Adam Scott Talks Career And ‘Earning My Way’ To His ‘Severance’ Role

“From the very first time I read a script for Severance, I felt like it was everything that I’d ever wanted to do, acting-wise.”

For actor Adam Scott, previously known for his performances in Step Brothers, Parks and Recreation and Big Little Lies – just to name a few, he continues to play Severance lead character Mark Scout on the hit Apple TV+ drama series, a role that remains a dream come true for him. He plays a rather obedient employee with a voluntary chip put inside of his head, which separates his memories within the walls of his Lumon Industries office building (better known as his “Innie”) from his life in the outside world. His faith with this unique setup begins to unravel, when he starts noticing that the well-being of those closest to him might be in jeopardy, as everything is not what it seems.

Scott, 51, recently told me during our season two conversation, “It’s the kind of story, the mix of genres – everything that I felt I had been working toward and kind of felt like when I read it, if I get to actually play this role – and at the time, I was like there’s no way I’m ever going to get to actually do this, but if I do, it will be because I’ve been sort of earning my way towards this, my whole 20, maybe 30 years at this point. It is precisely the kind of thing that I loved when I was a kid and made me want to do this in the first place.”

With the Severance series created by Dan Erickson, while executive produced and often directed by Ben Stiller, I wondered what were some of the early conversations that Scott had with his collaborators here, to make sure that the series would head in a proper creative direction for its second season, without feeling a need to fully appease any fan or society expectations on where the story should ultimately go next.

Scott said, “I think one of the very early early conversations between the three of us was kind of talking about this piece of information that ‘Innie’ Mark discovers at the end of season one and we kind of left it in this cliffhanger. Ben asked me like – ‘What would you do if you found this piece of information? What’s the first thing you would do?’ And sort of my knee-jerk was I would just start running. I would just run and try to find Ms. Casey – go try to find the wellness center and talk to Ms. Casey about this information. So then, Ben started creating this running sequence that we kick the [second] season off with.”

Knowing that Scott has also been a producer on Severance since the very beginning, I wondered what are some of the joys that his producing work does for him in ways that his acting work alone perhaps cannot fully satisfy.

“I mean, as a producer, I try to just make sure I’m available to everyone, to be as helpful as possible. That’s what I kind of feel producing is, and that’s how I get the most satisfaction out of producing, is just trying to clear roadblocks away, whether they be creative or otherwise, and just see where I can be helpful. And so, with Severance, it’s great because I’ve been doing this for a long time and acting is incredibly satisfying, particularly this role. It takes up all of my creative energy, but I also like to be thinking about the big picture, as well, and I love being able to sort of be a voice to be helpful in that circumstance.”

Even with the 10 episodes expected in Severance season two, with new Apple TV+ episodes debuting on Fridays, Scott continues to work on and pursue other television & film projects. I was curious, however, if his experiences on the Severance production has made him pursue outside projects differently, ever since joining the series.

Scott said, “Yeah, I think that particularly watching Ben work, and this started back when we worked together on [The Secret Life of] Walter Mitty – he’s always striving for excellence, just trying to make everything as good as it can be at any given moment. Particularly in Walter Mitty, watching him do that as a director, and then step in front of the camera and play a scene, and being able to entirely focus on each job separately as we were going along, it was really inspiring.”

Scott added: “Working on Severance, it’s same thing and being a part of it, and I think that is a great thing to always be striving for is – Let’s stay here until it’s great. Let’s keep working it until it’s great. You don’t always have the time to do that, but within the timeframe you’re given, just try to make it as good as it can be. So, that’s something I try and bring to everything I do.”

As I concluded my conversation with Scott, I left the Severance star and producer with one final question – What would you say, Adam, if you could speak to Mark over these two seasons of Severance and give him advice, a warning, a comforting message, and would that message maybe be different from the Mark “Innie” and the Mark out in the world, beyond Lumon?

“I think they both need advice of some sort – that’s for sure,” Scott said. “I think particularly in season two, they’re thinking of one another more than they were in season one and I think that when we start the season, they feel their interests are similar. The trick will be seeing how they navigate the rest of the season and whether or not they come to discover that their interests may differ and whether or not they’re on some sort of a collision course.”