"Adam Scott"

24:06You could do a lot worse. Yeah. Okay. To have it. Have you ever met him? No, but we. You got to. I remember way, like 20 years ago, we did. Cool it, Will. We did an interview side by side and something. You have got to. But you guys, he is, like you guys play golf and he's still like a great golfer, right? He's very good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's very, very good. Well, I think it would be cool. Have you met him? I've never met Adam. Sounds like you'd like to. Scott, I like him a lot. He's very handsome. He's very stylish. Why don't you DM him or something, weirdo? Like he's going to answer me. But he, but I will say this.

24:47Years ago, when I first got on that social media site, formerly known as Twitter, there was a guy who had my handle by the name of Will Arnett. And it turned out he lived in the middle of the country and he had my handle. Anyway, over the years, people would tag him mistakenly thinking they were tagging me, whatever. And he and I ended up following each other and we'd talk to each other from time to time. Really cool dude. Okay. Years later, I'm in, you're with me so far? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is fun. Go ahead. And I went, anyway, I was in Vegas one time and I ended up meeting up with him.

25:25We took a photo together and got taken up. It was fun meeting another Will Arnett. It's fun. End of story? End of story, sure. What a waste of time. Hang on. So, but honestly, you guys arranged. I so wish I had a story about meeting Adam Scott. You arranged to meet one another and you took a photo together? Yeah. Is that what happened? Yeah. Hang on, dude. You arranged to meet the guy that shares your name and handle on Twitter. He reached out to me because he said, hey, I see that you're in Vegas. I'm in Vegas. I'm also at Caesars right now. I said, where are you? And then we went over and we're like, what's up?

26:03After years, why not? That's not bizarre at all. How did he know that you were at Caesars? Because I had posted a photo. Inside the casino? It's illegal. Go ahead. What, do you work for the casino now? Not anymore. Go ahead. The gaming commission? Like, what are you? So when you, so, and then, okay, so wait. So now you're, he sees you walking towards him. You don't know what he looks like. And he goes, Will. And you turn to him and your eyebrows go up high. and then was there a hug or a high five or both? I don't remember. Y 'all bet you do, fucking boring weirdo. I don't remember. God. How long ago was this, Will?

26:42This is like 10 years ago. I'll bet you know the month. 10 years ago. Can you imagine, first of all, A, Bateman leaving his house for any reason, but B, going out into the real world and doing anything with any other person that wasn't a means to an end, that somehow satisfied his ego? Can you imagine? If there was another Bateman Jason and he had like a script or something that sounded promising, I'd meet him. Promising sounding script. What a script! I've got a one act. There's a cop named Sean Hayes. Anyway, you gotta meet Adam Scott, the golfer. We're putting it out there. At a casino preferably.

27:20Oh God, I gotta link up with him and take a photo. Sean, there's another Sean Hayes too? There's a cop named Sean Hayes somewhere. All right, so wait, I wanted to know when you first started, first of all, you're the youngest, just like me, out of all your family, right?

27:37And have you ever done theater, Adam? I've got theater stories, guys. Here we go. Good, good, good. No, but Adam, I wanted to ask you though, you're the youngest like I am and your parents got divorced, like mine did. Sure. And when you're a kid and you can't vocalize, you know, what you're going through, you internalize all of that stress and stuff and then it comes out later as anxiety. Is that what happened to you? Or did you learn how to, none? You were like, oh, I'm glad they're divorced. I have no anxiety. No, I'm sure it did. I don't, I mean, I think, you know, I think when I was so young, like five, I guess, when it happened.

28:15Yeah, me too, five. Okay. I mean, that's pretty young for it to be your fault, but it seems, I'm sorry, keep going. It was clear that it was my fault. And as I know, it was your fault as well. Sure, yeah. I mean, that's why I'm here talking to you. But you still have contact with your dad, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Your dad didn't just split. He didn't drive off. He didn't drive off. And the last thing you hear, go fuck yourself.

28:47And mother still got both the eyeballs in her.

28:53Sean, as a fan of the show, I really do want to know do you have the eye like yeah my sister has it oh your sister has it it's her turn it's seasonal Adam have you ever posted a photo of it or anything like that it's on the documentary I brought it on stage to show these guys he brought it on stage yeah you know he graced us with it was amazing incredibly distasteful yeah I've seen that documentary and I don't remember that I'll have to just to keep an eye out it's a loose use of the word keep an eye out for it okay Okay, we heard Wow All right Wow Sean Sean, question three? Yeah Because we've gone through Are you emotionally scarred From your parents' divorce?

29:36Yeah, because I wanted to know that Any follow-ups? What is it about your wife That drives you crazy?

29:47And then your favorite Of your two children Which one do you like the best? Take them in whatever order you want and then we'd love that theater story. Have you ever had an emotional affair with a coworker? Go ahead.

30:04Well, I faxed you the questions, Adam, didn't I? Didn't you get that fax? All right, so listen, you fell in love when you were a kid with acting because you saw the Raiders of the Lost Ark is what I read. And I love that. Mine was E.T., but same era. Sure. And where did you, I don't know where you grew up. Santa Cruz up in the Bay Area. Right on. It's where they shot Lost Boys. Oh, that's right. That's pretty much the end of that story. Jason, did you ever shoot anything up? They used to shoot stuff in the 80s up in Santa Cruz. I shot something in the back of my knee up there in a cave in Santa Cruz.

30:41My friend was going to UC Santa Cruz up there. And boy, it came on real fast. No, kidding. There is a cave, though, up there called Steamer's Lane there in Santa Cruz. So you have been up there. That's a lot of fun. He was up there with Leif Garrett. No, I wasn't with Leif on that trip, and there were no needles involved. But there might have been a stinky, skinny joint up there that was tough to stay lit. That sounds like Santa Cruz. Yeah. So the home of the slugs, banana slugs. Yep. And when did you get that acting bug? Me or? Was that for the guests?

31:21Go ahead, Eddie. Boy, I guess it probably was, you know, just seeing movies when you're a kid and you're like, I want to do that, like Temple of Doom and stuff. Yeah. But what made it feel like within reach? Like everybody's got their own thing where they go like, yeah, I'm going to do it. Yeah. It kind of never did. And that's why, like it was, I know it's like in California, but it may as well be like on a different country or something like we were so far removed from like show business. It felt like going and being on TV or being in the movies felt like, I'm gonna go to the moon or something.

32:04It just felt like. They came and shot East of Eden and Santa, like a mini series version of East of Eden in our town. And I remember they like put dirt out on the streets to make them look like dirt roads and had horses and horse-drawn carriages and then the actors' trailers. And I was like seven. And I remember seeing that and just being blown away. Like, holy fuck. And then you went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. How old were you when you did that? 18. Was that high school? It was after high school. Okay. And was that down in Los Angeles at that point? Yeah, in Pasadena at the time.

32:38Okay. Oh, man. All right. So then you made a deliberate move to come down and pursue it. Yeah. and did you drive? It was a classic like drive down there with a bunch of shit strapped to the roof. A bunch of shit strapped to the roof of my 68 Rambler. And boy, what a hard career to start, Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just like coming in cold and not knowing a soul. Yeah, Sean tried to do that. Everything blew off the roof, didn't it? Yeah, me and my sister drove me home from college. Did that really happen? It really did happen. We were super stoned driving home. didn't want to take that as a sign and hooky ui no because we looked in the rearview mirror we were singing songs we both just smoked pot this is we were both 18 whatever around 1890 and uh or no out of college 20 21 22 and we just saw all the statue of limitations here one second yeah you're probably fine and in the rearview mirror we saw my clothes flying out we're just like do you want to turn back and my sister's like nah i go me neither no way you kept going clothes on the highway.

33:44Yeah. But anyway, well, strapping stuff to the roof is like not, you know, and when you're like 20, you're not going to do a good job strapping anything anywhere. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You don't realize the science. And you're, at that point, you're like, fuck it, I can buy short shorts anywhere. I'll just get a bunch of different, right? So, so you, but you move here and then, and then, or you move to Los Angeles and then you're like, you go to the American Academy, and then you're done with that. And it's like, okay. As you said, this is a tough way to start. You're like, all right. Yeah, dude. Where do we go now?

34:23Was it commercials first? It was background work first. I just moved from school. I moved to Hollywood and just started like going and trying to do whatever and didn't know anyone. Yeah. And we did a lot of background work and then got like a guest spot on something and then got a little agent and then just sort of, you know. Yeah. We'll be right back.

34:54And back to the show. What was the first thing where it was like, oh, this is going to give me a little bit of capital that I can maybe use for a couple of jobs? Like what was the first kind of big thing? I mean, I think part of the self-delusion you need in order to survive, you think that every time you get anything, you're like, oh, fuck, okay, now. But it turned out that I didn't really have a career until like 15 years later. And what was that? What was the thing? It was like this period of time where it was like Parks, Step Brothers, Party Down, like this period of like three years where these things all happened.

35:40Oh, I see. Yeah, but you were definitely a working actor that I was certainly well aware of before those three things happened. But you're saying those three things kind of put you in another category, or maybe you weren't really auditioning anymore, and you had some incoming calls, yeah? A bit. It was just, I remember when that started happening, and I remember getting some incoming phone calls from, like, Mike and Polar. Like, hey, do you want to maybe, and just being like, oh, this is what it's like to actually have something going. I thought when I did Murder One, I was on top of the world.

36:17Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I didn't care for it.

36:27Adam, but I thought this was really cool. when you were 14, like, because Will was talking about at the top about like doing Conan so many times and Jimmy Kimmel and all those shows. And you were obsessed with Letterman, which I loved. I was too as a kid. And how did you, when you were four, talk about that. When you were 14, you went to, how did you coerce your parents in letting you go to New York to go, you went to a taping or something? Well, we went to, we went to, we were on like a family trip and I was just like, let's go to 30 Rocks so I can get a Letterman t-shirt. And we were there, didn't even think about doing the tour or anything.

37:00We were just at the gift shop and my brother and I saw Chris Elliott walk by and we were like, oh, holy shit. And we just chased him down and he stopped and talked to us for like 20 minutes. It was amazing. That's cool. That's cool. It was a great Chris Elliott. The great, those Chris Elliott bits back from Letterman were unbelievable. So good. And then what was the name of the old man that would always be on the show? Biff Henderson? No, no, no. No, no, no. Oh, Larry Bud Melman? Yeah, Larry Bud Melman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whose real name was? DeForest Kelly, I think. No, no, no, that's the guy on Star Trek.

37:38No, no, no, no, but you're right in the ballpark. DeForest something. Yeah, we'll get it. I remember when we talked to Chris Elliott, he was talking to us for a while, and then he was like, I gotta go, but you guys should watch the show tonight. I'm gonna try something new out. And it was the first night he did his, remember he did Marlon, this really weird Marlon Brando impression? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Calvert DeForest. Calvert DeForest. Calvert DeForest. So, but what was that like? Because, you know, I think all of us, when you're like Jason, always talked about the first time he did The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, how like, that you're like, oh God, I'm on that thing that all the other famous people are on.

38:17So I must be in that, right? So having been obsessed with Letterman when you were growing up, I mean, I assume you were on, yeah, many times. Yes, I did it twice before he finished. Yeah, I mean, that was doing Letterman, as I'm sure it was for you guys too, was a major like life moment the first time. That's it, that was it. Yeah, petrifying, petrifying. It was everything. I had my brother come out and so he was in the audience. And I mean, you know, it's just the best. And he was so cool and hilarious and I just couldn't believe it. I'm sure I was nervous and terrible, but it was really something.

38:58Wait, so why was your nickname Spanky? Here we go. Wasn't your nickname Spanky when you were a kid? Well, it was when I was in Little League. I had, they called me, I was a heavier kid for a few years, and I was on the baseball team. And so the kids called me Spanky because the kid went from Little Rascals. the heavy kid on Little Rascals. You know what? I had the opposite problem because I grew up so skinny. I could not gain weight. I would drink milkshakes and go work out with my brother and eat burgers. I couldn't gain weight. Sure made up for it. You fixed it. Sorry. Walk right into that. You sure did.

39:46Yeah. But it's so funny because people make fun of fat kids all the time when you're in school. All the other kids are mean. But like when I was a kid, people used to make fun of me for being so skinny. People were like, well, you know. It sucks. It was just the same. Skinny shame. Skinny shame, yeah, all the time. What would you give to have people make fun of you for being skinny? Yeah, exactly. 100%. And then you played. But the thing is, is back then, the kids were all calling me spanky, but then eventually the coach started calling me spanky as well. Which is so fucked up. Oh, that's good.

40:16Yeah, that's good. Wait, so then you married, so your wife, Naomi, from my sister, Tracy, Naomi Sapp. Did you say Sablon or Sab? Sablon, right? It's Scott. But yeah, her maiden name was Sablon. When you met her, that was her name. And she was a producer. And how did you meet her? On a show? We met, no, we met at a bar, at the Cat and the Fiddle on Drew. I love Cat and the Fiddle. Yeah, I used to go all the time. The outside so you could smoke. Yes. Yeah, I used to go all the time. That was the best. Yeah. We met there in like 1998. Wow. That's crazy. I was there. we probably ran into each other and didn't know it I would go there all the time same like that and the dragonfly do you remember oh yeah I would go to Cat and Fiddle that's it isn't that when you had a candle on your dashboard oh yeah those were the days this is why I don't go out anymore you know these guys make fun of me but I've I've fixed my ways but Adam I used to go to Cat and Fiddle all the time with Julie Bowen and that's when we'd make out and stuff but anyway so and then but you so it was Julie Bowen everybody.

41:23Julie Bones. Julie Bones, she's the best. I love her. You used to have family karaoke nights and you love Billy Joel. I love Billy Joel. Just did a documentary that's coming on on HBO about him. Oh, you did? Really? Yeah, produced it in my company. Oh, amazing. Yeah, well, hang on a second. You're a huge Billy Joel. He's the piano man.

41:46Sorry. So stupid. Just crushing this bit to death. Wait, do you still, Are you a singer? No, I can't sing at all. Oh, so you just kind of do it. Yeah, I guess so. Where are you right now? What room are we enjoying? This is our office over on Radford. It is on Radford. Did you just say Radford? I did. How did you know that? I don't know. There was something about the bleakness of it that looked like Radford. Are you still doing the show, Severance? I thought it was Radford. No, this is, Naomi and I have a company that we have in our office here. Oh, that's great. That's great. That's fucking crazy that I just...

42:22that you just said Radford. Now, they're about to redo that whole studio. Have you been consulted about that? No, they haven't asked me anything about that, and now I'm pretty fucking pissed. Yeah, no, they're going to redo the whole thing. It's kind of rad. Bring the blueprints over and go through it with me. What are you excited about that's coming out of your company? Well, we're developing a bunch of stuff right now. Do you like that kind of work? Like working with writers and taking a script? and I do yeah I know you do too I'm sure I know all of you guys do uh yes I do I mean I think like and I don't know if it's the same for you guys but after acting for so long it's nice to use all the hours of your day you know because you know the you you after a certain number of years you realize that uh that acting can take up this much and but if you're you know producing or whatever you can sort of stay busy all of it yeah and sort of keep your eye on the whole thing the thing as a whole instead of just your little part of it that you can't really control all that much are they listening to you at all over there on severance let's get you in trouble here let's do it when you have thoughts and ideas over there at severance um uh fun to fun to uh get there and get involved yeah for sure uh dan erickson who created it and ben and uh great yeah Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller.

43:51Yeah, it's a great group of people. We have great time. And where are you in that process? You're out here in LA. You're obviously not shooting. You are waiting to hear about a third season or plans to start it? Well, they're not going to not make a third season. Yeah, we're hopeful that we'll be able to make a third season. When would you start doing that if they do? Hopefully really soon. So it's not, you know, this last break was like three years, a three-year wait between seasons. So hopefully it'll be a lot shorter than that. And that's in New York, right? New York, yeah. And how does that work with family?

44:31Yeah, do you, I mean, it's a, sometimes it's an annoying thing to hear about us complain about, but it is a real thing. You know, it's not easy to manage working away from Los Angeles where a lot of the work happens. It is. It's really hard with family because I know you just finished something out there. For Severance, it's like nine, ten months we're shooting that show. Wow. So it's just like, you know, you're just gone. And I know I try and fly back as much as possible, but I don't end up with much time off. But the kids, the good thing is teenagers, they plow out on their own if they want to, and they love going to New York.

45:13You know, you figure it out, but it's a drag. It's hard. Go back to, you know, I didn't know all this music. I didn't know you love music as much as I do or probably Will does. What do you mean, like a musical? Jason doesn't know what he loves. Jason doesn't care for music. No, he doesn't get it. I like sounds. He just goes, somebody tell me what's cool. You did a whole podcast about U2, which I didn't know, and REM. And did you meet Bono or U2 or anything? Is that true? Yeah, it was in the intro. Yeah, we did. Scott Aukerman and I. Don't get pissed off, Sean. Scott Aukerman and I. It was in my fucking written intro.

45:54We started a podcast about U2 just sort of as a joke because U2 kind of felt like a funny subject matter just because they're so sort of mainstream. We go and analyze them. We weren't sure what it was going to be, but we just started going album by album through U2's catalog, both of us growing up with them and being fans and stuff. And it's so stupid. It's ridiculous bits and stuff, but super fun. But then eventually, and it was not our intention at all when we started it, eventually we did have the band on a couple of times. That's amazing. That's cool. Yeah, it was super crazy. Did you see them perform at the Sphere?

46:42Yeah. Yeah. Wasn't that incredible? That venue was just stunning. That's crazy. Yeah, I went opening night, I think, like the very first, yeah. It was wild. First of all, thank you for being here today. Theater stories. Yeah, well, by the way, if you have a theater story, I love a good theater story. You can tell me now. We can end strong right here. I actually don't. All right. Okay, next question. I do. Finish strong, Sean. Come on, you can do this. I want to talk about like Billy Joel and like why you love him so much because I love him so much. And I think you met Paul Rudd and you got to meet Billy Joel.

47:16And you and Paul met him at the same time or something? We had him, I did this thing. Naomi and I made this show for Adult Swim where we recreated opening credit sequences for TV shows from the 80s. That's funny. shot for shot made these opening credit sequences so we did Bosom Buddies with Rudd and I as those guys that's funny and it was a Billy Joel song obviously was the theme song and so as part of the like fake documentary about the making of this thing we got Billy Joel to join us and play the song for us I want to see that he was great he was really really funny and great that's cool Sean I didn't know that you liked Billy Joel so much I love Billy Joel.

48:01I know I play his music. I sing his songs. My go-to is Honesty. I love that song. Oh, it's a great song. Did you see him at the Madison Square Garden? Yeah, because I was about to say bullshit. Yeah, bullshit on that. But, okay. No, I couldn't make it out for Madison Square Garden, but I really wanted to. But I've seen him in concert many, many times. Yeah, it's great. Another guy with two first names. Yeah, that's right. Oh, man. Billy Joel, yeah, look at that. Adam Cordero. That's me. Adam Cordero. That's me. Adam Scott, listen, I wanted to ask you, but we ran out of time. we're saying goodbye, but you must get stopped.

48:33People must stop you all the time because of stuff you do, but stepbrothers, people must go crazy on you, right? Yeah, it's still, like that was, you know, a while ago and yeah. I know, but it was so popular. Love that movie and I love it too. I'm sure I would feel that way if I wasn't. I love turning it on anytime I see it. Anytime I see it on TV, I watch it. It's so good. You're so good in that movie. But you've never sucked. Everything you do, You're great in. So I would imagine a lot of people, you've been a part of a lot of really great things that are very cool in the comedy world. Thank you.

49:09And it's something you should, I'm sure you do really are proud of. Well, likewise. And you know, the part of that, when I was talking earlier about that, kind of figuring it out when we started Party Down, the other part of that that I was gonna get to was when I was telling someone about the show, I forget who it was, I was like, yeah, it's this catering team and I'm kind of at the center of it and I'm not sure what to do. And they're like, oh, you're at the center of it? Like Bateman on Arrested Development. Right, which is the craziness circling around him. Yes, and that was so key to kind of figuring it out is watch, you know, I was watching the show anyway, but really thinking about it from that perspective is very key.

49:55How can I be a robot? Go ahead, Will. How could you be a sort of charmless and emotionless? How could you suck all the charisma, charisma-less, and just be a blank mayonnaise on mayonnaise on egg? Thank you, Will. Well, what an inspiration. Happy to provide some sort of guidance. Adam, we love you. Thank you for being here today. Guys, thank you for having me. Such a fan of the show. Really cool. Adam, love you. Adam. Love you guys. Please pass on our regards to Naomi. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks for doing this. Please tell Abel and Archie. I doubt they remember me, but please tell them hello.

50:38They're like - I saw Abel yesterday. Full teenagers now. They are full teenagers. I will, JB ran into, Abe texted me from school. That's how I knew JB. And he's like, I just ran into Jason and he grabbed my ear. And I was like, yeah, that sounds about right. And you know, they are such big fans. I can say this. they're such big fans of yours and of Parks and Rec, even though it's their mom's show. During the pandemic, we watched, Abe and I watched all these episodes, like most of Parks and Rec, again, watched it all the way through. And then I would say to Amy, like, hey, that episode was really good.

51:14Right. Super high like that. Yeah, like eight years later. My kids have yet to see Parks and Rec. They're just, they don't care at all. I don't know. Don't care. Your kids are like mine. They don't watch anything that we do. Nothing. They haven't watched Arrested Development. My kids, and Abe loves comedy. Well, neither is Sean, right? I don't know. No, Sean's never watched it. And he is one of our children. So wait, Abe and Archie have not watched Arrested? No, and their friends have, and they're like - I love it. Abe was like, a lot of my friends love BoJack Horseman. And I'm like, we'll strap these kids down one goddamn day.

51:46They should watch Arrested Development, and they should watch BoJack Horseman. I know. And Parks and Rec. We're going to strap them down. They've watched Parks and Rec. Amy kind of guilted them into it, though. Right. If I'm being honest. If I'm being totally honest. That sounds like not bad. In a way that only Polar can, you know? Okay, fine. Don't watch it, you know? Your choice. Adam, thank you, dude. Guys, thank you. Love you, buddy. Great to see you. Love you, too. Bye. Bye-bye. Take it easy. Now, that feels like we kind of deprived the audience of a really good interview because it just felt like we were just sitting on the couch he's over here at one of our homes like he always is and I feel like we were undisciplined I was and we were all just a bunch of bullshit not really asking questions you know what no it's like the Catherine Hahn episode you know where we a good friend comes on and we just kind of chit chat yeah we apologize listener we're just children Adam likes to fuck around and do bits and joke around and so why not yeah I mean it must have been like that on Will and Grace I love it.

53:02Everybody's gay.

53:07I find you feel good about my sexuality. I feel safe to come out now.

53:19Please let me out. Can I sit closer to the stage now? I mean, I'm in here. I can't see anything from back either. That is so funny. It's so great. Hey, but listen, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you need people like Adam Scott. Good for you to bring it back. Look at you. What a responsible steward of our show. I'm trying to talk slowly here as I try to think up a bye. No, I got one. So by having, okay, by having Adam in our world, socially, professionally, what, Sean? It's wonderful. It's wonderful. It's like what your Italian, well, your Italian friend would say ciao, but we would say.

54:07Instead, we would say bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

54:17Bye-bye. Smart. Smart. Smartless is 100 % organic and artisanally handcrafted by Rob Armjarf, Bennett Barbaco, and Michael Grantary.

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