Nine, ten months in, we ended up shooting that. And I remember after a couple of takes, Ben pulled me aside and he said, hey, after about five
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
minute why don't you check your watch and so I do and and he used that he put that in the show and I think it's a little bit of a nod to yes this is taking a while we are going on this full journey down the hallway and they built all of those hallways on this stage and you did have to walk through them in order to get to the office and But they were also constantly moving them around.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And depending on what we're shooting, they're sliding the hallways in one direction or the other and creating new patterns. So more often than not, I would get lost trying to get to the office set and many times would have to just stop and call out and wait for someone to come find me because it all looks exactly the same, just like it does on the show.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And you can just sort of lose your bearings quickly in there.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Oh, man, you know, I couldn't believe it when Ben told me he was going to be in the show. And he and John Turturro are very close friends. And so John really called him up and I mean, he's such a profound presence on screen for my whole life as far as long as I've been into movies and TV shows, which is essentially all I thought about and was interested in as a kid and teenager and adult.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
We had a scene where we're all down in his part of Lumen. Anyway, it was my first real scene with Christopher Walken, and I was pretty freaked out because I have to give this speech in front of he, John Turturro, and the rest of the cast that's in that scene, Zach Cherry and Britt Lauer. But it was Christopher Walken and John Turturro that I was a little freaked out about because
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
giving a speech in front of and um and it was you know one of the first scenes i had with the two of them and um all day i've been feeling like i haven't figured it out it's a relatively simple not super long speech but i didn't it wasn't coming out right it wasn't It just wasn't feeling like it was falling into place. It just was something off about it. It just was not working.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And I was embarrassed because these guys are watching me all day do like a C plus, right? And I could not get over the hump. I couldn't figure it out. And I forget what it was, but something about it just made sense. And maybe it was the fact that I was doing it all day, but it finally kind of fell into place.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And at least it's not like I go back and watch it and think it's incredible or anything, but something about it just made sense. And it came out and the ball at least fell into the pocket, but I was still unsure about it. And after we finished shooting, we were back in this other room just sort of chit-chatting.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And I remember Christopher Walken walked up behind me and just grabbed my elbow as he was walking by and sort of just gave it a bit of a squeeze and a shake. And like a hand on the shoulder. And I just took it as this, I guess, a moment of approval or of good job, maybe. That's how I took it. And I can't tell you what that meant to me. Just that little moment from him was kind of everything.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
That's right. Yeah. My mom died on March 5th, 2020. And so it was right before everything changed. Right before. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, she passed away and then we quickly went into lockdown. So, I mean, we didn't have a memorial for her till just this past December. And I think, you know, a lot of people have gone through that as far as sort of putting stuff like this on hold.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
For me, you know, her death was... world changing in the sense that the thing I didn't you know she was sick she had ALS and so we knew what was coming there for a couple of years it was pretty quick but you know we knew it was coming but then the moment it happens what I didn't expect and I think people who have lost a parent you may understand what I mean the moment it happens
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
everything shifts. There's sort of a tectonic shift internally that just, it's like a switch going off where, and what I realized was, With a parent, it's like half of your view out the window. It's half of what you do things for. You're always thinking, oh, what's my mom going to think about this? Whether you're a little kid or you're a grown-up. She was an incredible mother.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
So anyway, I don't know if I'm articulating that right, but... And I don't know if that was your experience with your father, but losing a parent is a huge event. There's no other feeling like it. But she passed away and then we went into lockdown and I had my kids and my wife here. We were in the house and they really cushioned the blow in a lot of ways.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
We were together and supporting each other and going through this together and they really really helped me through it. And then that October, when I went to New York to do the show, The second I walked into the apartment and put my bags down and I was by myself, I realized I hadn't fully grieved and come to terms with my mom's death.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And I had that in front of me and nothing but this time by myself to do it. And that's, you know, what I slowly but surely did over all that time by myself, either by In this apartment or at work. And I feel like the show was certainly part of that process.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
Yeah, you know, she brought me to a revival theater in Santa Cruz to see Monty Python and the Holy Grail when I was probably like eight years old or something. And I couldn't believe that someone actually made something like this. Yeah. I remember we were in the front row because it was packed and the scene where – is it John Cleese who gets all of his limbs chopped off?
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
I'm committing a comedy felony here by not remembering.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
In that scene, I remember laughing so hard, I stumbled out of my seat. Since we were in the front row, there's all that space on the floor. And I just remember stumbling out there because I just couldn't contain myself. I couldn't believe this was happening. And my mom grabbing me and pulling me back into my seat. And it was just so outrageous and so funny. And...
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
And I remember my dad sitting me down and showing me Jaws and like, this is a good movie. Look at this. And also for me, you know, seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark was a big moment. And that's really the moment I think I thought this is something I would want to do at some point. And I wasn't even thinking in terms of like acting. It was more just like that. I want to do that.
Fresh Air
For 'Severance' Star Adam Scott, Work & Life Can't Be Separated
That looks really, really fun. So it just sort of was something – after school instead of – I would go to the video store. I would ride my bike to the video store not to rent a movie but just to read the boxes. I would just spend an hour in there reading the boxes and the dates they came out and who did the cinematography and who was the director. All of that. I just loved it.
The Commercial Break
Putt Putt Rawr
Before the premiere, Ben and I are gonna be binging season one and putting out daily recaps. And after that, we're gonna keep going as we recap every episode of season two. The Severance podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott is presented by State Farm. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Listen and follow now on Apple Podcasts, the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts.