Speaker 1: Hi, everyone. I'm Katie Couric and this is next question.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was getting ready to interview the
Speaker 1: actor Adam Scott, I wasn't sure what I was in for.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that much about him. Of course I
Speaker 1: recognized him from a lot of different roles, but I
Speaker 1: really didn't know what to expect, and I have to
Speaker 1: admit I ended up really really liking Adam Scott. Hello, Adam, Hi. Hi,
Speaker 1: it's Katie. Hi. I learned a lot about him during
Speaker 1: the course of our conversation. That I would have loved
Speaker 1: his mom, That he lives close to the house we've
Speaker 1: been rinding in LA for the past couple of months.
Speaker 1: That he loves building forts. You're going to think it's
Speaker 1: really weird, but I'm doing this under a blanket because
Speaker 1: this room is super echoey.
Speaker 2: I don't mind.
Speaker 1: Let's just pretend like we're in a fort that we
Speaker 1: made as kids.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love forts, and I love cozy its,
Speaker 2: and it's cozy and fort like.
Speaker 1: And that nothing was going to stop him from becoming
Speaker 1: an actor, even though he may do with bit parts
Speaker 1: scraping a living together for fifteen years. Nevertheless, he persisted.
Speaker 2: You look back and you're like, oh my god, I
Speaker 2: was nowhere.
Speaker 1: Ironically, after wanting to break into Hollywood for so long,
Speaker 1: the first big acting gig he got was playing a
Speaker 1: Hollywood want to be stuck in a dead end catering
Speaker 1: job and the now cult favorite show Party Down. Were
Speaker 1: you were you that guy?
Speaker 2: Yes, it was you were You.
Speaker 1: Were totally that guy. That is bananas.
Speaker 2: I remember that. I remember you. Yeah, what are you
Speaker 2: doing working here? Well?
Speaker 1: You remember me from anything else? Spoiler alert. It works
Speaker 1: out for our dear Adam. He has starred in some
Speaker 1: truly vengeable TV, from Parks and rec to Big Little
Speaker 1: Eyes to now Front and Center in a new series
Speaker 1: called Severance.
Speaker 2: Hello, my name is Mark S and I have of
Speaker 2: my own free accord, elected to undergo the procedure known
Speaker 2: as Severance.
Speaker 1: We get into the show, Adam's scrappy beginnings, that magnificent quoth,
Speaker 1: and much more. I hope you enjoy our chat as
Speaker 1: much as I did. I'm excited to talk about Severance because,
Speaker 1: oh cool. When I first saw billboards advertising your new
Speaker 1: show on Apple TV, I thought, Wow, that is really
Speaker 1: extraordinary timing. Here we are on the heels of a
Speaker 1: pandemic that has left so many people of all ages
Speaker 1: rethinking the workplace, rethinking, you know, what we want to
Speaker 1: do with our lives. There's the Great Resignation, which other
Speaker 1: people have called the Great Reset. But it seems almost
Speaker 1: uncanny that this show is coming out at this moment.
Speaker 1: Was it complete serendipity or was it did you foresee
Speaker 1: something happening in the culture.
Speaker 2: It was complete serendipity. I mean the show was written
Speaker 2: pre pandemic, and we were going to start shooting April
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty and had to delay, you know, obviously
Speaker 2: for seven months and started that. We started shooting the
Speaker 2: day after the election in November twenty twenty, and so
Speaker 2: we were shooting right in the heart of pre vaccine
Speaker 2: New York pandemic. It was, as everyone knows, it was
Speaker 2: a crazy time. And so no, I think it was
Speaker 2: complete serendipity. But you know, Dan Ericson the creator and writer,
Speaker 2: and Ben Stiller, the director and executive producer, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of the creative forces really behind the show, you know,
Speaker 2: as serendipitous, but I think also the the kind of
Speaker 2: everything we're feeling right now and kind of the result
Speaker 2: of everything that's happened the past couple of years. You know,
Speaker 2: you have to think that the seeds of this have
Speaker 2: been planted for some time. It's just we were accelerated, Yeah,
Speaker 2: for the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: That's so interesting. I think you're so right. I think
Speaker 1: millennials and now gen z people, I don't know gen
Speaker 1: z ers. I think this sort of restlessness and this
Speaker 1: questioning of career tracks and the idea. I remember giving
Speaker 1: a commencement address and saying most millennials will change jobs
Speaker 1: and average of fourteen times in their lifetime, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think we've seen this slow shift from people
Speaker 1: who work for one company their entire lives, retire with
Speaker 1: the of old watch a lunch and a pension, and
Speaker 1: this very different view of work and priorities. So I
Speaker 1: think you're right. Everything accelerated. I think all these pre
Speaker 1: existing trends accelerated during the pandemic. But while you were
Speaker 1: shooting it, did you sort of feel like this feels
Speaker 1: very of the moment. We've kind of captured lightning in
Speaker 1: a bottle in terms of some of the themes that
Speaker 1: this show presents.
Speaker 2: You know, it was tough to see the forest for
Speaker 2: the trees while we were shooting because it was such
Speaker 2: a gargantuan task in front of us, in front of you.
Speaker 2: I remember Amy Poehler used to call it being at
Speaker 2: the bottom of show mountain when you're just starting a
Speaker 2: new show that no one knows what it is, so
Speaker 2: there's no definition to it, and you're at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the mountain when you know when you're at episode
Speaker 2: one of hopefully as many as possible, but you have
Speaker 2: to shoot the show, but you also have to construct
Speaker 2: and define it, find the tone, all of those things
Speaker 2: that make a show work. You have to sort of
Speaker 2: figure it out as you're doing it, because there's no
Speaker 2: really knowing what it's going to be, what it's going
Speaker 2: to feel like until those cameras are rolling and you
Speaker 2: have everyone in the room doing it, and so it
Speaker 2: is like being at the bottom of a mountain. And
Speaker 2: that's how it felt. And for me, never having been
Speaker 2: at the center of something quite so big and challenging,
Speaker 2: I just was, you know, day to going, trying to
Speaker 2: just jump from one lily pad to the next, keeping
Speaker 2: up with the work and.
Speaker 1: Under these extraordinary circumstances in the middle of COVID, where
Speaker 1: you guys were probably being tested on a regular basis,
Speaker 1: and having to keep your distance and wear masks when
Speaker 1: you're not you know, when they don't say action. I
Speaker 1: mean that that must have been really tough.
Speaker 2: It was really interesting. And the isolation of it what
Speaker 2: you just said, they you know, the moment they called cut,
Speaker 2: putting a mask and a shield up in front of
Speaker 2: your face. We never even saw the cruise faces for
Speaker 2: the ten months we're working on the show. And then
Speaker 2: also you go home, and I was away from my family.
Speaker 2: I was in New York, so I live in Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: so I was by myself in an apartment in New York.
Speaker 2: And pre vaccine, New York was, especially in the fall
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty, was pretty lockdown. It was pretty and
Speaker 2: it was pretty eary.
Speaker 1: As somebody who lives in the city too, you know,
Speaker 1: you would walk out on Park Avenue and in the
Speaker 1: middle of the day and there it was empty, no cars.
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, it was like a movie.
Speaker 2: I know, it was crazy. It was like a mid
Speaker 2: nineties like Wolfgang Peterson movie or something. So so yeah,
Speaker 2: I would shoot the show for twelve hours or whatever,
Speaker 2: get in a van, go back to the apartment, eat, sleep,
Speaker 2: wake up, get in a van, go to the show,
Speaker 2: and the show was this kind of stark, isolated, strange environment,
Speaker 2: and so it was very severance, like my kind of
Speaker 2: existence parallel to the show.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was very very strange, and I was, you know,
Speaker 2: grappling with a loss in my life and alone for
Speaker 2: the first time in six months after this intent time
Speaker 2: with family, you know, like we all did, we really
Speaker 2: buckled down. I buckled down with my two kids and
Speaker 2: my wife for six months and had this extraordinary time
Speaker 2: together and then to suddenly just be boom, You're by yourself,
Speaker 2: uh uh, in a in a in the city and working,
Speaker 2: and you know, it was a it was like slamming
Speaker 2: the brakes on and then getting into a car you've
Speaker 2: never driven before and trying to figure it out. That's
Speaker 2: a metaphor that I'm not going to keep following.
Speaker 1: I was so excited to see your your mug on
Speaker 1: the billboard and that pretty serious head of hair of yours,
Speaker 1: although it was kind of slicked down in the billboard.
Speaker 1: I'm not obsessed with hair. Your hair just happens to
Speaker 1: look lovely today, Oh, thank you very much, very fresh
Speaker 1: and maybe just washed. But anyway, you know, tell me
Speaker 1: about the plot a little bit about your character the
Speaker 1: show and how this whole idea was turned into I
Speaker 1: guess what I would describe as a psychological thriller of sorts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think I think that's right. I
Speaker 2: think it's a bunch of different things, kind of there's
Speaker 2: a few balls that are in the air with the show,
Speaker 2: and I think that's what really kind of got Ben
Speaker 2: really Ben still really interested in it. It is that
Speaker 2: it has this sort of this the entry into the
Speaker 2: story sort of feels workplace, like a fun workplace comedy
Speaker 2: in a way, like office space or the officer parks
Speaker 2: and rec even this sort of light, fun bantery way in,
Speaker 2: and then you sort of sense that there's something a
Speaker 2: little more sinister maybe lurking underneath, and then you kind
Speaker 2: of realize that this is this fun office vibe that
Speaker 2: involves people who have no idea what they're doing there
Speaker 2: or who they are. Yeah. I mean the conceit of
Speaker 2: the show is that we live in a time where
Speaker 2: there's this technology where you can get a chip inserted
Speaker 2: into your brain that bifurcates your memories. So when you
Speaker 2: go to work, once you cross the threshold of your workplace,
Speaker 2: you lose all of your memory of who you are
Speaker 2: in the outside world, and your entire life and perspective
Speaker 2: on your life is there at work, and so that
Speaker 2: is who you are. And then when you leave at
Speaker 2: the end of the day and cross that threshold once again,
Speaker 2: something is triggered in the chip in your brain and
Speaker 2: you have no access to the memories of what just
Speaker 2: happened at work, and you have no idea actually what
Speaker 2: your job even is. You just live in the outside world.
Speaker 2: So the idea is you can completely focus on your
Speaker 2: personal life and then you can completely focus on your
Speaker 2: job and never the twain shall meet. And so the
Speaker 2: work life balance is finally solved. There is a complete
Speaker 2: balance in the work life conundrum.
Speaker 1: So I'll never leave here.
Speaker 2: You'll leave it five well, actually they stagger exits, so
Speaker 2: five point fifteen. But it won't feel like it, not
Speaker 2: to this version of you anyway. Do you have a family,
Speaker 2: You'll never know.
Speaker 1: I have no choice.
Speaker 2: Well, every time you find yourself here, it's because you
Speaker 2: chose to come back.
Speaker 1: And tell us about the character you play. By the way,
Speaker 1: it sounds like Office Space meets Black Mirror.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, I think Twilight Zone and Black
Speaker 2: Mirror are certainly touchstones as a fan. When I first
Speaker 2: read the scripts, that's the stuff that I love watching
Speaker 2: and have since. Twilight Zone was a huge thing for
Speaker 2: me as a kid, and so reading it, I you know,
Speaker 2: it was something that I would want to watch as
Speaker 2: an audience member. Yeah, my character Mark is in the
Speaker 2: outside world. A couple of years ago he lost his
Speaker 2: wife and you know, two and it's been two and
Speaker 2: a half years and he is not doing well. He's
Speaker 2: not moving on, and a couple of years ago decided
Speaker 2: to get severed because he just didn't want to feel
Speaker 2: this pain twenty four hours a day so he can
Speaker 2: wake up in the morning, have breakfast, drive to work,
Speaker 2: and then boom, he's leaving work and getting his car,
Speaker 2: driving home, eating and going to sleep. That's his life.
Speaker 2: He doesn't have to feel anything for eight to ten
Speaker 2: hours a day. And I think also part of his
Speaker 2: reasoning for this is that this grief and this pain
Speaker 2: is in a way all he has left of his wife,
Speaker 2: and he's that's, you know, whether consciously or not, why
Speaker 2: he's grasping onto this and holding onto it, why he
Speaker 2: doesn't want to move on, is because this is what
Speaker 2: he has and being able to check out for most
Speaker 2: of most of the day is a way of holding
Speaker 2: on to it while not having to necessarily deal with
Speaker 2: or feel it.
Speaker 1: Interesting And do you think it's a metaphor for how
Speaker 1: sort of unhealthily entwined our personal lives have become with
Speaker 1: our work lives. In other words, the constant connectivity thanks
Speaker 1: to technology has made it really difficult for us to
Speaker 1: have what was for so long considered our two separate lives.
Speaker 1: You know, even for me when I started out in
Speaker 1: television news, I would go to work, I would come home,
Speaker 1: and that was time with my family. Now I had
Speaker 1: to do homework, you know, the night before, which was delivered.
Speaker 1: It sounds so quaint in an envelope with actual you know,
Speaker 1: papers and xeroxys and articles. Yeah, and Manila folders and
Speaker 1: all that jazz. But I still felt that when I
Speaker 1: was not physically at work, I wasn't thinking about work
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven. And now the lines have been
Speaker 1: so blurred. So it is sort of this part of
Speaker 1: the solution for that all encompassing professional side that we
Speaker 1: now have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess, so, I guess that's the that's the idea. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean I know that it's it sounds great to
Speaker 2: be able to sever the two things because I always
Speaker 2: pictured that as well. I always pictured once my professional
Speaker 2: life got anywhere and I had any traction or any stability,
Speaker 2: and especially once I started we started a family that
Speaker 2: I would work and then come home and honey, I'm
Speaker 2: home and she has them.
Speaker 1: Martini and your bedroom slippers.
Speaker 2: And exactly like mad Men or something. You know, that's
Speaker 2: sort of what you always picture. But by the time
Speaker 2: it happened for me, there was no you know, you
Speaker 2: walk through the door and there's a buzzing in your
Speaker 2: pocket and you know it's twenty four seven. There really
Speaker 2: is no stopping. No matter what you're doing for a living,
Speaker 2: you have to really draw the line for yourself and
Speaker 2: if you want that separation, you have to put it
Speaker 2: in a drawer. But then, you know, if you're not
Speaker 2: reachable for two hours, uh, you know, people think there's
Speaker 2: something going on, there's something wrong, and it's it's now
Speaker 2: unusual to just be unresponsive for a certain amount of time.
Speaker 2: It is a strange a strange, strange time. And certainly,
Speaker 2: you know, like you were saying earlier, how it almost
Speaker 2: feels like the pandemic or lockdown or whatever sort of
Speaker 2: accelerated what what what was already happening with the gig
Speaker 2: economy and and and and all of that. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a strange I mean what you were talking about with
Speaker 2: I would assume with the Today Show when you would
Speaker 2: come home and get to be with your family and
Speaker 2: then get that that big packet of homework that must
Speaker 2: have been you know, it's it's sounds like it sounds exhausting,
Speaker 2: but there is something really comforting about it now and
Speaker 2: sort of straightforward about this is what you have to
Speaker 2: do for tomorrow and that's what it is, and you're
Speaker 2: not going to be bothered and this is this isn't
Speaker 2: all going to be turned upside down and changed right
Speaker 2: and changed, I mean, unless there's some big worries right.
Speaker 1: Right, there's a big news story. But it's funny because
Speaker 1: you know, I always remind myself that iPhones didn't come
Speaker 1: out till two thousand and eight, and so all through
Speaker 1: the nineties and the early two thousands, you know, I
Speaker 1: could be with my kids at the park without an eruption.
Speaker 1: I wasn't looking at my phone, you know, Flip phones
Speaker 1: were just kind of coming out then, and I could
Speaker 1: be so much more present. And I remember reading that
Speaker 1: Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, when they were married, had
Speaker 1: a house rule that they wouldn't answer the phone between
Speaker 1: five and eight, which is so funny now when you
Speaker 1: think about it, because people don't even have landlines anymore,
Speaker 1: and now we're all addicted to our phones and to
Speaker 1: be able to be away from it for three hours
Speaker 1: is almost a herculean feet So it's just crazy how
Speaker 1: it's it's almost how much this new way of living
Speaker 1: has slowly, and I would say malevolently, seeped into our
Speaker 1: our very beans, you know, and I don't think for
Speaker 1: the better. Coming up, Adam's aha moment, done du dun
Speaker 1: dune done du duh. Oh that sounded bad. Right after this,
Speaker 1: I wanted to take a moment because I know you're
Speaker 1: from Santa Cruz, Adam, and I'm just curious. I always
Speaker 1: love to hear people's origin stories, and I'm curious how
Speaker 1: you got bitten by the acting bug in the first place,
Speaker 1: and how you found yourself on this Thespian road, if
Speaker 1: you will.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Thespian Avenue actor lane. Yeah, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2: I think it was really pretty simple. And maybe shallow
Speaker 2: but or not shallow. But I think it was pretty simple,
Speaker 2: which was I was always sort of interested. But then
Speaker 2: I saw Raiders of the Lost Art, and I think
Speaker 2: it was right at the age because it came out
Speaker 2: in what eighty one eighty two, and so I was
Speaker 2: eight nine years old. I remember seeing that movie. I
Speaker 2: remember getting back to my friend's house and rushing to
Speaker 2: a phone, to a landline and calling my mom because
Speaker 2: I had to unload all these feelings because I had
Speaker 2: just seen something and nothing would ever be the same again.
Speaker 2: This movie didn't stop. It was just fun all the
Speaker 2: way through, and it was hilarious. And you know, you
Speaker 2: watch that movie now and there are jokes, not just
Speaker 2: like funny as sides, there are jokes and good ones
Speaker 2: and and I just it just blew my mind. And
Speaker 2: you know, you know back then, you know, I went
Speaker 2: to see that movie so so many times, and I
Speaker 2: still love it and have to watch it a couple
Speaker 2: times a year. But I think that was the beginning
Speaker 2: of I say simple because it was as simple as
Speaker 2: I want to do that, that looks like, there's what
Speaker 2: else would you could you possibly want to do the
Speaker 2: other than that?
Speaker 1: Then the Harrison Ford.
Speaker 2: Jesus, that looks great.
Speaker 1: I mean talk about getting the girls.
Speaker 2: Yeah, getting the girls, getting to Jesus dirty. You're jumping
Speaker 2: from one thing to the other, smarter than everyone else,
Speaker 2: making mistakes but then making up for it. He's a
Speaker 2: flawed guy. He also was a professor. My dad was
Speaker 2: a professor, so there was a lot of that too.
Speaker 2: Like I saw my dad and him. I still do
Speaker 2: when I watch any Harrison Ford thing, I feel I
Speaker 2: kind of see my dad in that. But the professor,
Speaker 2: the college professor, which is what my dad was before
Speaker 2: he retired. And so so it was just the perfect
Speaker 2: recipe for me and millions of others. I mean, obviously
Speaker 2: it was this phenomenon and then Temple of Doom. Maybe
Speaker 2: I may even like that more. I just love of
Speaker 2: that too. So that was kind of the start of it.
Speaker 2: And it was just like the secret I harbored for
Speaker 2: years and years that this is what I wanted to do,
Speaker 2: but I was embarrassed by it, so I never really
Speaker 2: told anyone that this is what I planned on doing
Speaker 2: until years and years later. But that was the that
Speaker 2: was kind of the start of it. It was Raiders.
Speaker 1: It's amazing isn't it how one film can be so transformative?
Speaker 1: And yeah, which is I think the beauty of all
Speaker 1: different kinds of art forms, whether it's a book or
Speaker 1: a movie or a piece of art anyway. But so, yeah,
Speaker 1: when did you start for real pursuing this career. Did
Speaker 1: you do dinner theater?
Speaker 2: Adam, No, but I've been to the dinner theater and
Speaker 2: that's an experience actually getting like, you know, baked Alaska
Speaker 2: while you're watching Dames at Sea? Like what else? What
Speaker 2: else could you ask for? I I did the you know,
Speaker 2: theater in high school and and all of that, and
Speaker 2: then and then went to acting school after that. You know,
Speaker 2: when I was like a junior in high school, I
Speaker 2: finally kind of said I think I can do this.
Speaker 2: And there was sort of a social stigma of being
Speaker 2: a theater person at my high school, so I didn't
Speaker 2: really want to commit fully, but but then did and
Speaker 2: and sort of let it out there that this is
Speaker 2: something I want to pursue. And went to acting school
Speaker 2: after high school and in Pasadena, California is where the
Speaker 2: acting school was, and I was in ninety one. I
Speaker 2: came down here and went to the school for a
Speaker 2: couple of years and then came here to Hollywood in
Speaker 2: ninety fall of ninety three and just started, you know,
Speaker 2: doing extra work and our background and scrounging around for auditions,
Speaker 2: just doing anything I could, you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, I've been in LA for a
Speaker 1: couple of months and it's made me think of, you know,
Speaker 1: the entertainment industry a lot, and being an actor must
Speaker 1: prey on every insecurity you have. And it no wonder
Speaker 1: so many of the kids who who have fame early
Speaker 1: on in their lives are so screwed up later. I mean,
Speaker 1: it is, It is really destabilizing. How do you handle
Speaker 1: kind of the uncertainty and the really I guess capriciousness. I'm,
Speaker 1: by the way, very impressed by my vocabulary during this
Speaker 1: podcast me.
Speaker 2: Too, excellent, Thank you, But I wouldn't expect anything less.
Speaker 1: I'm pulling out all the I'm pulling out all the
Speaker 1: saft words today for some reason. But you know, how
Speaker 1: do you handle the uncertainty of being an actor? And
Speaker 1: you know, always kind of now that I've made you
Speaker 1: probably start getting pitted out by even discussing this, but
Speaker 1: the uncertainty of where your next role is going to
Speaker 1: come from?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that sort of thing never goes away. I mean
Speaker 2: I think, you know, I think back to starting out,
Speaker 2: you know, kind of hustling for roles and stuff, trying
Speaker 2: to piece something together and fall of ninety three, so
Speaker 2: I was, I was, you know, I auditioned for Scream
Speaker 2: and Scream too, and I know what you did last
Speaker 2: summer and all of that. I was around for all
Speaker 2: of that stuff and didn't get any of it. And
Speaker 2: like I was, you know, went on thousands of auditions
Speaker 2: and was rejected thousands of times and made my living
Speaker 2: doing like guest spots and stuff and cobbling something together.
Speaker 2: But it wasn't until fifteen years in that I even
Speaker 2: started to get real traction. But had kind of diluted
Speaker 2: myself and too, thinking that I was getting traction all
Speaker 2: the way just to keep going. But then once you
Speaker 2: actually get traction, you look back and you're like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I was nowhere and the people that loved
Speaker 2: me were so generous by kind of being, you know,
Speaker 2: helping keep me afloat with that delusion all along, or
Speaker 2: you know, so anyway.
Speaker 1: So you just kind of delude that's how you kept going.
Speaker 1: Because I imagine there are many of people who come to Hollywood,
Speaker 1: you know, hoping to be discovered at the soda Fountain,
Speaker 1: you know, or you know, just having one perceptive soul
Speaker 1: in a casting in an audition see something in you,
Speaker 1: or that's right, kind of give you your first big break.
Speaker 1: But so many people just never get that and that's right,
Speaker 1: you know. And so it sounds like you deluded yourself initially.
Speaker 1: But is that? Is that how you kept going? You
Speaker 1: kept you kept just saying, well, I'm kind of all
Speaker 1: that right now, and I'm just going to kind of
Speaker 1: build on this or what other things kept you from saying,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to go to business school or
Speaker 1: I'm going to I'm going to get in the business
Speaker 1: side of the industry because this is for the birds.
Speaker 2: There was something, yeah, I mean there was something that
Speaker 2: I always sort of felt I had that and doubted
Speaker 2: over and over and over again and gave up on
Speaker 2: over and over again. But something I felt like I
Speaker 2: still kind of had to offer no matter what. And
Speaker 2: I don't know how I kept believing in that because
Speaker 2: there were so many times where any logical person would
Speaker 2: have abandoned it. But I think there was a lack
Speaker 2: of other options because I, like I said, from Raiders
Speaker 2: of the Lost Dark, never wanted to do or even
Speaker 2: thought about doing anything else. So I hadn't nurtured any
Speaker 2: other real interests or skills, and.
Speaker 1: So if you didn't make it as an actor, you
Speaker 1: were kind of hosed at him.
Speaker 2: I think, I think you're right. I think that's you're
Speaker 2: hitting the nail on the head, which is why it's
Speaker 2: been terrifying and still is terrifying. You know, you never know.
Speaker 2: You know, Also, as I was, you know, going through
Speaker 2: the nineties and stuff, and I did see a lot
Speaker 2: of people get discovered at the Soda Fountain and get
Speaker 2: this big flush of fame and attention or get that
Speaker 2: plumb role in this or that, and then you see
Speaker 2: them disappear. I've seen so, you know, I've been here
Speaker 2: almost thirty years. I've seen so many people come and go.
Speaker 2: I've seen people come and stick the landing and know
Speaker 2: what to do with it. Like you see Matt Damon, right,
Speaker 2: what would he's you know, he's someone that I used
Speaker 2: to see on auditions and and then you see him
Speaker 2: know exactly what to do and how to do it.
Speaker 2: But then for every one of him, there's a hundred
Speaker 2: others that just kind of come and go, and I'm
Speaker 2: so glad I didn't get scream or I know what
Speaker 2: you did last summer, because I would have sucked, or
Speaker 2: I would have not been ready and not known what
Speaker 2: to do with the opportunity and made stupid decisions. So
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's it's kind of a puzzle.
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you real quick about some of
Speaker 1: your favorite roles because it seems that you've done, you know,
Speaker 1: a real variety. Adam, tell me about some of the
Speaker 1: highlights that when you look back, you're like, Wow, that
Speaker 1: was just that was just perfect. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been super lucky and that I I do
Speaker 2: have several of those. I can look back on it
Speaker 2: with so fondly. For such a tough business, sometimes I've
Speaker 2: landed in several spots where it's just been terrific and
Speaker 2: so much fun. And I certainly attribute that to luck
Speaker 2: more than anything, like you were saying, luck plays a
Speaker 2: huge part, and I've certainly been lucky.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I think that something that really turned it around for
Speaker 2: me just internally was Party Down, which was a show
Speaker 2: I just did with my friends. Right. It wasn't for
Speaker 2: career reasons. I don't think my representatives were particularly interested
Speaker 2: in me doing this. It didn't seem to have any
Speaker 2: advantages at the time, and it was simply because I
Speaker 2: wasn't able to get anything else, and my friends were like, hey,
Speaker 2: how about we just do this, and it seemed fun,
Speaker 2: and so so I did it and it was fun.
Speaker 2: It was the most fun, and that really makes a
Speaker 2: difference in what you push then push out into the
Speaker 2: world that you're all enjoying yourselves, you know, and and
Speaker 2: sort of discovering this fun thing together, which is what
Speaker 2: we were all doing on that show, and feeling like,
Speaker 2: probably no one will ever see this, so let's just
Speaker 2: do it for us and each other and have a blast.
Speaker 2: And that's what we did, and then got to do
Speaker 2: twenty of them two seasons, and then eventually years later
Speaker 2: people did catch onto it and found this audience, and
Speaker 2: so that was sort of the reason I say it
Speaker 2: was sort of I don't know if I said it
Speaker 2: was a game changer, but it sort of was just
Speaker 2: internally because I felt like, oh, this can be super enjoyable,
Speaker 2: and that makes a big difference in what I put
Speaker 2: out there in my work. When I watched it, I
Speaker 2: can tell that's better because I'm having a lot of
Speaker 2: fun and just sort of letting myself have a lot
Speaker 2: of fun. So that and then Parks sort of came
Speaker 2: out of that, Parks and rec and that was another
Speaker 2: example of this is a terrific, lovely group of people.
Speaker 2: And we became fast friends. And that was five years
Speaker 2: I was doing that, and it was, you know, driving
Speaker 2: to work every day with your friends and doing silly
Speaker 2: things and heart felt lovely things as well. That was
Speaker 2: a really beautifully written show and character and everything. And
Speaker 2: so I think with those experiences it kind of set
Speaker 2: a new blueprint for me as far as what I
Speaker 2: should do. And it was a good lesson, like do
Speaker 2: something that is fun and that you would want to watch.
Speaker 2: And that has never really failed me. Not that I've
Speaker 2: always done that. I've certainly done things for other reasons,
Speaker 2: but it usually works out for me when when those
Speaker 2: are the components. See, not everybody gets along, Nathan, I mean,
Speaker 2: can't we just be comfortable not liking each other. It
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be a reason.
Speaker 1: Of course. You also, I know Adam played the slightly
Speaker 1: loserish husband of Reese Witherspoon in Big Little Lies, which
Speaker 1: must have been an interesting experience working with all those
Speaker 1: strong women, right, yeah.
Speaker 2: It was incredible, And that was something I Parks and
Speaker 2: RecA just ended and I wanted to try and do
Speaker 2: something a little more dramatic or whatever, and and really
Speaker 2: sought that out and and went and and auditioned a
Speaker 2: few times. I really wanted to do that, and really
Speaker 2: had wanted to do anything with Reese for years and
Speaker 2: years and was so excited to to to land that
Speaker 2: and get and get to do that. And it took
Speaker 2: place in Monterey, which is right next to Santa Cruz,
Speaker 2: and so I kind of felt a little connected to
Speaker 2: it geographically, and uh yeah, and getting to work with
Speaker 2: those incredible women was was was an experience as well.
Speaker 2: They're also so talented and uh and smart and so
Speaker 2: smart and cool. It was really it was really a great.
Speaker 1: Experience speaking of strong women. When we come back, Adam
Speaker 1: talks about his incredible mom and the weight of losing
Speaker 1: a parent before we go, I want to want to
Speaker 1: talk about your mom. First of all. I know you
Speaker 1: lost your mom, I believe Adam in twenty was it
Speaker 1: twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right before. Luckily it was March fifth, so it
Speaker 2: was right before everything sort of turned upside down.
Speaker 1: But that was, I know, just a devastating loss. You know,
Speaker 1: I've done a lot some fundraising or contributed to Project
Speaker 1: ALS because I became very friendly with Jennifer Estes, who
Speaker 1: started Naked Angels, a theater company in New York City,
Speaker 1: who was diagnosed with ALS when she was very young.
Speaker 1: And it is such a cruel, heartbreaking disease. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know it firsthand. And what was your mom sick
Speaker 1: for a long time or was it relatively fast?
Speaker 2: It it really tore through her quickly, it was, you know,
Speaker 2: it's a particularly cruel disease. It's it's just devastating.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: It it was just a couple of years, uh it
Speaker 2: you know, she was in her early seventies and and yeah,
Speaker 2: it moved quickly. I know sometimes it moves slower, but
Speaker 2: with her, it was just a couple of years, sort
Speaker 2: of end to end. And yeah, it was, it was.
Speaker 2: It was devastating. It's a sort of disease where you
Speaker 2: just don't want to think about the nightmare.
Speaker 1: Being trapped in your body, right, I mean, and mentally
Speaker 1: h most in most cases. I'm not a doctor, so
Speaker 1: I probably shouldn't make this proclamation, but I think mentally,
Speaker 1: most people are pretty sharp and their body is just
Speaker 1: betraying them slowly but surely. And let you know that
Speaker 1: you and your mom were extremely close, and tell me
Speaker 1: a little bit about her, because sometimes I think we
Speaker 1: focus on the way people died instead of the way
Speaker 1: they lived.
Speaker 2: Thank you. That's really sweet. She was a really incredible
Speaker 2: person and a person who kind of lived, you know,
Speaker 2: turned it up to eleven. She was, you know, out outdoor.
Speaker 2: It was always out running or walking or you know,
Speaker 2: grew up in Santa Cruso. We had a you know,
Speaker 2: I grew up with a little bit of a hippyish
Speaker 2: vibe to everything. Not that she had time to be
Speaker 2: a hippie because she had was raising three kids and
Speaker 2: she was a public school teacher. But being kind of
Speaker 2: outdoorsy and granola e was something I always teased her
Speaker 2: about and always had fun fun with. Like we didn't
Speaker 2: really have a TV in the house. It was that
Speaker 2: sort of thing, and.
Speaker 1: She probably had what was it when we were kids.
Speaker 1: As I said, you're probably ten or fifteen years younger
Speaker 1: than I am, Adam, But what was the precursor to
Speaker 1: granola was like gorp or something or.
Speaker 2: Gorp oh As I grew up with gor I was.
Speaker 1: Going to say, it sounds like it sounds like a
Speaker 1: very gorpy household.
Speaker 2: One hundred percent a lot of spurrollina. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: Whole Foods is like I grew up going to the
Speaker 2: Staff of Life, which was the health food store and
Speaker 2: Zenachers and I just you know, I was making jokes
Speaker 2: about it by the time I was like six years old.
Speaker 2: You know, she was an incredibly unique person. I was
Speaker 2: allowed to cuss as much as I wanted as long
Speaker 2: was we were in our home, and so were my
Speaker 2: friends when they came over. So when we were in
Speaker 2: elementary school, they would come over and immediately walk in
Speaker 2: the house and be like, f you Ann and she'd
Speaker 2: be and she'd just be like, hey, f you you
Speaker 2: little shit, and they, I mean loved it. These are
Speaker 2: like twelve year old kids. They get to come over
Speaker 2: and cuss.
Speaker 1: That is so funny.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was very And once I had kids, I
Speaker 2: had mixed feelings about her doing this with my you
Speaker 2: know it, you know, really put it to the test,
Speaker 2: but it was it was great. And so she was
Speaker 2: the ultimate cool mom from from day one. And like
Speaker 2: I said, she was a public school the special a
Speaker 2: teacher at at the high school I actually went to,
Speaker 2: and it was just an extraordinary person and so and
Speaker 2: we were very close and she was the first person
Speaker 2: I shared my ambition to be a professional actor when
Speaker 2: I was fifteen or sixteen, And her reaction is what
Speaker 2: kind of gave me the confidence to then share it
Speaker 2: with others.
Speaker 1: You know, was her reaction.
Speaker 2: It was I was watching the Academy Awards whatever the
Speaker 2: year was when River Phoenix was nominated for Running on
Speaker 2: Empty Do you remember that movie?
Speaker 1: I don't. I remember him and stand by.
Speaker 2: Me, Oh sure, Running on Empties a suit Sidney Lumette movie.
Speaker 2: He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. But it was
Speaker 2: the Oscars were on and she came into my room
Speaker 2: and I pointed to the TV and I said, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, I think I can do that, and I
Speaker 2: think I can do it better than some people. And
Speaker 2: she just said, yeah, I know, you can't. Now go
Speaker 2: to bed and close the door. It was just she
Speaker 2: didn't even think about it for a second. She just
Speaker 2: and that was you know, there was no condescension in
Speaker 2: her approval of my idea. It was just logical to her,
Speaker 2: and you know, was always beyond you know, supportive to
Speaker 2: the point of of, like any son with their mom
Speaker 2: being overly supportive get annoyed by it. But just you know,
Speaker 2: I was properly loved growing up, and that's that's really
Speaker 2: what you can ask for with a mother. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, it was a particularly devastating loss. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, for anyone losing their their mom and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree. I think you just there's no if
Speaker 1: if you're lucky enough to be the product of good parenting.
Speaker 1: You know, and I realize as I get older, we
Speaker 1: are very fortunate because so many people, for whatever reasons,
Speaker 1: don't receive that kind of unconditional love from their parents.
Speaker 1: But you know, we're so fortunate. And I in my book,
Speaker 1: I wrote, my minister told me after my mom died,
Speaker 1: I was just devastated. I can't remember it was after
Speaker 1: my dad or my mom died. I was just just
Speaker 1: I mean, I was just so lost and so so upset.
Speaker 1: And he said, those who love deeply grieve deeply. And
Speaker 1: that always made me feel It always made me turn
Speaker 1: the loss into a gain, if that makes sense. It
Speaker 1: always made me really appreciate my good fortune and having
Speaker 1: really wonderful parents. And also, you know, I lost my
Speaker 1: husband and my sister, So I've had a lost a
Speaker 1: lot of loss in my life. And sure, but I
Speaker 1: think for I think for especially for parents, you think
Speaker 1: that really profound, deep deep loss is because I think
Speaker 1: you feel feel even more when you have you know,
Speaker 1: you've been the recipient of unconditional love. So, yeah, but
Speaker 1: your mom was too young. Your mom was too young
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, something I didn't anticipate, you know, because she was
Speaker 2: sick for a while, we knew what was coming. But
Speaker 2: then the moment it happens, there's a shift in It's
Speaker 2: a your your world does change the moment it happens,
Speaker 2: no matter how much you are expecting it. And what
Speaker 2: I realized was, you know, with a parent, you're you
Speaker 2: realize that you're part of what you're doing throughout your
Speaker 2: life is for them for them to see and for
Speaker 2: them to be able to tell them about something or
Speaker 2: let them kind of see what you're doing out in
Speaker 2: the world or with your family or whatever kind of everything.
Speaker 2: It's sort of a this watchful eye that's suddenly gone.
Speaker 2: That that is, you know, it's it's something that it's
Speaker 2: more of a feeling than trying to intellectualize it. Like
Speaker 2: that is tough. It's tough to put put into words,
Speaker 2: but it's an emotional thing that it's almost hard to
Speaker 2: explain unless someone has lost a parent.
Speaker 1: And a good parent, especially right, a good parent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, exactly, yeah, exactly. I would imagine it's different
Speaker 2: if it was a different situation.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll have to think about if I ever have grandkids,
Speaker 1: if my my domicile will be a you know, cuss
Speaker 1: what do you call it? A cuss zone? Like you
Speaker 1: can say whatever you want kids, My character would totally
Speaker 1: not approve. I have to be honest with you, Adam.
Speaker 1: My dad would would would never really let me cuss
Speaker 1: as a kid. But you know, now everybody drops the
Speaker 1: F bomb so much. You're walking down the street and
Speaker 1: it's just like every other word. But I sound like
Speaker 1: a you know, a prutish one hundred year old lady.
Speaker 1: But but no.
Speaker 2: I agree. It needs to be artfully done in order
Speaker 2: for it to land properly. And by the way, if
Speaker 2: I ever did it disrespectfully or did it with anger
Speaker 2: or disrespect.
Speaker 1: Like if you told your mother to go out herself.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no no no, it had
Speaker 2: to be certainly in a joking manner. Otherwise I was
Speaker 2: in huge, deep trouble to be sure.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm so happy that we got a chance to talk.
Speaker 1: Please forget my blanket.
Speaker 2: It's so cool. Are you kidding?
Speaker 1: I mean, I've never done this before and it is
Speaker 1: kind of hilarious. So maybe we'll have to run a
Speaker 1: clip of this podcast to show how.
Speaker 2: Are you going to start? I'm selling the Katie Curic
Speaker 2: podcast hood that you wear for That's.
Speaker 1: A nice that's an idea. Well, thanks again. I really enjoyed.
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed getting to know you and talking to you,
Speaker 1: and I hope our paths cross again someday.
Speaker 2: Same, Thank you, Katie, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: That was the ever charming Adam Scott. I know it's weird,
Speaker 1: but I kind of want to be his friend. His
Speaker 1: new show is called Severance and it's streaming now on
Speaker 1: Apple TV. Next Question with Katie Kirk is a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartMedia and Katie Kirk Media. The executive producers are Me,
Speaker 1: Katie Kirk, and Courtney Ltz. The supervising producer is Lauren Hanson.
Speaker 1: Associate producers Derek Clements and Adriana Fasio. The show is
Speaker 1: edited and mixed by Derek Clements. For more information about
Speaker 1: today's episode, or to sign up for my morning newsletter,
Speaker 1: Wake Up Paul, go to Katie. You can also find
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