Adam Scott

Dimitri: First of all, congratulations on the show. It’s amazing. I’m hooked.

Adam Scott: Thanks.

Dimitri: How did you find out about this project?

Adam Scott: Ben Stiller called me a while back in January 2017 and just told me the quick pitch, just the big idea of the show, and didn’t really have much more at that point. He said he had met Dan Erickson and had this great idea. I couldn’t shake it. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the next couple of years until I ended up reading the script. I guess it was the first couple of scripts and I just couldn’t put it down. From the moment I opened it, it was exactly the kind of show that I like to watch, and exactly the kind of show that I’ve always wanted to be a part of. The kind of role that I’ve always wanted to play and just have never really had the chance to.

Felt like if I was actually able to land this job, which at the time I didn’t, even though Ben was sending it to me and everything, and he’s my friend and I trust him. I just know how show business sometimes the networks going — You just never know. You never know, so you can’t count on anything. It’s no reflection on anyone really, it’s just my hair-trigger response to anything in show business and knowing you can’t count on anything.

I just thought there’s no way I’m going to end up actually playing this role. If I do, at least for me, it’ll feel like I’ve been earning this role for the past 20-some-odd years that I’ve been at it. Because this is precisely the sort of thing I’d always wanted to do, and precisely the kind of character I’d always wanted to play.

Dimitri: I’ve been absolutely captured by your character, the show it’s so dystopian, it’s almost like a dark comedy in some sort of way to me. How did you become Mark? How did you become this character? Even the location itself, where was it filmed?

Adam Scott: Out in New York.

Dimitri: Was that New York upstate?

Adam Scott: All the interiors were on a stage up in the Bronx. For the exteriors, we were upstate New York, some in Jersey. That building, the Lumen building is actually in Jersey.

Dimitri: That’s in New Jersey, okay.

Adam Scott: That’s New Jersey, yes. As far as the character goes, I think it was after thinking about it and going down a few different roads with it before we started shooting. We were delayed because of the pandemic, so we did have some time to really talk it out and think about it. What we landed on, what was really important to Ben and to Dan Erickson, the creator, and I is that, while we’re seeing these two different sides of this guy, it should feel like the same guy. It should just feel like almost different halves of the same guy.

They are different, but in the same way, that you are different depending on who you’re with you. You behave differently when you’re with a sister or brother or family member than you do with your friends. It’s sort of just figuring out what those different parts were and going from there.

Dimitri: It started to feel like it’s a bit of a Greek mythology, like demigods and servants. Everything’s been almost an experiment by itself. Can you please elaborate on the premise for the show?

Adam Scott: Yes, it takes place in a world where there’s a technology that you can get. It’s a chip you can get inserted into your brain where it kind of bifurcates your memories from your workplace to the outside world and your home life. When you’re at work, you have no memory whatsoever of who you are, what you do in the outside world. Then vice versa, when you are in the outside world, you have no recollection of who you are, or what you do at work. You lose the memories of each place when you’re in the other.

My character, Mark he is bereaved. He just recently lost his wife and gets the procedure done and starts working at Lumen so he can, in a way, just not have to live and not have to feel for 8 to 10 hours a day. His life basically, consists of waking up in the morning, eating breakfast, driving to work, and then he’s immediately leaving work, going home, eating dinner, drinking a little too much, and going to sleep. That’s his entire life. He doesn’t have to live and feel the pain he feels for most of the day for most of his life.

Dimitri: It’s a rather complex subject that you touch on the show. We deal through a lot of pain now in our everyday life, and finding ways to tune out In reality, How long did it take for you guys to create this show?

Adam Scott: Well, Dan had the idea a few years back. I think he had written the pilot script, and it had been bouncing around a little bit. It was on something called the blood list, which is this list of the best-unproduced science fiction.

Then it ended up on Ben’s desk just as a writing sample for Dan, Jackie Cohen, who works at Ben’s company. Or at the time worked at Ben’s company handed it to him and said, “You should check this out.” That was back in 2016, 2017, around then. Then they went off and made Escape at Dannemora while they were developing it. It’s been a few years. It took some time. I think it’s a whole world. It’s world-building, which does take some time if you want to do it right. Ben and Dan are nothing if not detail-oriented so they wanted to make sure it was airtight and they really did. It took a few years. Shooting it took some time too.

We were in the middle of pre-vaccine pandemic. That added time to it and the show itself, we were figuring it out as we go when we got started. When you’re starting a brand new show and you have to figure out what the tone is, especially for something, it’s a completely different reality like this is, and when you’re world-building, it takes some time. Yes, there was a lot of time and care put into it, which I think shows just in that, how it looks and feels.

Dimitri: Well, it’s definitely original when it comes to it. Ben Stiller directed the several episodes. Is that correct?

Adam Scott: He directed six of the nine episodes.

Dimitri: Oh, wow. Oh, that’s impressive. I actually had the pleasure to meet Ben at the Critics’ Choice Awards, just before the pandemic. He’s a lovely guy. 

Adam Scott: Yes, he’s the best.

Dimitri: How do you feel working with him, especially him directing now? 

Adam Scott: I love working with Ben. I’ve worked with him a couple of times now. Always with the director, it’s how well it works. I feel with an actor, it depends on the amount of trust that you have with the director and the director has with you. Ben’s someone I trust implicitly. I trust his taste. I trust him emotionally. When we’re there, particularly with this role where I felt like I couldn’t do this correctly and have to keep track of my performance and keep an eye on my performance. I had to be able to dive in completely.

I could do that with Ben because I trust him and his taste and it really comes down to that. His meticulous nature is precisely how I think and feel on set as well. I want to keep doing it till we get it right. I’m not one of those people that want to do a few tapes and get out of there. I could stay all night trying it over and over again until we feel that we’ve gotten it. There’s nowhere I’m happier than on a set like Ben’s.

Dimitri: That’s amazing. By the way, when it comes to the design of the whole set, from the first episode, I could not figure out the time-period. I could not figure out if it was the future-retro if it was a bit of a ’70s but it still has more than — I’m still trying to figure out halfway through the season the time period it’s based on. Is it supposed to be a bit of a futuristic, dystopian, current, or slightly in the past in terms of the time period? It could be from the ’80s, maybe a little bit of ’70s or going 2000s but that’s like 50 years difference in between.

Adam Scott: It’s never stated implicitly what the time period is. It’s meant to be free-floating in a way. I think that is it you don’t see a lot of phones or that kind of tech, you don’t see a lot of cars from 2022. It’s in this timeless realm a little bit, which I really love about it.

Dimitri: Your castmates put together the mix is just next level, Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken, John Turturro just to name a few. Can you tell us about working with those guys?

Adam Scott: It was incredible getting to work with John Turturro, Christopher Walken, and Patricia Arquette. I’ve spent the majority of my career daydreaming about what it would be like to work with these people and never knowing or fully believing that I would get the chance to. Getting to work with them was amazing and broke any and all expectations I had. Working with each of them was really gratifying and inspiring. They are so good. They are the very best we have and have been for a while now, and truly the three of them are three of my acting heroes. The fact that I was able to work with them was pretty incredible.

Dimitri: Your show is on Apple TV Plus, majority of all the best that we watch these days, everything’s on major platform. The show like yours, purely because its a slow-burner as they call it. You cannot go from the Severance angle and go to commercial break on prime-time channel.

How does it feel for you, I guess as an actor and as a producer to be actually moving to the next level of the production utilising the platforms. People consuming your creation as binge-watching. How does it make you feel compared to the regular scheduled programming?

Adam Scott: Well, I feel like we’re now fully in this era of TV and making it differently, and consuming it differently. We’ve been doing it for a while now. It feels like everyone’s pretty used to it. One thing I’m really grateful for is that Apple TV-Plus released the show weekly rather than putting it all out at once. While it was on, people had time to really digest and discuss it if they wanted to and have that anticipation from week to week, from episode to episode. Which was really fun to watch and experience along with the audience. It was really great, and now it’s there for anyone to watch on any schedule they prefer binging or whatever.

Dimitri: Do you feel platforms allow more freedom to produce amazing stories that probably would never been produced for prime-time networks?

Adam Scott: Sure. It definitely doesn’t feel like a network show and the networks are still making great shows. You’re right, it is a different genre almost, and I don’t know if Severance would survive or flourish on a network. Or would need to change a little bit to fit into that format. I know Lost, which was one of my favorite shows did really well on a network. At the time, there was nothing else like it. You wouldn’t think that it would thrive on a network but it definitely did.

People are always looking for something different. Yes, you’re right. It’s a different world completely, but the streaming services are providing a great platform for shows that are different and feel different than anything you would have seen on television 10, 20 years ago.

Dimitri: Did you enjoy working with Mike Ruiz on the cover photoshoot?

Adam Scott: Oh, yes. He’s terrific. He’s really fun. Really, really fast and knew exactly what he wanted to do and how to get it. Yes, he’s really fun.

Dimitri: If you could give your younger-self an advice, what kind of advice would you give?

Adam Scott: It’s a great question. I guess I would probably just try and impart that you can slow down a little bit, and try and look for the kinds of things that feel right and make you feel good. I’m talking workwise. I didn’t end up getting any real traction in my career until I started making stuff with my friends that was fun, that felt comfortable. I wasn’t trying to reach for something that I wasn’t or trying to lean into a suit that didn’t fit me. When I just allowed myself to relax and do fun things with people that I love and trust, that’s when things started to gel a little bit.

I think for a long time, and I was really young when I started. Was 20 when I started working professionally. I didn’t really know yet who I was or what I wanted to do. I just knew I wanted to be an actor. I was just going out there and trying to be in anything I could without really thinking about what it was. I think for kids now that are starting out, I think the best advice I can give them is just make your own stuff because now everyone has an incredible camera in their pocket at all times, and you can make a movie on one of those things. Just start making stuff. If it’s not good, it doesn’t matter. You just keep doing it and, eventually, it will get better. If it’s really good, people will notice. You can go from there while you’re trying to get other stuff, make your own stuff. It’s increasingly convenient to do so.