Adam Scott: Ben Wyatt & Chris Traeger Reunite!

0:00Rob Lowe has the best stories in Hollywood ever. Proceed.

0:20Hey, everybody. Welcome to Literally. Oh, my gosh. One of my favorite people in the world is here today. Adam Scott, not the golfer, the real Adam Scott. No offense to the golfer, Adam Scott. Adam Scott Severance, one of the greatest shows ever. He's here to talk about the new season, who knows? We might even talk a little Parks and Recreation. Might be a little Chris Trager-Ben reunion and all kinds of great stuff. So I am bursting with happiness for Adam Scott.

0:55Dude. Rob. Well, we'll talk about all this shit. Yeah, yeah. Look at you. You look great. You look great. I mean, you look exactly the same. You continue to have very Adam Scott style, which I love. I don't know how to describe it, but I fucking love it. That's nice of you to say. Likewise, and you smell terrific as always. Well, thank you. As always. I don't get that a lot. You smell great. You always smell great. I don't think I'm known for my scent. It's a good attribute to have, I think. Right. Don't you think? Oh, I do. It's very important. As important as the hair. The hair. I mean, bro, let's face it.

1:37Listen, we lucked out. We drew the genetic lottery. Yes. But like, I don't know. I can only speak for myself. Yeah. I've been taking Propecia since I was eight or nine years old, I think. My parents, along with all my other vaccinations, injected me with Propecia when I was born. Yeah. No, you're a hedgehog. That's right. No, I started taking it when I was like 28 or something So you did I was doing a bit, but no, I did too, by the way Yeah, around that time? 30 I remember, like, so I hadn't done any, like This is like the most sort of I know you love these stories, so I'm telling you Please You love this show The bet, by the way, as everyone knows because they listen to this podcast Rob Lowe has the best stories in Hollywood ever Proceed.

2:31Say that again and say, and I'm Adam Scott. We're going to use that as an ad. Just add, and I'm Adam Scott. Let's do that right. So, I'm Adam Scott, and I am here to say that Rob Lowe has the best stories, as you know, because you listen to this podcast, in Hollywood. The very best stories. Please proceed, sir. Amazing. All right. Make note of that, boys. so I hadn't done any magazine covers in like decades I'd been sort of in the hinterlands sure raising my family and like doing whatever the fuck and then I get the West Wing yeah and so everything changes and I remember getting like People magazine cover and I was like I'm back motherfucker I'm so back and then I get it and I'm like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa wait a minute and I'm like convinced I'm losing my hair just from the photo from the photo oh interesting and just the light hitting a certain way it's a scary moment it's not a good moment no we don't like this no and and so then i you know i then i went on the protocol so was that an immediate thing i mean because i remember i remember naomi saying, hey, sorry, I don't know how you feel about this, but I thought I would let you know that I noticed some hair on your pillow in the morning, every morning.

3:59Every morning. Yeah. Like, you know, once she started noticing it, she was noticing it. And I was like, oh, okay. And then I kind of got the mirror. And so there were an array of options out there. like I remember buying something to rub on it. Do you remember when, and next time I have him on, I'm going to ask it because I always forget. McConaughey was doing radio ads for something. That you rub in your scalp. Yes, do you remember this? I remember hearing about it. Yes, yes. But the pill seemed like the easiest, most practical. It's the only. And it works. Are we familiar with what's going on in Turkey?

4:43No. What? Oh, it's bro. So this is weird. I can't wait. I mean, no, apparently Turkey is the new hair transplant capital of the world. And they like fly you out. They put you up in a hotel. I have heard of it. And it costs like two grand. Sure. And you come back and you look like Adam Scott. Right. Like it looks good. Yeah, it's unbelievable. And why Turkey? Is there a lenient regulation or something? I think it has something to do with like, why do I shoot my game show, American Game Show, The Floor in Ireland? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you really? I do. Whereabouts? Dublin. I'm about to go to Cork for like a couple months.

5:27No way. What are you doing? A movie. But Cork is out in the countryside. Oh, bro. Have you been there? Oh, I haven't been to Cork, but have you been to Ireland at all? I've been to Dublin. It's great. It's great. It's so fantastic. It's beautiful. That's interesting that you shoot the floor there. It's cheaper to bring 100 American people to Ireland than to walk across the lot by Fox. Right. Past the sound stages and do it there. Crazy. Do you think if we shot Parks right now, we would be in Budapest? 100%, we would be. We'd be in Budapest. We would be - It's so weird. There's nothing shoots in Los Angeles.

6:04Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I had my next show already done, scripts, deals closed. Yeah. And they said, we're shooting this in New York. And I said, I'm not moving to New York to do this. And then it went away. The show's done. I'm not doing it. Wow. It's like. No shit. Yeah, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. It's just too expensive to shoot here. There are no tax credits. so like all those other places are offering 40 yeah 40 oh yeah and then on top of that there's other stuff that they do yeah and then you know that's not even talking about the union stuff that's just tax economics of it all so it's it's it's it's criminal what what what the california and la have let happen it's criminal everybody should be fired it's a bummer we have our office on Radford lot where we used to shoot parks.

7:02Yes. And it is quiet over there. Quiet. That place. When we were shooting our show. Hustling. Oh my God. Everything. Every stage was filled and working and it's really weird. Super, super weird. I love that little lot. Me too. It was a good little lot. Congratulations on Severance. Thank you. The running. The running. It's a lot of running. The running. A lot of running. And I know we've talked a lot in the past about our mutual appreciation for Tom Cruise. Yeah. And you finally got your moment. You finally got your moment to pay homage to the Masters. I did. You know, and Ben Stiller also has an affinity for Tom Cruise, obviously.

7:49I mean, is there anything better than him playing Tom Cruise? Yeah, and then him providing the kind of platform for Tom Cruise to play, is it Lou Grossman? Is that the name? Yeah, Lex Grossman. Lex Grossman. I think, yeah. Amazing. So, yeah. So, yeah, all that running. There's no way, if you're running that much in a suit, there's no way you avoid any sort of comparison to Tom Cruise because he's the king. It's what he does. It is what he does really, really well. Okay, so what is your, because I know what my takeaway is. Yeah. From Tom Cruise run. Oh, okay. Tell me. What is, well, no, no, no.

8:29You just did it. Yeah. I haven't had the opportunity to sue. Well, I did Chris Trager run, but it was never, I mean, that was a whole other thing. I ran a lot as Chris Trager. Yeah, you did. And you also would run in place. You would hang upside down. I did a lot of that, but I never channeled my Tom. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what I find is something that he does that's incredibly impressive is he's, you know, like at one point when we were shooting the opening sequence for the first episode of season two, we did a bunch of different stuff. And at one point I was on a treadmill with a harness connected to me.

9:09And the treadmill, what we found was there was some uncanny valley thing that would start happening because if you're on a treadmill, you're running a consistent speed. You're not, there's no variation in your speed. Whereas if someone is actually running, there's constant variation in speed that isn't even perceptible to the human eye, but you clock it when you're watching Tom Cruise run. And there's something very human about it because he's actually doing it. So we found that in order for it to be realistic, I had to sort of run around on the treadmill just to make it inconsistent. It was super interesting, but then or border bordering on interesting.

9:56You're welcome. But the thing about Tom Cruise is he's so consistent. It's almost as if he is on a treadmill because you watch him. And it is just, yeah. And those knees are coming way up. The knees are coming way up. And the main thing is his torso. Yeah. Upper torso does not move. That's right. And he, it's almost as if the upper torso is just us sitting in a chair doing this. Yeah, that's right. And it's just his arms and legs moving. His arms and legs are moving. But he's also always in really uncomfortable clothes for running. He's not in like athletic gear and he has like dress shoes on.

10:34But then he's also as, you know, added in jumping from building to building and all this other cool stuff. I heard that because the sets weren't all built that you had to run over the course. You would still do the running scene like episode six. You're like, oh, we're doing a little pickup from episode one. You're like, it was five months ago. Yeah. Yeah, it was whenever someone would come up and ask me to remind them which color Gatorade I liked, I knew we were going to do some running the next day. That's amazing. So we had our own little wrap party for the running sequence like five or six months in.

11:08Oh, I like that. Yeah. I like multiple. I like wrap parties during the shooting. You know, I know you were very nice for texting me after the Coppola interview. Man, what a great interview that was. He had, the reason I bring it up is on Outsiders, we had a wrap party every week. You did? Like, what do you mean? Well, we'd wrap the week. Just like we finished another week. Let's have a wrap party. And for a lot of you, this was like the first real big thing. I thought, listen, it was my first movie. I thought at the end of every week, the director goes into the catering truck and cooks pasta. Oh, man.

11:44While the crew waits around. Right. For him to come and sign off on a shot. Right. But he's like, yeah, I just got to boil this water and I got a little more parsley. I got to get in. Did you guys just chill for a little bit? I thought that's how you made movies. Wow. Wow. That's so cool. It was really unbelievable. It was so fun listening to you guys because it's so clear that you remember every nook and cranny of that experience. It's all stored up there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. As is when you're young, you remember everybody's names, their faces. Like I remembered his, the assistant video technician, Anahid.

12:22Yeah, you named her in the interview and he was like, whoa. Yeah. Like we remember that. Remember that? Like today we can't remember anybody. No, nothing. I literally, I can't remember. I barely know who your name is. Totally. But also I think it's also because it was such a formative experience for you. You're not forgetting any details. No, no, no, no, no. And The Outsiders, it's The Outsiders. Like, it is a seminal movie for all of us. Thank you. It's so important. And also all you guys that are in it. It's just, it's one of those. I think it even outranks Dazed and Confused as one of those casts that just can't be beat.

13:07It's unbelievable. And probably the first time Tom ran. Yeah. He did do some running in The Outsiders, didn't he? Did a backflip off of a car. Jesus. And the thing that was interesting about Francis is I didn't want to, I didn't want to like, ask all like the, some of the harder questions that I wanted to. Like, I heard that we lost the financing during it. And that's why we had a month of rehearsal. Right. Because he didn't want to let us go home. Right. And so do you think he was just like paying for hotel rooms for all you guys and just keeping you there? I'm pretty sure. Crossing his fingers that the financing for the movie would.

13:45That's right. I'm pretty sure. And like then I was like, you know, I think you guys should really study gymnastics. Wow. What? Which we did. Yeah, sure. And again, like Tai Chi, which I did ask him on the thing. I go, what does Tai Chi have to do with being a greaser? Yeah. Was that like a big thing in Tulsa and the cities? But like, that's the magic of him. But it was all about getting you guys in sync with each other. Because it really comes across on screen that you guys are really kind of family and relying on each other. So that must be what the Tai Chi was about, to get you guys like in sync or something.

14:22I mean, I think it was just giving us something we had to wake up for in the mornings. Yes. So we weren't just ruckusing. Putting some structure out there for your day. I think there was a lot. Yeah. There was a lot of that. All right, I need to ask you about, was it Hardcastle and McCormick? What was the opening, the... Oh, the opening credits that we did? Yeah, I'm obsessed with that. It was, we did Simon and Simon. Simon and Simon. John Hamm and I. Hardcastle and McCormick is such a good call. That would have been a good one, too. Well, the one I wanted you to do. Yeah. That I was lobbying really hard for was SWAT.

15:01That's right. That's right. Because it has some of the worst. They keep cutting to, it's a van. Yeah. It does, I don't even think it has, there's nothing. It looks like a UPS truck. Yeah. And it's so clear that they're just rocking it. Right. It's not skidding out. It's just a van rocking. And then - Are you talking about like them driving it and the van being rocked while they're driving and - And the wide shots of it just going down the street. Right. It's not crashing. And then each character gets their freeze frame moment. Everybody please pull up the theme from SWAT right now and look at the worst Texas Switch in the history of cinema.

15:46So the Texas Switch is, as you know, when a stuntman like comes through a window and drops out of frame and then the actor who's been there the whole time pops up as if it was them. Yeah. Really bad. Because the timing has to be right. Well, it has to be off a little, right? Or if it's too perfect, it's fake. Right. And if it's too long, it's fake. It's like you really have to nail it. If it's like immediate, it's obviously fake. Yes. And that's what this is. Oh, great. And it literally is a guy busting through a high window. Yeah. It's like shoulder height. Yeah. Busting through it with a gun, shattering it, dropping out of frame.

16:31Yeah. And the actor comes up with the gun. Right. And it's so... That's fantastic. And then I think they do another one of a guy rappelling. Wow. And he rappels and rappels and rappels. And then it cuts to the actor who's clearly already on the ground. Yeah. And he just turns around. Oh, that's great. It's so good. I love that stuff so much. We may need to do that. I would love to. I would love to do more of those. It's the greatest... Oh, God. That's SWAT. That's such a good idea. And the song is written by my neighbor. Really? I remember it was top. Who's your neighbor? Barry DeVorzon. Uh-huh.

17:04And he also wrote, In the city. Oh, wow. For the Eagles. Wow. And Nadia's theme. What's Nadia's theme? Nadia, you're too old, young for this. It was the Nadia Cominich theme. Oh, I remember her, yeah. And she had her own theme. It's very sad. Did they play it while she was skating? No, she was a gymnast. Oh, she was a gymnast. It was all very sad. And it's like when they would do the slow-mos of her. It was very. Wow. Yeah. And everyone was in love with her. Oh, everyone. Yeah. Everyone. Those were the, I, so I want to, I want to redo that stuff. Yeah. It's fun going back and looking at all that stuff.

17:58so you're obsessed like i am with um there used to be theme songs one of the things i loved about parkinson wreck me too is that we had a theme yep and now they don't do it because they're worried about storytelling. They'd rather have the time for the storytelling. Yeah. Yeah. I loved, and I also loved that a lot of the opening credit sequences were made up of clips from the shows, like Parks was as well. Because as a fan of the show, it was sort of a thing that's put together for you of all the like fun moments from the show. That was really fun too. But you're right, like the actual songs. It's just a lost art kind of.

18:39Because often it was completely separate from the show. The network would hire like a jingle writer, like your neighbor, to come in and come up with something super catchy. I remember being in the recording stage when a full orchestra did the West Wing theme. That was amazing. Now, can I ask you a question? Was that a certain ways into the first season? Because I seem to remember the first few episodes, it was like synthesizer to sound like strings, and then they got the budget to actually do strings later. That could very well be. The theme was always the theme. The same, yeah. And I think you're right.

19:24It would have been synth, because nobody wants to pay. And what a theme. What? Oh. I mean. Oh, my God. I mean, and again, it's like. Snuffy. Yeah, Snuffy Walden. Yeah. But like, and like the Sopranos, like it's the same goddamn thing. And I never fast forward through it. Yeah. Never. Yeah, same. Gilligan's Island theme. Yes. You remember it? Yes. Are you aware of when the cast negotiated to have their mention added to the theme, which is my favorite thing ever? Is that? That's a cat that came from the cast? Well, you got it. you would think because it was literally they go through the whole litany of who's on the boat, right?

20:02Yeah. The skipper, Marianne, the movie star and his wife. Yeah. The professor and Marianne. No, no, no, no, no, no. Originally, it was the movie star and the rest. There were two more people. There were two more people. And the rest. And the rest. I would have been pissed too. Pissed. Yeah. And the rest. The rest. How hard would it be? Are you referring to me? I'm the rest? Yeah, there's just us guys. And then, of course, then it became the Professor and Marianne. No, no. It was originally and the rest. So the Professor and Marianne. Not mentioned. Wow. That's my favorite. For me, that's the most memorable part of the song is the Professor and Marianne.

20:49And by the way, Gilligan's Island shot at Radford where this parking garage is now was the lagoon where they shot all of that stuff. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. When I first came to California as a kid, a wide-eyed, bright-eyed, wanting to be an actor, I remember being on a bus, coming in for an audition, going up La Cienega. Yeah. And I saw Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel. Yeah. And I was like, wow, that's, you've made it. Yeah. You've made it. When you're a TV, your series is in year six and you've opened a Lobster Barrel. Wow. You have so much money, you don't know what to do with it. And Carol O 'Connor's The Ginger Man.

21:36People don't do that anymore. Why do, why does that? What was The Ginger Man? What was the? That was in Beverly Hills. That was in La Cienega, Hollywood. Carol O 'Connor's Ginger Man. It was like a - In the heart of Beverly, Beverly Hills, like Rodeo Drive. And it was kind of like a - It was a bistro. Yeah. Because he was the biggest television star. In the world. In the world. Yeah. Wow. Nobody does that anymore. No. I think that the idea - Or if they're investing in restaurants, they're like a silent partner because they don't want everyone to know they lost all their money. That's right. When it goes under - Yeah.

22:13Yeah. Yeah. The two lost things that I mourn of the, not two, of the many things I mourn. Yeah. Is the lost art of, you know, James Gandolfini's Meatball Shack. Yeah. The Celebrity Restaurant. It's so sick. That's great. And the Celebrity Softball Teams. Yeah. That was fun. I mean, it was fun to watch. Did you do those? I did. I was, but I was with my small-time agency's softball team. Okay. The Anne Wright Agency. Oh, well, everyone knows the Anne Wright Agency. I mean, don't we all? Yeah. And, but you'd always get beat by the Gary Marshall Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley teams. They would murder you.

22:54Okay, can I tell you something? That my wife is, and her friends are really into pickleball right now. Where they go and play pickleball sometimes is Gary Marshall's old place in Burbank, right? Yes. And I go with her sometimes to play and to hang out. And we go in the backyard and it's everything as it was. And Gary Marshall's wife is so sweet and lets us go back there. But you go into the bathroom and there are framed pictures of that softball team in the bathroom. No way. And he would have the Happy Days cast over all the time in that backyard. I played in that backyard. You did? Because he also had a basketball.

23:34He had a weekend basketball game. That's right. There are pictures of that as well. And the basketball. Yeah. Very serious stuff, though. Yeah. They were not messing around. I get the sense that they weren't. Oh, they were not. Yeah. And you don't picture Gary Marshall as this gnarly athlete. No. Hey, come over. We'll play. You'll drink. We'll slap a laugh. Yeah. And Mimo is a murderer. Really? On the basketball court? Murderer. Wow. And was Henry Winkler playing? Yes, he was playing. And, you know, again, Parks and Recreation. Yep. He is, without a doubt, if you voted on the most beloved, yep nicest man in show business he would win in a landslide yep right 100 100 and it's the it's 100 real too and you hear about how nice he is and then you meet him and and it makes total sense because it's genuine and it and he is so kind if you'd have told you know 12 year old me i know that one day i'd be working with the fawns i know i'd be like get the fuck out of here you're kidding me.

24:36You know, one day on the park set, we were shooting something and he, Billy Eichner and I were all chit-chatting and he started telling us a story about when Happy Days hit and they would do these autograph signings in grocery store parking lots. And for the first couple of weeks, no one was there and they couldn't get anyone to show up to these things. But then one week, it all changed and the place was flooded with like 3 000 people and it was this really cool story and then in the midst of the story he went into the fawns and did the fawns for billy and i just as a tool to tell the story correctly and then they're like oh henry we need you over here for blah blah blah and he's like oh excuse me guys and he walks away right after doing the fawns Right.

25:27And Billy and I were like in shock. We couldn't believe that we had just seen this happen. To see the Fonz do his thing right in front of you, it was, I'll never forget it. No, that's the thing is like, what I love about what we do and what I still get to do are moments like that. Yes. Where you're like, oh my God. Oh my God. Are you kidding me? I know. It is. It is unbelievable. As Ty Cobb said, it ain't bragging if you've done it. Yeah. I was at dinner the other night and I was looking just, you know, you notice who's sitting around and there was a table of, you know, sort of older guy, you know, sort of stocky and with the wife, whatever.

26:08And I get up to leave and he gets up and gets right in my face and stops me and says, I just want to say hello. And yeah, I really admire everything you do. And you've been a big part of my life. Yeah. I don't think that really means a lot to me because I'm Casey from Casey and the Sunshine Band. Really? and I'm like, if you get the, are you? I was like, and I'm instantly like, we need to get a selfie. Can I take a picture with you? I need a 20 minute conversation with you. I need 20 minutes with you, Boogie Shoes. Wow. We're getting down tonight. Casey in the sunshine. I mean, come on. Wow. I'm going to say, wait, I'm sorry.

26:46You, what's like the great story I told you that you always love about Paul McCartney. Yes. It's Mike Myers and I at dinner with Lorne Michaels. and Lauren goes, oh, there's Paul over there. Paul comes over and goes, oh, what do you guys do? I can't do it, Paul. I make Paul McCartney sound like he's from India. You're a really good mimic and impressionist, though. You always have, you have ones that you wouldn't expect to. Sorry. Well, my Paul McCartney's not one of them. I thought that sounded great. Well, okay then. Okay, there you go. What are you all doing over here? Yeah. And he's, oh, we just did the 25th anniversary screening of Wayne's World.

27:19Oh, oh, Wayne's World. Oh. That's a classic. Wow. I'm thinking, wait, wait, wait. No, no. Sergeant Peppers. Yeah, yesterday. Pretty good. Pretty good. Yeah. Right, but those are... Wayne's World. Didn't you also have a Telly Savalas run in when you were a little kid? Yeah, he fucked me. Yeah, he was like kind of a dick to you? Yeah, he fucked me over. Yeah. It's... It's a great story. If I ever do my one-man show again, you've got to come. Oh, 100%. Because it's a big... And you were telling... It's a big throwdown. part of I'd love to see it big throw down part of my one man shows my tele-savallis oh really oh great yeah basically it's this it's I'm living in Dayton Ohio I'm eight years old I want to be an actor it's the it's 1974 okay whatever the fuck it is so that makes me 10 sure and Kojak is the biggest show that's ever been he's big he's as big as the Fonz if not bigger yeah and he's coming to huge dude I mean that show Kojak like 70 million people I don't know how many people watch TV back then, but it was like Super Bowl numbers now.

28:26Super Bowl numbers and he's coming to Reich's department store. Okay. Because that was clearly a thing. Like I was interesting to hear that the Fonz did. Like I guess if you were a TV star, they needed two things. You opened a restaurant. Yep. And you signed autographs at department stores and parking lots. That's right. Those are the places that were big enough to like hold a bunch of people. So he comes to Reich's and I convinced my mom to let me get on the bus and go. I love that. My parents were nowhere to be found. They're like, yeah, great. Get on the bus. Go see that actor. Yeah. Down at the department store.