Adam Scott on "Severance": "I knew that I would have to give all of myself to it in order to pull it off"

CBS News

4 hours ago

Adam Scott was once a solid "that guy" – a steadily working actor you might recognize from any number of roles. He's been active since the early nineties, playing everything from Howard Hughes' press agent in "The Aviator," to a pompous jerk in "Step Brothers." He's acted in large ensemble television shows like "Party Down" and "Parks and Recreation." But in 2022, when ads started popping up for a new Apple TV+ show called "Severance," with his face front and center, it was a new experience for Scott.
"It was terrifying, like, truly," he said. "As an actor, it's something you wait your entire career for, your entire life for. But when it happened, I was immediately terrified, and didn't quite know why. I guess I was afraid that it was just gonna end up being embarrassing, and people were gonna make fun of us, and make fun of me."
Quite the opposite. "Severance" ended up becoming a critically acclaimed hit. The show's second season is nominated for more Emmys than any other show this year (27 in all), including outstanding drama series, and a lead actor nomination for Scott.
Scott's character, Mark, works for a mysterious, seemingly sinister corporation. When he's off the clock, he has no memory of his work life. He is a "severed" employee – a device in his brain separates his office self from his home self.
In this scene, Mark S. (Adam Scott) meets his non-office self, Mark Scout, through video recordings:
I said, "A lot of people relate to 'Severance' because of that sentiment of like, 'Wouldn't it be nice to turn your brain off from 9:00 to 5:00 and not do my mind-numbing job?' It sounds like you never really had a job like that, though. How do you tap into that?"
"It's funny, because the things that ended up really sort of making a difference in my career were, like, 'Parks and Rec' and 'Party Down' and 'Severance,'" said Scott. "They are largely shows that are about work. And these are jobs that I've never actually had to participate in in real life, 'cause I was always in a play or doing a guest spot on 'NYPD Blue' or whatever. I guess I relate to these kind of feelings that these characters have because it's been sort of this long path for me in show business."
Scott's path began in his hometown of Santa Cruz, California, where he'd spend hours in his room watching, and imitating, actors he saw on David Letterman.
Did the idea of doing it professionally cross his mind? "100%," said Scott. "In fact, I used to practice on my bed. I would set it up like a couch. I would practice being on David Letterman. I remember I had a project that I would pretend I was promoting, where Harrison Ford and I were playing father-and-son cops. I'm sure I just looked like an insane person."
"For what it's worth I would watch that today," I said.
"I know, it sounds great!"
After some success in high school plays, Scott moved to Pasadena to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he started thinking that "Adam Scott" didn't sound dramatic enough: "When I was in theater school, I really fancied myself as a very serious actor in the vein of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. In fact, at one point I wanted to change my last name to Quardero. I remember writing on a piece of paper, 'Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Adam Quardero.' My mother's maiden name was Quartararo."
Scott stuck with his last name and, after graduation, stuck it out through the high and lows of building an acting career. "One thing I always felt that I knew about myself is that I was never going to leave," he said. "I didn't have any other options. But I knew that I was just gonna stick around until something happened, something came together for me."
Scott's five seasons on the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation" took his career to the next level, although it came with an unexpected downside: now that he was so well known for comedy, it was harder to get dramatic roles.
Ben Stiller, one of the executive producers and the primary director of "Severance," said of Scott, "He'd done, you know, work that was dramatic before, it just wasn't things that, you know, people really hadn't seen as much of it as his comedy work.
He believed Scott had the skills necessary to play what's essentially two roles – or at least, two parts of the same person – sometimes transitioning between his severed personalities in a single shot. "The key to the effect working really is Adam's change of expression, and just how good he is as an actor technically," Stiller said. "He has to get that timing right of the change with the camera effect, so it's not easy to do. He can take a note just, you know, adjust something, you know, minimally, that very few actors I work with can do as well as him."
I asked Stiller, "It seems like you saw that potential early on. Was it a tough sell for the studio to have him front the show?"
"You know, they had a different idea in the beginning, but I said, 'Look, Adam, to me, I think he's the guy," Stiller replied.
It's clear fans agree. As part of Apple's massive marketing push for "Severance," viewers were invited to an event at the historic former Bell Labs building in Holmdel, New Jersey, which stands in for the headquarters of the show's fictional Lumon Industries.
Scott said, "Seeing the photos of this place, of the Bell Labs building, it started dawning on me just the scale of the show and what it was exactly that Ben had in mind."
Outside of "Severance," Scott's work life and home life revolve around his wife, Naomi. They produce podcasts, films, and TV shows together. They met in the late '90s, which means she's seen him through a number of career ups and downs. "I kind of learned that there was a cycle of him, you know, picking himself up off the ground, and I did know how to nurture and encourage that," Naomi said. "That, I knew how to do. But it was hard to watch."
I asked, "What's it been like to see people finally see what you've been seeing for all these years?"
"Oh, it's very vindicating!" she laughed. "I knew it. It's great. I love it."
Adam Scott had to audition for "Severance," and fight for the role. Now, with season three already in the works, the actor who always knew he was in it for the long haul is finally getting his due. Though he recognizes that there is no "Bank of Hollywood" that is allowing him to cash in after making 30 years of deposits. "No – you're entitled to nothing in show business, and I knew that," he said. "But I also knew that there was something I could bring to it that nobody else could. And I knew that I would have to give all of myself to it in order to pull it off. I would have to use absolutely everything I've learned over 30 years if I was gonna do it right. And so, when I was lucky enough to get the job, that's exactly what I did."
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Story produced by Anthony Laudato. Editor: Jason Schmidt.