Adam Scott (Severance, Parks and Recreation, Stepbrothers) is an Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated actor and comedian. Adam joins the Armchair Expert to discuss why the era of movies that produced ET, The Goonies, and Temple of Doom means so much to him, how Severance was in such apt alignment with the grief for his mother’s death, and the reason playing “fan at bar” is way more embarrassing than “guy at bar.” Adam and Dax talk about a call of the void by licking lead, rebranding artisanal nicotine delivery systems, and the ethical dilemma of whether to sneak a peek at new season episodes. Adam explains sleeping through his first call time on set with John Turturro and Christopher Walken, not knowing where to put what he does to impress his mom once she was gone, and how sharing your insides is a credibly important way to make a difference in the world.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who is Adam Scott and what shows is he known for?
I knew he went through a phase and he was wearing like the tricolor Africa shirts and it was do the right thing. So I'm not I wasn't totally insane. There's some connective tissue.
Got it. That makes sense.
Yeah.
And also lends itself to him being a cinephile.
Yes, big time. Parks and Recreation, Step Brothers, Big Little Lies, Party Down, The Good Place, and alas, arguably the greatest show on television, which returns to Apple TV Plus on the 17th. Severance.
I can't wait. So excited.
It's so good. It's so, so good. And I got to do the Severance podcast that they're doing, which is really, really fun.
That's great.
Yeah. I do recommend. It's been three years. I have a pretty good memory. I don't remember anything. It is so worth starting it from the get go. It's so enjoyable. I had forgotten so many great things about it.
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Chapter 2: What are the themes of grief explored in Severance?
Would you acknowledge that? And I would say that's a big swing and I think it might be a bit of a miss. No! No. Oh, my God. The whole thing just feels a little stupid.
No. Adam, listen to me. You can own this. Can I hold this up? Can you see that, Rob? But look at this. This is great.
You do have great hair. Fuck, you have good hair. You're welcome.
I'm stealing this from Arnett. He would call it the 40-yard stare, like that Vietnam.
Yeah, the like middle distance stare. Yeah.
Like, am I seeing a sniper in the background that you're not?
Right. Me and Pratt used to do it on parks. It would be saying something stupid to each other and then just kind of breaking into like, what are you? There is this middle distance where it's so clear. I wasn't looking at anything. It was just look over there. Yeah. That's maybe part of why it's embarrassing. No.
No, no, no. You're so self-deprecating. It's a gorgeous picture.
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Chapter 3: How did the pandemic affect the filming of Severance?
It is. I don't think I'm- Just gorgeous.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
By the way, it's so different in here than where we- Oh, sure. Let's take a second to process this. How long have you been in here? Three months. Because I listen to the show. I don't watch it, so I don't know. Yeah, take it in. First of all, Rob did all this. It's really nice. Can you believe- It's like homey. Yeah, it is. And well-designed. I know you have impeccable taste, Monica.
Thank you, but this wasn't me. This was all Rob.
It's really lovely. Yeah, you can almost forget, right? That's the dream. It's nice. And you got the camera sort of hidden. It's really nice.
Well, we have overs in this podcast, which people don't have over. They line up in a line.
Overs, it's so good. You're a director. You know these things. What if I said I'm a director at heart?
Ew. That's gross.
I'm a storyteller at heart. That's worse. I'm even scared to admit out loud how much I hate that because so many people I love I've heard use that term. I know. And it's true. We are story animals. Stop it. Just cut it out.
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Chapter 4: What was Adam's experience working with Christopher Walken?
You do know it. It just means like a shop.
You don't know it. It just means a nice shop. Apothecary bubbled up a few years ago in the wrong places.
Yes. Atelier, which I learned this from Monica. This is like a small bespoke handcrafted luxury item. And it's the studio for it, which I'm fine with those Italians having their ateliers or French, whatever it is.
It's where the designer actually makes the items. It's a real work.
Sure. But we don't use it to describe the sandwich shop in Beverly Hills. Correct. Which is coming.
I just started hearing Atelier a little too much. And I was like, Monica, you watch. The Gap's going to have an Atelier. Okay, so we have storytellers. That's rough for me. That's rough. And again, so many people, I love it. I see you. Sure. I don't think people can get through an interview without saying it these days. Holding space. Can't you just do that without talking about it?
Does that trigger you at all?
I've never said it. I do think it's rough.
This is where the left is losing people, by the way.
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Chapter 5: How does nostalgia shape our understanding of childhood?
Yeah. It all comes back to storytelling, you guys. This is just a story. Monica's visibly uncomfortable.
We thought our pants were going to explode, but they've retracted. It's the opposite.
It's literally the opposite.
Were you wearing three belts when you walked in?
I didn't notice. Isn't it funny in movies where they flash to the future and you see them taking stabs at what will happen fashion-wise in the future? I think in Back to the Future, people have two ties in the future.
Right, right. In 2015, which by the way, you would have known that already. That's right. You know what no one's playing with, which they should be, is that as we see drugs like Ozempic become ubiquitous and people will more and more have the same body shape. It's almost interesting that no one's projected that in the future, everyone just virtually will be like three versions of people.
Also with Botox and fillers and all of those things. Yeah. People's faces are starting to just look like one thing. I mean, young teens are doing Botox and filler. I know.
I wish I was alive when they were 90 so I could see how perfect they look. I bet it's really going to work out.
I feel like an old lady to say I'm against it, but I am.
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Chapter 6: What is the significance of storytelling in our lives?
Yes, you did. No. Yes, you did. No. Because then I said, yeah, you tried to steal a parking meter.
Again, I did steal. And then I said, no, I did steal a parking meter.
Yeah, you said then I did, but I put that in a different compartment because I was drunk. But now here we go.
It sounds like he was in his right mind when he stole these fireworks. It does.
I was pretty hammered. What is that? That's a nicotine spray. You've certainly seen me use these on our yearly vacation. Yeah, I've got. Yeah, what are you rocking?
Zins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right.
You're a Zin man. So stupid.
What's a Zin?
Zin is like a little pouch of chemicals.
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Chapter 7: How do the characters in Severance reflect real-life struggles?
By the way, that's a great source for trigger words is agents. Because agents, kind of like Silicon Valley bros, there's a lexicon and you got to stay abreast.
And political talking heads. There's always a new word kind of cycling through. A few years ago, it was crossing the Rubicon. So-and-so is going to cross the Rubicon into- That's so true. You're so right. This cycle, it was something else, but yeah, it's annoying.
Okay. Now I got to go all the way back because when I talked about your hair- So basically we're getting into this era where the Faustian promise could be, we're nearing a technology that at eight I could have injected myself with something and my hair would have looked like that for the rest of my life. That's where I was going with that entire story.
Like the notion of freezing your face at 16 is kind of interesting. I don't have a moral judgment on it quite yet.
My face has gotten better over time. So that would have been a big mistake.
Mine too. Is yours improved? I think so. I look at photos of me when I was 30 and I'm like, what's going on? And it might just be the way you perceive yourself. It's hard to gain perspective on that. I just saw The Substance, which was super interesting. So good. But remember when the kid in the doctor's office introduces her to the idea and that kid's perfect face? Yeah, but creepy. Very creepy.
That's what I immediately think of when you say there'll be like three different kinds of faces. Or if you have the power to just freeze your face, everyone starts kind of morphing into a face like that. To me, that looks like a YouTube tutorial face. It's just weird. And it's become this standard that people are looking at on social media.
it's hard to say what's better or worse. Is that better or worse than you and I thinking you got to look like Brad Pitt and there's no chemicals or I can't freeze my, there's nothing you can do. No, I'm not sure if it's getting better or worse. Yeah. Okay. But my sci-fi fantasy is this. So if we just think really quickly that your cells divide and they make perfect copies of themselves. Yeah.
So there's this great mystery. How then does your body evolve and look differently? If it's making perfect mirror copies of each cell, what is this aging process? How are the cells changing? And there's a lot of science that's getting close to figuring that out. So let's just say there is a future in which you take it and then that's it. You're arrested exactly where you're at from now on.
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