In short
Adam Scott discusses his career evolution and how he approaches playing Mark in Apple TV Plus’s Severance, including the show’s workplace-comedy subversion, his “innie/outie” performance method, and the production context around Severance season 2 Emmy nominations.
Guest backgrounds
Adam Scott is a screen actor with major TV roles including Party Down (Starz), Parks and Recreation (NBC), and Big Little Lies (HBO). He also starred in films like High Crimes (2002) and The Aviator (2004), and has worked with directors Judd Apatow, Adam McKay, Ben Stiller, and Martin Scorsese.
Key claims
Scott says Severance’s premise—mental separation between home and work selves—creates two versions of Mark that he must differentiate. He credits early comedy work (Knocked Up, Step Brothers) with teaching him a less precious, improvisation-friendly style. He describes Fred Savage’s advice on Party Down as learning to relax because he was the show’s center. He says Ben Stiller first pitched Severance to him at Sundance in January 2017.
Notable examples
his Scorsese audition (with DiCaprio), getting cast after roles “fell out” at the last second, and his Severance Emmy trajectory (14 nominations for season 1; 27 for season 2).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOEarly Life and Influences
2:59 to 4:00
Adam Scott shares stories from his childhood in Santa Cruz and early ambitions.
“And I just have to quickly note, not that you should have any reason to remember this, but I first crossed paths the unlovely still in Toronto, which I just found this.”
Family Background and Education
4:00 to 6:02
Scott reflects on his parents' teaching careers and his upbringing.
“I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, which is in the Bay Area in Northern California.”
First Encounters with Show Business
6:02 to 7:58
Scott recounts his early experiences with film productions in Santa Cruz.
“Yeah, I mean, sometimes I say I'm from Northern California and people assume, oh, well, then Los Angeles, you must have grown up around show business.”
Inspiration from River Phoenix
7:58 to 11:35
Scott discusses how River Phoenix influenced his desire to act.
“because there's something about the make-believe of it, But you wouldn't be able to tell if you were to just find yourself in this room and look.”
Auditioning and Training
11:35 to 14:00
Scott shares his journey through auditions and training at the Academy.
“Cause I guess they cut a lot of people after the first of the two years.”
Early Acting Experiences
14:00 to 14:51
Adam Scott reflects on his intense training and early experiences in acting school.
“movement class, voice and speech, singing, like it was all, and then acting, of course, and different kinds of acting and classical training.”
Struggles in Hollywood
14:51 to 16:50
Scott discusses the challenges of starting out in Hollywood and getting auditions.
“So instead, though, you're out at 20 in the real world.”
Background Work and Early Roles
16:50 to 18:12
Adam shares his experiences with background work and early TV roles in the 90s.
“I was like in a Danzig videos and a Tia Carrere video.”
Breakthrough Roles in Film
18:12 to 19:26
The conversation shifts to Scott's breakthrough roles in major films, including 'High Crimes' and 'The Aviator'.
“I know now you've gone on to, you know, objectively much bigger things.”
Auditioning for Scorsese
19:26 to 21:41
Scott recounts his audition experience for Martin Scorsese's 'The Aviator' and the pressure he felt.
“And just sort of, I think it was the, and it was really working.”
Show all 31 chapters
The Emotional Journey
21:41 to 23:26
He discusses the emotional highs and lows of the audition process and his relationship dynamics during that time.
“So that the morning of the audition, I auditioned, then I got a call back.”
Crisis of Confidence
23:26 to 26:00
Scott shares moments of doubt in his career and how he navigated through them.
“Can you remember a time where you're like, I can't keep doing this to myself?”
Accidental Comedy Breakthrough
26:00 to 27:50
The discussion turns to how Scott inadvertently became known for comedy starting with 'Knocked Up'.
“And, you know, and I remember after that not happening, having a real sort of moment of this might this just might not be for me.”
Joining the Cast of Knocked Up
27:50 to 28:00
Scott details how he got cast in 'Knocked Up' and the connections that led to it.
“Shauna Robertson, who was producing these movies, was around and we were all hanging out and she's so cool and hilarious.”
The Knocked Up Connection
28:00 to 28:39
Learn how Adam Scott's role in 'Knocked Up' opened doors for him in Hollywood.
“And one day she was like, why don't you just come do this thing on Knocked Up?”
Auditioning for Step Brothers
28:40 to 29:48
Discover the circumstances that led to Adam Scott landing his role in 'Step Brothers'.
“And that kind of maybe impressed Shauna enough to say, come do the movie.”
Improvisation and Comedy
29:49 to 34:21
Explore Adam's adaptation to the improvisational style of comedy on set.
“And so this part that I guess she suggested you come in and read for was, just to remind folks, Derek, the obnoxious, more grown-up, younger brother of John C.”
The Art of Relaxation
34:22 to 35:06
Understand the importance of relaxation and adaptability in acting.
“which, and, and just sort of the, the, the lack of preciousness about the whole thing, which is, let's just, just try it.”
Exploring Indie Films
35:07 to 36:50
Learn about Adam's experiences in indie films like 'Lovely Still' and 'The Vicious Kind'.
“relaxing a bit in a moment when we come to Party Down.”
Transition to Party Down
36:51 to 41:51
Hear about Adam's transition to his leading role in 'Party Down' and the lessons learned.
“And, you know, getting to do those scenes with Martin Landau, we have scenes together in like this office where we're kind of going back and forth.”
Adam Scott's Journey to Parks and Recreation
42:00 to 43:35
Learn about Adam Scott's audition process and how he joined 'Parks and Recreation'.
“and started just listening and enjoying this incredible cast.”
Transitioning to Stability in Acting
43:35 to 45:59
Explore how Adam Scott found stability in his career with a network show.
“And I guess the way you've described it, and I wonder how this affects one's ability to act in a way, is that up until that point, you were a part of things that were huge hits.”
The Impact of Working on Parks and Recreation
45:59 to 48:21
Discover the lessons learned and experiences gained from 'Parks and Recreation'.
Working with Ben Stiller on Walter Mitty
48:21 to 52:59
Hear about Adam Scott's experience working with Ben Stiller in 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'.
“to really clearly recognize how how lucky I was and also made the most of your hiatus because Because in the period that you were, Parks was 2010 to 2015 for you.”
The Concept Behind Severance
52:59 to 56:00
Listen as Adam Scott discusses the intriguing concept of his show 'Severance'.
“And for one reason or another, I felt like it wasn't given its proper due.”
Exploring the Themes of Severance
56:00 to 57:20
Discover how 'Severance' reflects contemporary societal themes while subverting workplace comedy.
“And this sounded like it had the potential, not to be the Temple of Doom, but to be an intellectually stimulating piece of really astute science fiction.”
Navigating Dual Characters in Severance
57:20 to 59:10
Learn how Adam Scott approached portraying two contrasting characters in 'Severance'.
“I know that one of the ways in for Ben was thinking of Severance in the context of The Office and Parks and Rec and these workplace comedies.”
Preparation and Internalization for Performance
59:10 to 1:03:20
Understand the methods Adam Scott used to prepare for his roles in 'Severance'.
“and deeply traumatized and the other guys effectively two and a half years old.”
The Emotional Journey of Filming
1:03:20 to 1:06:10
Explore the emotional challenges Adam faced while filming 'Severance' during the pandemic.
“And that was important as a place to start and then start taking the circumstance, the given circumstances of what these two parts of Mark are going through.”
Anticipation and Reception of Season One
1:06:10 to 1:10:00
Hear Adam's reflections on the anticipation and eventual reception of 'Severance' season one.
“It's also been by far the most challenging creative experience of my career.”
Reflections on 'Severance' and Emmy Nominations
1:10:00 to 1:15:25
Adam Scott shares insights on the success of 'Severance' and the emotional impact of Emmy nominations.
“Season one was, as we've said, very well received.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Hey friends, Olivia from OLLI. Between new routines and the ultimate group project known as parenting, you need science-backed solutions that work with your life. That's where OLLI comes in. Start your mornings off right with Maltese made to support nutrition and immune health. Choose from our lineup of gut-supporting probiotics, and we've got occasional sleep support to help the whole fam chase their big dreams. Head back to class with the number one gummy supplement brand. Stock up on OLLI.com today. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
0:38Hi, everyone, and thank you for tuning in to the 596th episode of the Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter podcast. I'm the host, Scott Feinberg, and my guest today is a gifted and magnetic screen actor who, over the course of some 30 years in the business, has enjoyed his greatest success on television, most notably on Starz's Party Down from 2009 through 2010, NBC's Parks and Recreation from 2010 through 2015, HBO's Big Little Lies from 2017 through 2019, and since 2022, on two seasons of Apple TV Plus's Severance, on which he plays Mark, a history professor grieving the death of his wife, who opts to undergo a groundbreaking procedure called severance that results in a total mental separation between one's home and work lives, resulting in innie and outie versions of oneself.
1:32Adam Scott. Back in 2002, the first season of Severance was recognized with 14 Emmy nominations, including Best Actor in a Drama Series for Scott and Best Drama Series, for which Scott, as a producer of the show, was also personally in the running. Last month, the show's second season, which the New York Times recently described as the most ambitious, batty, and all-out pleasurable show on TV, was recognized with a field-leading 27 Emmy nominations, including those same two. But this time, unlike last time, it is the odds-on favorite to prevail in both of those categories, which would make Scott an Emmy winner for the first time.
2:13Over the course of a conversation in the offices of Get In Rad Productions, the production company that Scott runs with his wife Naomi, on the Radford Studio Center lot, just a few steps from the soundstage on which he shot Parks and Rec, the 52-year-old and I discussed his slow evolution from starving actor to scene-stealer in the Judd Apatow films Knocked Up and Step Brothers to TV Stalwart, how his relationship with Ben Stiller developed from 2013's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which Stiller directed and starred in, and in which he cast Scott as his character's nemesis, through Severance, on which Stiller is an EP and the primary director, the different ways in which he approaches playing innie and outie mark on Severance, plus much more.
2:58And so without further ado, let's go to that conversation.
3:10Thank you so much for doing this. Thanks for having me, Scott. Of course. And I just have to quickly note, not that you should have any reason to remember this, but I first crossed paths the unlovely still in Toronto, which I just found this. I was less skiddy here. You look the same. My goodness. I look like I'm 12 years old. And then Friends with Kids in Toronto. So this is the first non-Toronto interaction. Very much appreciate the chance to catch up. This is 14 years after Friends with Kids. And I think we've got a lot of new territory to cover with you. I can't believe it's been that long since Friends with Kids.
3:50That's wild. Isn't it? Before we even get up to 2011, though, let's go back, if we can, to the beginning and just start with some basics. Where were you born and raised in Woodridge? folks do for a living? I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, which is in the Bay Area in Northern California. And my folks were teachers as I was growing up. My mother worked at Harbor High School, which is where I went to school. My dad worked at Cabrillo College in town as a biology professor. So it was a very happy, you know, it's a beach town, Kind of a, it's a college town, pretty crunchy. So I had this kind of idyllic, crunchy-ish upbringing in this sunny California town, Northern California.
4:46So it's, you know, there are four seasons and I just, it was lovely. It was a lovely, you know, I think, you know, I think having parents who are teachers is I found it to be a, like, I'm biased, but I feel like there isn't a better way to spend your life. There isn't a better occupation where you can actually practically hands-on work to make the world better every day. you can endeavor to do that. There aren't a lot of jobs where you can hope to make strides towards that every day. And so I certainly didn't appreciate that, you know, growing up, but as an adult looking back, I'm really proud that my folks were teachers.
5:42Totally. And I think people who are not familiar with California, it may be helpful for them to no, this is not anywhere near the center of the business, right, where you're growing up. And yet, I understand that an exception to that kind of rule may partly explain why you're here. Was there a production that came through town? There were a couple of them. Yeah, I mean, sometimes I say I'm from Northern California and people assume, oh, well, then Los Angeles, you must have grown up around show business. it may as well have been like growing up thinking about being on television or being in movies it was like being an astronaut or you know opening a 7-eleven on the moon or just some it was outrageous which is why i kept it to myself for most of my childhood i found it embarrassing that i that that was an ambition of mine you know it was flight of fancy so yeah when i was I think I must have been four or five years old because my memories of it are sketchy, but it really did leave an impression on me.
6:54They made a mini series version of East of Eden in Santa Cruz, or at least part of it. And they were shooting like a block away from our house. We lived in a neighborhood where there were lots of old Victorian houses and we lived in one of those and they weren't fancy they were you know a little ramshackle but they were built in the 19th century and they they spread dirt over all of our streets there were horses and carriages and jane seymour and richard thomas were walking around in period clothing and i saw the actors in like petticoats stepping into their trailers. And it just looked so fun to me.
7:40And just the, like, I still get that thrill when I walk onto a stage and you walk into an office or a bedroom or whatever it is, and it's not real. That still kind of gets me excited because there's something about the make-believe of it, But you wouldn't be able to tell if you were to just find yourself in this room and look. Everything about it looks real. But then you look into it. You open one of the magazines and you realize it's not real or that the electrical outlet is actually just a plate on a wall. There's nothing there in it. So it's this fine line of reality. So seeing them shooting this big make-believe, it was like Circus came to town, I guess, is sort of the feeling.
8:34But then, again, as a teenager, they shot Lost Boys in Santa Cruz. And my next-door neighbor, Joe Ferrara, owned the comic book store that they shot all those scenes. And so I got to go down there and I met Joel Schumacher. I was like 11 or 12 years old. And the Corys were there. And I got to, like, see them walk to their trailers. So a couple of times show business did come through Santa Cruz and I got as close as I could to it just to just to see what it was like. And I guess another time, just to prompt you on a few other things I've read, hopefully correct, but I guess another time it came through on the TV.
9:14A lot of us grew up watching the Oscars. You were not an exception, and there's not often a young, I guess, almost contemporary of yours who would have been on, but one year there was, right? River Phoenix? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I loved River Phoenix and I would go see everything he was in with Jimmy you know Jimmy Reardon A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon and Stand By Me was seminal not just for River Phoenix but just because I was the age of those guys when that movie came out and every single thing about that movie spoke directly to me it felt like they were making a movie about me it's kind of like Reality Bites That's like 10 years after that.
10:01I just happened to be the target age that those movies were about. But yeah, River Phoenix, he was nominated for Running on Empty. And I remember watching that and watching the clips of him in that movie. So great in that movie. That movie is terrific. But I remember just being really inspired and feeling all of this excitement watching him because I felt like I could do it. seeing him do it for whatever reason, I guess, growing up and watching him get older and then playing this, this role in this movie that was really, uh, he really dominated and was just becoming this fascinating actor. So that would have been what the year he was nominated and you saw that it would have been about 1989.
10:55And I gather that it was around the same time that you were willing to kind of have a conversation at least with your family maybe not your classmates or whatever uh but just this is something i actually want to pursue yeah i mean i think i told my mom that i thought maybe i could do that and i knew for sure that this is what i was going to do but i was throwing the information out there like testing the waters yeah and she was like yeah i know you can turn out your light and go to bed like she was just like how old would you imagine i would in 19 i was 16 i mean i was doing all of the school plays i was like playing the lead role or directing them it was all like cared about it was all i was doing but i think i was sort of to my friends and stuff sort of like this is just a silly thing that i'm doing on the site you know I was kind of playing it very cool and but it really was all I thought about so as your class come as it comes time for people to go off to college I know that you now you have to like do it or not do it and so that was about uh applying to American Academy of Traumatic Arts which is in LA not an easy place to get into not an easy place to stay in right?
12:19Cause I guess they cut a lot of people after the first of the two years. What did you do to audition to get in there and what, uh, I guess, you know, and just sort of, what were those two years? How important were those two years? You know, I think I came, I flew down here by myself to audition. I think I did. I think I stayed in a motel overnight, practiced my audition. And then my dad came down with me just to check out the school. Then I came down to actually audition. I'm pretty sure that's what happened. I auditioned with a monologue from All My Sons, which is a play I did in high school, playing like a 62-year-old bald man.
13:01There are pictures of me with that bald cap that's like sliding off my head. That was like my big triumph in high school, you know, playing this. So you got to try it out for the audition. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then I think playing Oberon from Midsummer Night's Dream. And I think those are my monologues, if I remember correctly. But yeah, those two years getting into that school and then coming down here, the school was in Pasadena. So it was removed from all of this. And the school didn't allow you to work anyway. So it's not like I wasn't even thinking about agents or anything. thing I was just focusing on school I'm really glad I did I just laser focused on that place and doing as well as I could for the first time I got started getting straight A's you know because I was interested in everything and I just loved it I loved you know we would have dance class movement class, voice and speech, singing, like it was all, and then acting, of course, and different kinds of acting and classical training.
14:14And it was all, it was really, really, particularly the second year was even more intense, but I loved it. And I loved the people made some incredible friends there. And it was, it was great. If anything, I wish I, you know, attended a four-year program. The two years was perfect for me because I wanted to get started. I wanted to get to Hollywood. But there's no reason to. I could have used another two years of, if nothing else, the social incubation of school. I could have used that. So instead, though, you're out at 20 in the real world. can you explain what sort of awaited you now so i guess at that point you do come to la you're trying to i'm sure just get auditions i heard a little bit about a questionable manager but uh just what were those next few years like for you trying to get some traction it was hard I mean, you know, it's hard for anyone to come to try and start a show business.
15:24It's, you know, there's a couple of rules or the opposite of rules about show business that still apply today, which is no one is entitled to anything. There's no seniority line. you there's just it's just a roll of the dice at all times whether you've been doing this for 30 years like i have now or two weeks like i had in 1993 when i moved to hollywood and just start i just started doing background work trying to find trying the the currency was auditions that's what you were trying to get is just in a room where you could audition for something and try and get like, you know, a paying, a professional acting job where you're actually speaking.
16:15And in the meantime, I just wanted to be on sets. And the fact that you could just sign up and go and be on a movie set is crazy to me. I mean, I was mostly doing, I was in like music videos and stuff, But I had a friend who was like in the background of on Pulp Fiction. Wow. Yeah. And she was telling us about the scene. It was in the diner when John Travolta and Uma Thurman are in the diner. And she was kind of telling us about this scene. And just the fact that you could just sign up and be it. It just kind of blew it at the time. Like you can just be there. So I started doing that. I was like in a Danzig videos and a Tia Carrere video.
16:55and then yes I had a manager who you know I had some friends who were that graduated with me that kind of turned their nose up at managers who were like charging a monthly fee because I guess it's frowned upon you're not supposed to do that right they're supposed to take a percentage yeah right yeah and she was like I'm gonna charge a monthly fee and then if you start working I won't and I'll take the percentage and which some people thought was unethical or whatever it was but I was like what am I gonna do not do that and just not like she's off so she got me auditions and so I was paying her 30 bucks a month or whatever it was I was fine with it yeah and yeah I got a pretty soon after she she took me on I got a guest spot on a on a pilot for MTV And then just in these next few years, those early, well, I guess mid-90s, just to throw out a few of many possible examples.
17:59I know the recurring role as a bully on Boy Meets World we've heard about a bit. An episode as a guy who gets hit by a car at ER. Seven episodes of Party of Five. That's throughout the 90s. And then I guess it seems like as the early 2000s arrived, a couple of things that at the time must have seemed life changing. I know now you've gone on to, you know, objectively much bigger things. But at the moment that you got, let's say, the fourth lead in the Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd studio film High Crimes in 2002, and then even more so two years later as Howard Hughes press agent in The Aviator for Martin Scorsese.
18:43This is a guy you've said that just a few years earlier people talk about starving actors. You literally went without food for a few days at various times, right? Sure. Absolutely. So to get from that to just having a speaking role, let alone the fourth lead in a studio film, and then a Martin Scorsese film, take me into what that felt like. It was so exciting. I mean, so exciting. I guess, you know, the High Crimes, which is the Morgan Freeman, the Carl Franklin movie, That was 2000. So at that point I had been at it for like seven years and it had been hard, you know, and I had been doing this play down at South Coast Rep, this Richard Greenberg play who just passed away.
19:34He was just a brilliant guy. And I loved it. It was this beautiful play. It was so fun. And just sort of, I think it was the, and it was really working. It was like clicking. And I was feeling like I felt like I would, this was a sophisticated, beautifully written play. Richard wrote literature in a way like he he really it was just another level of playwriting. And I loved reading his plays. I loved seeing his plays. But but then performing in one of them, I just had some sort of wind in my sails from this doing this play every day that it was because you go down there it's eight shows a week like the schedule that you would have yeah so i was driving down there doing this play and i was just kind of creatively really feeling fulfilled and electric in a way for the first time like i was meeting some sort of um strata that i hadn't been able to reach before.
20:49I felt like I was figuring something out about myself creatively. And in the midst of that, someone fell out of a role in High Crimes. And this has happened to me twice with Step Brothers as well. Someone fell out of the role, so they had to cast this role. And Mally Finn, the casting director, brought me in. And I got this role that, like you said, it was like the fourth lead in this giant movie. And I feel like that I was able to get in there and do that and have the confidence to get in there and do that because I was doing this, this play and I was feeling kind of inspired and confident for once.
21:31So yeah. So Carl Franklin gave me this huge break, huge break. And there I was on set with Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Jim Carthiesel, amanda pete it was super fun it was great and that confidence maybe even boosted by that carried over and i know you said with the aviator at one point you may never get another i don't know how how you wound up in the room to begin with but once you were in the room like you may never get another shot with scorsese just leave it all out there yeah man i grew a mustache for the audition i don't remember where I got the suit I may have borrowed it from a friend or something but this like period suit it was everything to me to try because I had I had pictures of De Niro and Scorsese in my locker in high school like I was into these guys you know yeah of course I mean the you know you at that age you discover your people and and they were certainly uh mine and um Um, so, oh yeah.
22:34So that the morning of the audition, I auditioned, then I got a call back. You're going to go audition with Scorsese and DiCaprio. And I was so freaked out. And I remember my wife, girlfriend at the time wrote me a note before she went to work that morning and stuck it on the mirror which said have a great audition you deserve this and that was I had never considered that before that maybe this was something that I could do well therefore I deserve it just as much as I just never crossed my mind I just thought I'm gonna go in there and try but I'm probably gonna fuck it up and it's probably not gonna happen because I'm too nervous so that was a huge moment it was such a simple moment there's such a sort of unvarnished act of love for her to just throw that out there and so yeah it was a really fun audition DiCaprio and I were like reading these scenes and and Martin Scorsese had the video camera and took it off the tripod and was like getting down on the ground and getting these angles it was just the three of us in this room for like an hour just trying all this different stuff it was so fun after that it was like two weeks of silence and i remember i gave up i was like it's not gonna happen i shaved my mustache off which i had been keeping on as a sign of faith i shaved it off and naomi saw that i had shaved it and she just started crying she's like oh no you know you've given up it's not as melodramatic as it sounds but but she had been crossing her fingers i think for me and then we were about to get on a plane and right before we got on the plane i got the call that i that i in fact got the the role it was a small role and in this movie but it was the biggest deal that i was gonna get to go do this thing now when i last interviewed you back in 2011, I was looking at the transcript and you said, quote, there was a point like around 2005 or something where I kind of slowed down, close quote, basically suggesting that you might have been giving up a little bit or losing faith.
25:022005 would have been after the aviator. Does that still sound right to you? Like, was there a moment? Can you remember a time where you're like, I can't keep doing this to myself? There were a couple of points, certainly. I I think particular nadir was around 2000, right before that Richard Greenberg play, I had had like a chunk of time where nothing was happening. And I had tested for six feet under. And didn't get it. Michael C. Hall got it. And thank God he did because he was incredible. And I was not ready to, you know, play that role properly. And he's incredible. And that show is so, so good.
25:51And I got to go do a guest spot on it later. But that was a crushing blow, right? Because it was clearly terrific. And, you know, and I remember after that not happening, having a real sort of moment of this might this just might not be for me. I don't think this is ever going to coalesce. This is just not going to happen. What would you have done? I don't know, because I don't have any other basic skills. I really don't. I can watch TV really well. I can tell you what's wrong with a movie or a TV show, but not much else. Well, so thankfully, you obviously stuck with it then. And then whatever, if something did happen around 2005, it's important that you weathered that.
26:50because I think it would have been either that summer or the next when, you know, to just look at these kinds of crazy, happy accidents that can happen. I mean, how did you kind of really accidentally end up in Knocked Up, which was the beginning of a thread of taking this guy who I think had not really had any particular predisposition for comedy, and suddenly you became a comedy guy. So how do you start with, let's start with Knocked Up. This is Judd Apatow directing, and you end up as the male nurse to Katherine Heigl's character in that. That's right. Samuel the nurse. Well, my friend Paul Rudd was, he had done 40-Year-Old Virgin and Anchorman, and he was like hanging out with these guys making these great comedies.
27:41And I would go hang out once in a while with all these guys, and they're terrific. And Shauna Robertson, guys meaning group of people, not male, human. Shauna Robertson, who was producing these movies, was around and we were all hanging out and she's so cool and hilarious. Just so generous. And one day she was like, why don't you just come do this thing on Knocked Up? Come play the nurse. And just called me and asked me to come out and play the nurse one day. and uh and for me it was like oh yeah that'd be fun Paul's gonna be there we can hang out and not really thinking a whole lot of it other than it would be a blast and it was now was there something though even before that before you're invited to come be a part of it that I guess Paul couldn't be at the table read or something oh that's oh you're right I forgot about that Paul couldn't do the table read for Knocked Up so I did that I played I read his role And that kind of maybe impressed Shauna enough to say, come do the movie.
28:45Well, that was what Shauna could could say to Judd. Like, you know, the nurse, the guy that read Paul's role, that's what it was. You're right. She was like, Adam read Paul's role and didn't completely screw away. Come play. Yeah, that's probably what what clinched it for me to play the nurse. So you do Knocked Up. It's not a big part, but you're now in the Apatow universe, which connects to, I guess, the next summer or two summers, whatever it might be. I think Knocked Up had come out by the time I auditioned for Step Brothers, which it may not have even come out yet. Maybe it did. But I remember I auditioned for Step Brothers.
29:35Again, someone had to pull out of this role at the last second. They had to cast it quickly. And I happened to just walk in and have a good audition for one reason or another and then got the role. but you know me uh being in knocked up really helped with judd you know certainly i think you've said that in that one just because casting directors sometimes make the i know in this case judd would have known you from knocked up but i think you've said allison jones yeah to that for you on that 100 allison got i mean you know up to that point probably 40 of all work i had had was because of Alice and Jones.
30:14Wow. And so this part that I guess she suggested you come in and read for was, just to remind folks, Derek, the obnoxious, more grown-up, younger brother of John C. Reilly's infantile, Brennan, who is a guy with a wife and kids, Derek is, who shows off about his$500 ,000 salary and celebs that he associates with and talks about shits and gigs, which looks down on his older brother and stepbrother, played by Will Ferrell. And this is Adam McKay. Now, what I'm wondering here is, apart from being in a funny movie like Knocked Up, I mean, I don't think you'd really done comedy before. I don't think you'd done improv of this sort before.
31:02And here you are thrown into the deep end with McKay, Ferrell, who had at that point already done Anchorman and Talladega Nights, plus John C. Reilly. how quickly did you acclimate to the way they worked and can you describe the way they were yeah and not particularly quickly because i was i was like wow this is great i got this role okay this is gonna be fun and yes it it took me i remember katherine on and i met and we've become great friends ever since then but we met on that set just going like can you fucking believe we got this gig this is amazing we both had these great roles and catherine out of the gig incredible but she was riley's character's wife she was my wife that's what i'm saying head over heels in love with john c riley's character for no reason right yeah the way those guys work which at and i had been around it a bit on on knocked up and just kind of knew how these guys work but then being in the in the midst of it with them with a real role you know you you start out doing a a scripted take or two and then the rest of the day you're just screwing around coming up with stuff they're feeding you jokes while the camera's rolling oh yeah absolutely i remember we shot a million feet of film by the time we were like halfway through or something Like, it's just incredible.
32:32So fun, but also pretty intimidating. I've said it many times, but I think it's apt that it's like learning how to do the high jump at the Olympics with the stadium full of people and the cameras on you and everything. it was difficult at first. I remember at home the night before writing jokes down on a piece of paper and putting it in my pocket and then just like pulling it out during scenes and looking like I didn't know what I was doing. Right. But then once I, you know, by by the, you know, three quarters of the way through, I remember doing the scene at a dinner table on John C. Riley and I started kind of going back and forth and I sort of started.
33:17I just remember feeling Like I was just taking my hands off of the handlebar. I was good. The like, what's the movie where the guy's riding a motorcycle and he finally just learns to lift his hands off the, uh, off the handlebars and just go and kind of let go a little bit and then kind of achieve some sort of, um, that's sort of how it felt. And I started kind of seeing the matrix a little bit with John C. Riley. And then we finished the take. And I remember I was kind of looking at each other and him, being like, yeah, man. Okay. That was fun. It's interesting though, because it probably isn't something that can be taught right now.
33:57You can get better, but you either have some ability for that or not. And you didn't even know yourself that you had that ability. That's right. And I certainly had moments making that movie where I was sure I did not have that. I mean, yes, it can be tight. You can go to UCB and become a great improviser. I just hadn't done that and didn't even really know about that. I don't, you know, I just wasn't in that. So by the time that movie ended, I was addicted to not just that part of it, but just the general kind of way of working, which, and, and just sort of the, the, the lack of preciousness about the whole thing, which is, let's just, just try it.
34:39Let's just try a bunch of shit. And if it's good, we'll put it in the movie if it's not we won't but don't worry about it not being good let's just like have fun i remember either uh mckay or will ferrell one day just saying like yeah we're not putting up aluminum sighting we're making a comedy let's just have fun you know like it's about digging in and just screwing around finding the great little bits i'm gonna connect back to this idea of relaxing a bit in a moment when we come to Party Down. But in between, I don't know the exact chronology. These things might have been shot just before or just after Step Brothers, but they came out, I believe, just after.
35:26Our two little indie movies that your true fans ought to make sure they've seen, if they're going to go through the filmography. One of them I saw at TIFF was Lovely Still, which is you and two of the masters, Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau, as well as Elizabeth Banks. There's twists in there that I don't want to give away, but that was one of the first times where I kind of perked up and was like, A, it was just a very nice movie overall, but you were excellent. In the same year as Step Brothers, couldn't be a more different thing. And then the next year, The Vicious Kind, which ended up with a Spirit Award nomination, Best Actor, Best Male Lead, whatever they call it at that award show.
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36:14But as an angry construction worker who over the course of Thanksgiving weekend kind of gets inappropriate, develops an interest in his brother's girlfriend. And I just think that even if those two movies may not have reached a wide audience like Step Brothers or something did, I would imagine that in the industry, people started to realize, like, oh, this guy can do multiple kinds of things very well. Was that your sense or did it take a while before, you know, any kind of feedback like that came? Yeah. Well, thanks for saying that, first of all. Yeah. And, you know, getting to do those scenes with Martin Landau, we have scenes together in like this office where we're kind of going back and forth.
37:00And I got to really work with him. And he was like, hey, would you mind giving me a little... Like actor stuff with Landau was really seminal. I think he was also the head of the actor's studio, right? Yeah, he sure was. He was a terrific guy. And what an actor. And Helen Burstyn, good Lord. So great. Yes, Vicious Kind in particular was really important. It was right, I shot it right before Step Brothers. And it was Lee Krieger wrote and directed it. And he's just so talented and such a cool guy. It was a huge, really important role and movie for me because I connected to it, even though I was nothing like the character.
37:57I just read it and kind of knew what to do. And Lee and I really connected. And I kind of had some ideas on what to do with it that he was like, I did not think of that, but that feels right. Not changing what he wrote, but just coming at it. we just really had a great creative relationship and it was super fun and britney snow was in that alex frost and jk simmons was our dad he was so so fun and and then yeah that you know out of nowhere getting a spirit award nomination was very strange and not i didn't even know anyone had seen it so that was really helpful it was a really big deal yeah yeah and uh yeah i was in the midst of shooting party down when that it didn't really get much of a release but yeah i think it it helped out certainly so party down another thing that you did where you were great but maybe never until years later even found the kind of audience that deserved but this to just set up, I think, your first leading role in anything, screen-wise, playing this guy, Henry Pollard, former actor who's had a taste of success via a beer commercial, I believe, but then nothing.
39:23And so now at this point he's working for an LA catering company. This was going to be on Starz. I think it was a situation where you were stepping in for Rudd. Is that right? Yeah. I imagine a big deal or maybe a bitch of a sense like better make the most of this for leading a TV show. And you have talked about. Even after your experience, I think, again, chronologically, this would have been shot after Step Brothers. It came out after Step Brothers. Weirdly, we shot the original pilot before Step Brothers in Rob's backyard. And then once the show got picked up by stars, it was like a year and a half, two years later.
40:07And by then, yes, it was after Step Brothers. I only mentioned or raised that because you've said that I think there was an episode or a moment where Fred Savage from The Wonder Years, who became a director, was directing you. And, you know, I guess there was a conversation about relaxing the importance of that. And in a way, what you were referring to with the stepbrother, you know, just give it a try. What do you have to lose? but I guess what you have to lose in this case that you didn't have to lose in Step Brothers is you're a lead and you want to be a lead again. Yeah. And it was something that it was kind of my first time doing that.
40:47And that was, it was such an important piece of direction and piece of advice from Fred, which was cause I, you know, up to that point had had these either small roles or supporting roles where you're trying to get stuff, everything into these moments and make these moments count. And so I was playing this scene with Lizzie Kaplan, like in the first episode where we first meet. And I was just leaning in pretty hard, like throwing. I don't know what I was doing. But Fred, after a couple of takes was like, hey, man, you know, you're like the guy at the center of this show. but we're going to have a lot of time with you.
41:28So you can just relax and just enjoy talking to Lizzie. That's all you have to do. You know, you can just, we're going to have to hang out with you a lot. And I was like, oh yeah. I mean, it was just such, such sage advice coming from someone who knew exactly what he was talking about, obviously. And so, so yeah, I really took it to heart and it kind of clicked in after that. And I kind of relaxed and sat back and, and started just listening and enjoying this incredible cast. And it just was the, the best time. So the only reason that your tenure on that show ended after two seasons was because even though the show wasn't reaching a ton of people, One of the people I guess it reached was Mike Schur, who, along with Greg Daniels, who had been behind the office, which was saying, they're now getting together to do a show, Parks and Recreation.
42:37At the time, they became aware of you and maybe reached out for the first time. you actually joined the show at the end of the second season but is it correct that you had initially been considered for some other part i don't know which at the very outset of the show was that of parks yeah yeah well i had auditioned for parks and rec when yeah when it was like when they were first putting it together and i don't think they had really come up with the characters yet it was still like auditioning people and seeing who fit like nick offerman and I were in the waiting room together I think we're auditioning for the same role I don't think they were using sides from the I think they were using sides from the office or something just getting a feel for actors and I wanted to do I remember I was shooting vicious kind and I read they were doing an office spinoff and I was like that I want to be a part of that and um so but then I was nervous and it just didn't quite uh work and i and i and i didn't get that so then i went and did party down and i'm i'm so glad it ended up working out that way because i i got the experience of doing party down which was just uh one of the most important and fun experiences uh i could have and then when that you know when stars was looking like they weren't gonna pick that up Mike called about parks and so you join I think with two episodes left in the second season just to remind anyone who needs a reminder I can't or if they have to catch up with the show still Ben Wyatt state auditor comes to Pawnee Indiana to review its books initially becomes the boyfriend and then the husband and then the campaign manager of Leslie Knope fellow obsessive of government service and ultimately an elected official in the case of Ben, but you're there for, you were part of six of the seven seasons.
44:39And I guess the way you've described it, and I wonder how this affects one's ability to act in a way, is that up until that point, you were a part of things that were huge hits. You were also a lead of things that were not huge. This is the first time you're part of something for a broadcast network with NBC, right? That I guess, presumably for a network show, everybody gets paid decently. You have some stability for, I think you've said it felt like for the first time, right? Oh yeah. I remember when I, when the, it was official and I was going to join the show. I think the next day I went and got LASIK and got, and bought myself a leather jacket, which is so stupid because i don't think i ever wore the jacket treat yourself yeah
45:34the lasik was great though it was you know yeah i needed it i wanted it and i had never so it really was uh and we had two we had a two-year-old and a brand new baby and it was it was really uh a really wonderful feeling having this stability and being on a show that was going to, you know, be on every week on a network. Yeah, it was a brand new thing. And, you know, we talked earlier about for the theater actor, the eight shows a week can change you when you're a screen actor and you have to do, I don't remember what it would have been in those years was it like 20 22 what changes do you feel that you you just get more comfortable with the camera or memorize things easier what's what's the effect that those six seasons opposite such a group of other talented people you know what what did you come away with come away from that uh how did you come away from that different than you come into it well i i felt like not just the uh because the material was so so good like every week getting these these scripts that are filled with jokes expertly uh written jokes great jokes and great characters mike has this unofficial rule that he's he's that i heard him say once which has always made so much sense to me is on a really good TV show, you should be able to take all the character names off of any given page and be able to name exactly which piece of dialogue belongs to each character, like cheers that you can see how that would.
47:24And so I think Parks was one of those shows where these characters were all so specifically, beautifully and hilariously drawn that getting those scripts every week was was so much fun and shooting it was so much fun but also just the atmosphere that Amy and Mike and Greg Foster is one that makes you better it makes you better at what you do and uh yeah my time on Parks with I mean I was just so lucky um it was a blast and I really am proud to say I don't think I ever once took it for granted I knew and I guess that's part of finally getting a chance like that 15 years in something like that is that I I was able to really clearly recognize how how lucky I was and also made the most of your hiatus because Because in the period that you were, Parks was 2010 to 2015 for you.
48:36And in that period as well in 2011 was your first film leading role, Friends with Kids, for Jennifer Westfield, who was with Jon Hamm, who was part of the circle with Paul Rudd, right? Yeah. In the same group. And then maybe the most significant thing in your whole career in hindsight, maybe. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you end up working with Ben Stiller. Yeah. on The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which comes out in 2013, playing kind of the adversary of his character, who's a guy working at Life magazine, Daydreamer, and you're the guy that's coming in and closing down the place, at least the print version.
49:17But this is Ben directing it and starring in it. Do you know what first put you on Ben's radar? I think it was Step Brothers. Okay. I believe it was Step Brothers because the first time I met Ben was at a premiere. It may have been like maybe it was the Knocked Up premiere. I'm not sure what it was, but he and Christine walked up to me and he wanted to talk to me about Step Brothers. And I was just like, Jesus, Ben Stiller's talking to me. It was one of those moments. And then I don't know if I really saw him again. But then they called about Walter Mitty. And I'm like, I mean, yeah, I just jumped at the chance.
50:02It's a beautiful script, Steve Conrad. And I loved Ben's movies. He's an incredible filmmaker. So, yeah, I was like absolutely and so excited. And, yeah, it was a really great experience. I will remind people that I think you must have spent weeks in God knows what kind of a contraption because there was a lot of CGI related fight scenes out on the streets of New York, I believe. We were on the streets of New York. We were really doing them? Oh, yeah. I can show you in my office. I have a photo of Ben and I on the back of a truck, each holding one of the arms of a Stretch Armstrong. and we were being pulled around up on Fifth Avenue for, you know, we would do it on weekends for weeks just doing this sequence where we're both pulling on the Stretch Armstrong and have our legs up on each other just kind of forcing the Stretch Armstrong in two different directions.
51:08Yeah, that whole sequence was incredible to shoot. And, yeah, there was a little bit that we shot in, like, green screen and stuff too. When you walked away from that experience with the making of the movie and then also factoring in, it was a pretty big budget movie that I don't think financially would be considered. It wasn't a triumph in the sense that having come away from the experience of making it and then how it was received, would you have guessed that you would work with Ben again? I would hope that I would get to work with Ben again. I loved working with him. I found him to be incredibly collaborative, exacting in the way that you want a director to be.
51:58and watching him direct and star in the movie was really clarifying to me. I knew watching him that that's exactly what I wanted to do. And then immediately went and did my own like mini, mini version of it doing these adult swim specials we shot where I was directing with my friend Lance Bangs and acting in it. But watching Ben do it with such precision and discipline and focus while staying, you know, seemingly his heart rate never getting up above whatever a good heart rate is. That was great. But then also another huge thing with Walter Mitty for me was when it came out and seeing the reception and feeling that he was being treated unfairly.
52:57I felt like he had made this extraordinary movie. And for one reason or another, I felt like it wasn't given its proper due. And I couldn't figure out why. And it's part of the reason with Severance and Escape at Dannemora, it's so gratifying to me to watch him getting his due as a filmmaker because I think he's one of our best. Totally. And in the interim between Walter Mitty and Severance, Walter Mitty's 2013, Severance's first season goes out in 2022. I know you guys were working on it sooner than that. But, you know, you did a handful of episodes over several years on The Good Place. You did two installments of Big Little Lies.
53:44You were busy. I wonder, though, where in that period did you first catch wind that Ben didn't want to do something again and something in a big way? I think it was before it was ever a sure thing that it was even going to happen, right? For sure. Yeah. I remember it was January of 2017 because I was at Sundance and Ben called me and I went out to stand in the snow to take the call because of reception. And we were watching the travel ban on TV. So it was loud. So that's just a place in time. And he just kind of gave me the quick elevator pitch of what the show is. like the big idea of being at work and not knowing who you are on the outside world and vice versa and didn't have much else to tell me at that point just like I'm thinking of you for this role just keep it in mind like what are you doing I was about to dive into this Fox show we were doing Ghosted which ended up not totally working as well as we wanted it to but it was fun and everything but I was about to start that so but he's like it's okay this is not going to happen anytime soon we're just starting to so I didn't really see a script for another like year and a half or something I think as far as I can remember but that was the first I heard of it but in the intervening time I could not shake this idea it just sounded like the coolest thing and it sounded like exactly the sort of thing I like to watch but also exactly the sort of thing I've always wanted to do always in a sense of like maybe a bit I don't know I don't want to put words in your mind tell me if I'm wrong but like a little Twilight Zone-ish like otherworldly sort of is that fair to say 100 % I love Twilight Zone I love Lost I love Lost I love science fiction where you're really going down, like going on somewhat of an intellectual adventure, but also an adventure because, you know, Temple of Doom is my favorite movie.
55:57So I like big, fun stuff. And this sounded like it had the potential, not to be the Temple of Doom, but to be an intellectually stimulating piece of really astute science fiction. And real science fiction is a reflection of what's happening in the particular day and age that whatever it is is coming out into the world. So for me, it felt resonant in that way, but it also felt like it had this potential to be a grand adventure. I don't know if I'm sure the first and foremost motivation of Ben reaching out to you is that you guys had had this nice bond on Walter Mitty, right? And you respect you and senior work.
56:53I wonder if you ever talked, though, also about, in a weird way, the fact that you had sort of been established in a lot of people's minds for being a regular guy on a workplace comedy. And now you're going to potentially, this is like a show that would subvert the workplace comedy genre. Do you think that was on anyone's mind? I think that was definitely a part of it. I know that one of the ways in for Ben was thinking of Severance in the context of The Office and Parks and Rec and these workplace comedies. And thinking of that as a potential way in for the audience, like this is this has sort of the comfortable feeling of a workplace comedy.
57:45The only difference being that these people don't know who they are or what they're doing there. And so, yes, I think that was certainly part of it. But another part of it for me was that after Parks, I was looking to try and do something, for lack of a better word, a little more dramatic or serious or whatever, just kind of because it was becoming difficult for me to be considered for anything but comedy, you know. And so that's why I immediately went after Big Little Lies and really, you know, auditioned a bunch of times for it, really wanted it. Not just for that reason, it was also to work with those incredible people and Jean-Marc Vallée.
58:31And it was a terrific script. When you're, you know, getting ready, basically seeing the material that you're going to have to do for Sutterance, but before you actually have to show up on a set and do it. I wonder if you were, how you approach this idea that it's essentially, it is two characters, right? In A Mark, out A Mark. And assuming that the show, like most, the vast majority of things is going to be shot out of sequence. Did that require charting things out somehow to keep track of just physically all the different things that you're going to have to do to differentiate guys who you've said, you know, one of, one of these guys is 40 something, and deeply traumatized and the other guys effectively two and a half years old.
59:18Yeah. So like, but also changing quite a bit over the course of even just the first season, let alone site. Had you ever had anything that would have prepared you to do that? And what, and how did you just navigate this balancing act? Yeah. It, it was a big job and it was overwhelming at first, certainly kind of starting the show in 2020 when we started it and just knowing how massive the season was and chipping away at the season scene by scene and we shot the entire season at once so you know in week two we're shooting something from episode eight and in month nine we're still shooting something from episode one so it was sort of this big thing and so you're right we really had to navigate out and decide make some decisions about where each of them were going and they were they were each on their own journey there and they had their own arc that in some ways paralleled each other and then in other ways were kind of adrift from each other particularly in the second season they really go their opposite ways and end up on a collision course but season one they're both sort of little by little kind of finding themselves rising up out of the fog a bit and taking a harder look at at their their lives i think from the start it was important for to me and to ben and to dan that that they feel like the same guy that they they're just like different sections or halves of the same guy but they did need to be different and most of the difference was was internal um but they it did need to be quite a bit different in order for it to function and is that something where you have your did you have the scripts for all all nine at the outset and you do you have a trick or anything where it's like I'm gonna I gotta remember to be this way at this time or like is there any or is it just kind of instinctual well like I said it all kind of started kind of internal like thinking about the differences internally and like you said the life experience between a two and a half year old and a 40 some odd year old or however old Mark S was in season one and thinking about, thinking about how that manifests physically.
1:01:58And, and so kind of made some decisions physically about posture, about the voice, but it was important that there, there be real reasons for that instead of just let's let's make them different and I just started with with like as a starting point kind of started with myself and thinking about like the things that I don't like about myself and trying to maybe push those over to the outie and the things I actually don't mind about myself and kind of think our attributes. And let's push those over to any mark. And also thinking about, I remember my mom telling me when I was a kid, she's like, you know, when I hear you speak with certain people, you have a different voice.
1:02:54And like, what do you mean? Like, I got really defensive. She's like, your voice is higher when you talk to A, B or C. Are you aware of that? and I was like no and she was 100 % right like when I want certain things or want certain people to think a certain thing of me I go up into this other register because I want legitimacy I want you know whatever it is you're after so I started dividing up myself a bit yeah into these two categories. And that was important as a place to start and then start taking the circumstance, the given circumstances of what these two parts of Mark are going through.
1:03:39Interesting. And then I wonder also, how early on did you want and or get the answers to the questions that viewers certainly have about, you know, what are these guys doing on their computers what are like those kinds of things is it helpful to a performance or a harm or a hindrance to a performance to know things that your character doesn't know i like knowing everything because i just find it i like as much information as possible and dan erickson is an open book and a fun person to talk to so yeah well i always go to dan with questions about this thing or that and And he's, chances are he has thought of it and has a whole kind of idea behind it.
1:04:29It's all super interesting and really fun to talk about. You've, over the, so I guess you said you guys started on season one early in the pandemic, right? Yeah, in like October of 2020. And that was just. Or no, I'm sorry. We started shooting the day after the election in 2020. Okay. Seven or eight months earlier, almost to the day is when you, as you've talked about, you'd lost your mom. That was about a week before the whole freaking world shut down due to COVID. You then, as you say, go off in November to start, November 2020, to start shooting, I think, eight months, season one. just yourself as the emotional journey that you've been on during the show.
1:05:22Also not knowing. I mean, when you're spending eight months on something that's pretty out there, I imagine there might have been moments where you're like, is anyone even going to watch this? Are they going to understand this? So just can you take me inside your head, season one versus season two? I mean, when there were these three years between seeing season one and season two, But for you guys in between working on, I imagine going to season two, there are different considerations where the first season had been so well received. Now, perhaps pressure to follow it. Just, I guess, on a human level, what has this whole adventure of the two seasons been like for you?
1:06:04I mean, it's been the greatest creative experience of my career. It's also been by far the most challenging creative experience of my career. It's hard. I mean, you know, acting and working on a TV show is a very lucky occupation to have. And, you know, I'm not mixing cement. But it's hard. And it's always there's no scene on Severance that is simple. The scene's going to be look at if you're shooting something the next day and you're like, oh, it's just me walking into a room and talk to Brit. and then we walk out together. And then you're there shooting it and you realize there's like nine things going on that you have to be thinking.
1:07:01It's all, so it always requires a certain amount of focus and a certain amount of making sure you are dialed in. And yet, like you said, the shoot goes on for a while. We think season two was 185 shooting days or something like that. So it's a chunk of time. is a chunk of time that's taxing emotionally and physically and all of that stuff. But that's what I wanted. That's what I want in my work. It's what I've always been hoping for is something that I have to dedicate all of myself to. And I knew when I started the job that I was going to have to apply everything that I've learned over 30 years and hopefully come up with some new things that I've learned and apply those too.
1:07:56It's everything that I have always wanted to do and still is. It's still challenging and still this steep mountain to climb every day. We're you know gonna start season three soon and it's we're right back down at the bottom of the mountain and we have to start traversing our way back up and you know season one and season two were both really challenging but they and but completely unique from one another totally different ways yeah do you remember the moment when you knew that or was there in your mind making season one and then I guess season two also, but like, um, we better, this is the moment if we, we've either got them or we've lost them.
1:08:41Yes. I mean, I, I kind of feel like season one, when it was time for season one to come out, I think all the way through making it and everything, we were all having such a good time. And this is so weird, like, this is a weird show, you know, and that's all really fun but then when it comes time to actually push it out into the world like you kind of said earlier like you didn't know if people were going to watch this we really didn't I went through a period of being convinced that people were just going to make fun of me and make fun of us because we're taking this big swing and people are going to think it's ridiculous and then the billboards went up and my face was huge and you think that's like what you've been dreaming of this whole time and then it happens and I just got hit with this anxiety and this like feeling that it was all gonna come crashing down and so when it came out and people enjoyed it and it and it and it did what it did it was just pure relief I think for all of us because we loved it but you never know how something's gonna i think walter middy was part of that anxiety i was like i thought this thing was awesome you know it was so cool and then but yeah i remember shooting season one where i we're at the party at the end and i say the wrong thing to cobell i say the wrong thing to patricia i call her the wrong name yes and i walked by her and we were shooting this like halfway through the season but i remember saying to ben and patricia like you guys if we've got them at this point episode nine if we've got them and at that point i was like who knows like there there are so many things that have to go right for them to give a shit about this little moment like who knows but if we've got them this is gonna be so fun when I call you Cobel holy shit and lo and behold it was and people just loved that moment it kind of rang the exact bell we were hoping it would and that's it's little moments like that and then the end the screaming she's alive and that resonating and also the end of season two and all that stuff is when it clicks and works it's just the best It's so fun.
1:11:16Season one was, as we've said, very well received. I mean, great reviews, great penetration of the culture at a time when there's hundreds of channels and hundreds of shows. Not very many things are discussed by everyone. And this was pretty as close to that as it gets. And 14 Emmy nominations was a pretty big deal. Season two, almost doubled 27 Emmy nominations. the most of any show on television, including Best Drama Series and Best Actor in a Drama Series, and many others, obviously, across the board. I know that it's probably not advisable to put too much of your emotions in what other people think about what you're doing.
1:12:05But that being said, when it's that positive, I just wonder how you process that, that it's you, it's the show, it's so many things that, and just in this moment at least, that's pretty positive feedback. I mean, yeah, it certainly is. And it's hard to wrap your head around. I remember the morning when that happened, and it was like 27? Yeah. 27? Holy shit. I'm just so proud and so proud of all the people that I get to work with. In a perfect world, everyone would have been, you know. But yeah, I mean, I'm just so proud and so grateful for, I mean, there's nothing more flattering than getting that call that you got nominated for an award.
1:13:08I mean, it's really I wasn't sure that kind of thing would ever happen to me. And so, yeah, it's it's just something that like I said about being on Parks and Rec, I know for a fact that I'm not taking any of this for granted, being on a show that works and that people are enjoying while we're still making it, period. But then also as an added bonus, it's while we're doing it, which is really, really really fun and just a unique feeling it's really kind of unlike anything else we got to watch the finale with an audience at one point at the Dolby theater that was one of the great experiences of my life getting to hear the crowd and how connected they are with these characters Trammell and Britt and Zach and they just love all the characters so much.
1:14:11That is really, really, really gratifying and really unlike any other feeling or experience I've had. It's terrific. You're terrific. I appreciate you doing this, and I hope it's not another 14 years before. Me too. Do it again. You have to do it sooner than that. Definitely. Well, thank you again. Thanks, Scott. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Of course.
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The lovable screen actor reflects on his slow evolution from starving artist to 'Knocked Up' and 'Step Brothers' scene-stealer to TV stalwart, what he learned on 'Party Down' and 'Parks and Recreation,' and how Ben Stiller's 2013 film 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' started him on the path to playing Mark — 'Innie' and 'Outie' — on the most Emmy-nominated TV show of the 2024-2025 season.
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