Happy Sad Confused - Adam Scott, Vol. II

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

Adam Scott takes us into the bizarre and mesmerizing world of SEVERANCE, a show he's as obsessed with as all of us. Here he chats with Josh at the 92nd Street Y about his surprising comedy career (STEP BROTHERS, PARKS & RECREATION) and why SEVERANCE is a dream job. Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Quince -- Go to Quince.com/happysadco for 365 day returns and free shipping! UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS 1/23 -- Michelle Yeoh In NYC -- ⁠Tickets here To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. The twisted tale of Amanda Knox is an eight-episode episode Hulu original limited series that blends gripping pacing with emotional complexity, offering a dramatized look as it revisits the wrongful conviction of Amanda Knox for the tragic murder of Meredith Kircher and the relentless media storm that followed. The twisted tale of Amanda Knox is now streaming only on Disney Plus.

calzone's confusing. Why? And often when I go to Italian restaurants, they ask me if I would like to try the calzone. And sometimes calzones are sent over. And every time that happens, I text Mike Schur and I just say, again, thanks. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

Hey guys, it's Josh here. Freezing in New York City. Hope it's a little bit warmer where you are. Happy to say we have another edition of Happy Say, Confused our second episode of the week after Sam Hewan earlier in the week. If you have to check that one out, it's a blast. Do yourself a favor. This episode is Adam Scott returning to the podcast after 10 years.

10 years flew by. He's one of the early guests on Happy Say Confused, and he's back. And it's for a very good cause talking all things separants. More than that in a second. First up, a couple reminders. Remember, hit that subscribe button. It's the only way to get the good word out, really the best way to get the good word out

on Happy Say I Confused. So do that if you haven't already. Check out our Patreon page, Patreon.com slash happy, say I'm confused. Somewhere up here, there's a graphic that tells you where to go. There's so much cool stuff there. You get announcements of upcoming guests.

You get early access to every single episode. You get bonus features. You get discounts to live events. free posters, autographed posters. Check it out. They're different tiers. Do yourself a favor. If you like what I do over here, do us all a solid

and check out what we're doing over there at patreon.com slash happy, sad, confused. Also, one other reminder, if you're in New York and you're watching this before the night of April 23rd, we have another great live event. It's me and Michelle Yo, Epic Academy Award winning Michelle Yo, talking all things, Star Trek,

Section 31. It's also someone for co-stars from the film. And we're going to show Star Trek Section 31, this new Paramount Plus feature presentation in the Star Trek universe. So cool. So tickets are still available. A link is in the show notes. You know what to do. If you're looking for something to do to escape the cold and enjoy some Star Trek, some Michelle Yo, some me in New York City, April 23rd, that's the night. Okay, onto the main event. Adam Scott, as I said, he's back after 10 years away from Happy, Say, I Confused, and there's a lot to talk about. Most of this conversation is about severance, light spoilers. If you haven't seen the new first episode of the new season, you might want to do that.

But this is a deep dive into severance and a bit about his career, Parks and Rex, stepbrothers, bouncing comedy and drama. For my money, he is one of the most versatile and affable actors we have working today. He's always a delight to talk to. I think you'll sense the good energy, the warmth in the room that was the 9th 2nd Street Y. If you can't be there in person, the next best thing is it too experienced a podcast in this way. So I hope you guys enjoy this chat with the one and only Mr. Adam Scott. Hello, everybody. Welcome.

I'm Josh Horowitz, and today on Happy Saffir confused. We're live at the 92nd Street Y with Adam Scott, everybody. Welcome. Thank you. Severance is back. They made us wait, but it was worth the wait, wasn't it guys? Nearly three years after the amazing first season, Severance is back. This audience in New York City has just seen the first episode. It's awesome, guys. Come on, am I right? It's a fan that's back in a big way. You ain't seen nothing yet. Yes, the trippiest workplace comedy, dromedy, mystery on television is back. We're going to dig into that show. But we're also going to talk about this guy's amazing career.

He can do drama, he can do comedy, stepbrothers, Parks and Rec, he can do it all. He's a gem of a human being. He's finishing up a ginormous press tour in New York and he's finishing it out in style here in New York City on this stage. Please give a warm New York City welcome to Adam Scott, everybody. There he is. Well, thank you. Don't worry, I'm not going to do it again. He's a succubus. He needs it.

Yeah. Just feel nice. It's well deserved. It's good to see you, man. Yeah, great to see you. Thank you for having me. Thank you for coming. Adam Paul Scott. Not one, not two, three first names.

I know. I know. Your parents were psychopaths. What's going on? Well, my parents, originally my middle name was going to be Skiles, which is a Sicilian family name, and I wish they had kept it because what they realized was my initials would be ASS. Destiny. Would have been great.

Would have been amazing. What a gift that would have been. I know. We'll take what we can get. Congratulations again, man. The show is fantastic. You have been doing a big press store for this. This is about wrapping up the New York portion.

Yeah, this is it. This is it, going home in the morning. OK, so by the way, the last time you were on my podcast was 10 years ago and you were promoting Hot Tub Time Machine 2. Oh, yes. Thank you, thank you. We should hold for applause, right? That was very generous of you to have me on.

Did we talk about that movie the entire time? It was a three-hour podcast. I had so many questions. We had to dive in. I was asking you about this backstage, but, I mean, were you worried? It was a bit of a break. It took a while between strikes and everything to bring the show back on the air. And the short attention span of our small brains nowadays, you never know if the audience is still going to be there.

Were you concerned that the audience would still be there for Season 2 of Severance? 100%. I mean, we were kind of astounded by the reaction to season one in the first place, just because we loved the show. We loved making it and loved the result after it was all cut together and everything. But you just never know until it's out there. And, you know, while we were making it, we felt like it was really weird. And just had no idea if it would connect with anybody

or even if anyone would care, if it would be embarrassing. If people would make fun of it, we did not know. And then when the billboard started going up, at least around Los Angeles, it was like, my face. And I, you'd think that's the big moment you've been waiting for. This is what you wanted. Yes. And it was, but when it happened, I freaked out. I had, because I thought, what if this is, what if people think it's stupid and weird?

And, you know, you just don't know. Again, we loved it, but you just don't know. So Ben, who's had his face up on many a billboard, kind of talked to me down and was like, listen, we love the show. We have no control over anything else. We just put it out there, and you'll be fine. At worst, you've made the cable guide, and in 20 years, people are going to realize you've got a great piece of work. There you go. You have been making the rounds.

You've had everything from a – you know you've made it when you've got the New Yorker profile. I mean, you're a serious dude now. Right, right. Surprised you're here with me. But you also did this amazing stunt, for lack of a better term, in Grand Central. Did you guys see this? We have a photo. So you kind of recreated the workplace with some of your coworkers.

Yeah. When you heard this idea, what did you think? I thought it was an incredible idea. And we just, we had a great time. And it's our actual desk from the show, our computer terminals. So Britt Lauer and Zach Cherry and I first walked out and sat down and just started working because we know how to refine. We've spent, we do, and we started doing it.

We spent so much time in those chairs, at those desks. So we just started working, and then they started messing with me like they do on the show. They refused to work and I just tried to get. We just kept improvising in character, but the greatest thing about it was our improvisation was unheard because the audience couldn't hear us. So they just assumed everything we were doing was incredibly clever, yeah. It was fun and then Patricia Arquette and Tremel Tillman come in. About an hour in, they walk in and the entire crowd that had gathered got silent.

It was wild because they're scary and they came in and Patricia was kind of going around to each of us and scaring the shit out of us and it was just a blast we were in there for three hours

is that the most avant-garde kind of piece of performance art you've ever done this is like what Tilda Swinton does like she'll watch on like a glass box somewhere you're entering that echelon I guess so I mean it was certainly exciting and again not knowing

knowing how people would react or if they would react at all. We just kind of thought it sounded like a great idea. Let's go give it a shot. Okay, so let's backtrack to the origins of this show, at least with respect to how you kind of became involved in the first place. Like, where were you at? Were you actively looking for another show, a drama, a comedy, anything in your mind?

Or was it just sort of like this came cold and it seemed interesting? Yeah, I mean, after Parks and Rec, I really, made a concerted effort to try and find something different, something maybe more dramatic. And the first chance I got was an audition came up for big little lies. And so I really went after that and really wanted to be a part of it. And luckily got a role on that. And that really kind of helped, I think, just because before Step Brothers, before Step Brothers, I was purely always kind of envision myself as a dramatic actor.

This is the secret of Adam Scott. You all think. He's like, oh, he came out of the womb. He wanted to do wacky comedy. No. It was a late kind of thing for you. Yeah, I really kind of, I mean, I grew up a comedy nerd and loved, you know, all that stuff. But I, like, my guys were like Albert Brooks, Steve Martin, David Letterman, you know. But I kind of just always felt I was destined to be a dramatic actor. And I was on an HBO show called Tell Me You Love Me, which is a wonderful show, and incredibly serious.

And right around that time is when Step Brothers came up, it was actually in between seasons of Tell Me You Love Me, the second season of which never ended up happening. I went and did Step Brothers, and it was just a complete fluke. Someone had the role and had to drop out for one reason or another, So they had to cast the role quickly. And I just happened to go in there and for whatever reason, I got the part and found myself on the set not knowing what I was doing, you know, Adam McKay, who directed the movie, Will Ferrell and John C. Riley obviously were the stars of it. And they have this anarchic way of working that's really exciting that I had never experienced before, which is, you know,

they do maybe a take or two scripted, and then they just screw around and see what happens. And, you know, I didn't, I wasn't a member of UCB, I didn't know really what I was doing. So I kind of equate it to learning how to, like, throw the javelin at the Olympics. like with all the cameras and the stadium of people watching you. So I sort of learned on my feet there and by the end of the

four months of shooting I felt like it was maybe getting my arms around it a little bit and having some fun and loosening up and by the time the movie ended all I knew was I never wanted to work any other way. Right.

This was it. This was it. Yeah. We just had we had Catherine Haunt here very recently. Oh, sure. So was she your anchor? Like, who were you looking to to kind of like get through? Because McKay and Farrell are just on another level in that realm. They are, but also incredibly collaborative and inviting and just lovely people.

But yes, Catherine and I were the two people just kind of kept looking at each other like, holy shit, what are we doing here? Are we allowed to say that? Yeah. This seems wrong. Yeah. Yeah, it was just, it was amazing. So, yes, 100%.

But Catherine really caught into it pretty quickly and just was scoring three-pointers after three-point the entire time. And I kind of stumbled off the blocks a little bit, or at least that's how it felt. She was brilliant right out of the gates, of course. But yeah, so by the time that ended, I had kind of caught the bug and really loved it and really felt like, you know,

it just felt really creative and collaborative in a way I hadn't experienced before. And then that sort of led directly into Party Down, which then was, oh, thanks. Which sort of fed that some more, even though that wasn't particularly improvisational show, it was, we were all sort of together in it together, you know, because no one was watching,

So we were doing it for each other. So that, obviously, and then goes to Parks and Rec. So you accumulate this insane, like, out of nowhere, considering your background, comedy resume. So then by the time, and you had done a show with Craig Robinson, more recent years. So you were still, like, in the comedy sphere, though you were doing big little eyes.

You were kind of mixing it up more and more. So when this comes around, and is it true that this was actually written with you in mind? Yeah, Dan Erickson, who created, the brilliant Dan Erickson created and writes the show. He says when he was, you know, first writing it, he was thinking of me and then when it came to Ben,

Ben said he first thought of me, you know, I'm still, you know, just so lucky that these guys thought of me. I'm still not exactly sure why, but I'm very glad that they did. Yeah, Ben called me in January of 27, 2017 and just kind of gave me the elevator pitch, so to speak, of what the show is, just a quick, like, three-sentence, this is the idea, and it just stuck in my mind. And I read a script probably about a year later.

But that entire time, I just couldn't get this really sticky, fun idea out of my head. Is it true that essentially after that and kind of being offered and saying, yeah, we have you in mind for this, you then unfortunately were forced to essentially audition for the part you thought you already had. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And you know what? It was fine because at that point I was, you know, I started acting professionally in the fall of 1993. And so it's been a pretty long road and the kind of pride swallowing situations I've found myself in over the years. This was nothing. Like, Oh, I have to audition for this role that I, I mean, honestly, the first time I actually read the script, I, my first, my gut instinct was, I'm never actually going to get to do this. Why? Well, just because it's so, it was so good. And, you know, through Ben's utter faith in me, I was able to, uh, to get in there and audition for it and fight for it a little bit and, and, and I got it.

I would imagine you and Ben, I mean, there are some major similarities in your careers. Have you bonded over that, in that he for a time was defined by comedy and then kind of like has gone back and forth throughout his career. Does he see in you, I mean, not to speak for Ben, but I feel like he must see in you a kindred spirit in that realm. Perhaps. You know, we've never actually sat down and kind of talked about this, but our tastes align and we work together really well, I think. I love working with him, and we have a great

time. He's someone who I can just trust 100 percent, 100 percent of the time. I just trust his taste above all else. And I think when it's something as micro-specific as severance, trusting each other is essential because we're constantly kind of walking out on the edge and closing our eyes and jumping off with one idea or the other. When you think back to the first days and weeks of season one, what was the...

Did you feel it was working? Did you feel like you were kind of finding it as you went? What do you recall as the first moments of kind of finding what the show was? Yeah, that's where a lot of the trust in Ben comes in And from me to Jeremy Hindel, our production designer, to Jessica Lagunier, our cinematographer, all of us, everybody and the actors, all trusting Ben because we were there and Dan had written this beautiful script.

And the first day I walked on the actual set, and it is exactly as you see it on the show, I was like, oh, okay. is going to do like 70, 80% of my work for me, because I'm actually here. This world is fully alive and realized. Ben and Jeremy had been working on that for quite some time. Yeah, and so those first weeks were really, we were really finding the tone and the feeling of the show together, led by Ben. And so he would be like, yeah, but what are you?

about this, maybe this? And it's like, yeah? Okay. And then we just sort of all, and then eventually it was like, yeah, this feels right. This is weird and different. But that feels like what it should be. And it was this sort of intangible place that we found where the world really lives. And Dan's script really helped guide us there as well, because there's all that really kind of specific nomenclature of the culture of Lumen and Kier and all of that stuff, that really kind of helped us, it kind of worked as like a real compass for us as well. Was it clear from the start how you were going to differentiate any mark and Audi mark? And like what the, how physically, how vocally, how extreme to go and kind of differentiating it?

Well, I mean, you know, the first sort of instinct for any actor maybe, at least for me was like, oh, okay, one of them should have, you know, a special walk. And the other one should have like a mustache and a hat. And, you know, but, you know, we kind of felt from the beginning, Dan and Ben and I really that it should feel like the same guy, but just like different sections of the same guy. Sort of like how you have, you know, you behave differently if you're visiting home with your family or if you're at a party.

complete strangers. You know, everybody has a few different sort of personas you can just throw on at a moment's notice. And this is sort of that, but also sort of not. It's just the same person. So, yeah, one of them has had 40-odd years of life experience and joy and sorrow and all the things that go with a full life. And the other one is, for all intents and purposes, two and a half years old. So we kind of had to find it was kind of a matter of just like subtracting experience or adding experience and you know finding the kind of the transformation in the elevator and sort of figuring that out

really helped you know define the corners of each of the sections of the character yeah so let's talk about the elevator transition because some of that is achieved through what I guess you guys call a Zolli yeah right right which is I assume a dolly and a zoom trapion combined, but part of its performance too. So again, did you go through different iterations, how extreme to go? What are you doing? Like in your head, when it's time to do it, what do you do?

Right. It was a big question because it so easily could be corny and not work. So we tried it probably a couple hundred times. I don't know, just kept experimenting until we found what worked. Ben just had this kind of mini elevator set off to the side wherever we would be shooting, where when we had time, we would go and just try a few out and see what started to gel and what started to work. And it is that zoom dolly shot that, you know, it's very famous in Jaws when Roy Scheider

kind of first sees the shark for the first time, where you're dollying in while zooming out or dollying back while zooming in, so it creates this effect. So we're doing that, and Ben sort of had the idea that kind of maybe we flutter the eyes back, maybe that. So we tried a variety of different things. Many of them did not work and were corny, but we did eventually land on this thing. And for me, just going from one to the other, it's just a matter of, it's sort of like a math problem. It's just kind of scooping out a certain amount of experience and feeling and kind of, I don't know, distilling it down to the basics. And then going up, you're just kind of adding all of this stuff and kind of weighing down with everything that comes with living in the outside world.

I don't know. It's a hard thing to sort of put into words, but I usually need to do it. several times before I feel like it's any good or not weird. Have you had to teach new members of the cast, the art of going up and down the elevator? No, everybody's really great at it and probably got it way quicker than I do. During the Volvo Fall Experience event,

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To deliver a quality product at a fair price, while paying your people what they're worth too, so your business can stay unfazed. Learn more at SAP.com slash uncertainty. What do you think the lesson is of something like this succeeding in the way it has? Because I think it's like, It is so wonderfully weird, so specific. Yeah.

And in these times when everyone's trying to kind of like, I feel, chase mass appeal, the fact that something like severance has clicked with an audience in this way, I mean, there's a good takeaway here. I'm not sure what it is. Yeah. Do you? No. Does anybody here now?

I don't know. I feel like the more specific you get, I feel like, I feel like, something, Sometimes the feeling, and I've certainly had it many times myself, when you're trying to kind of come up with something or find your way with something, you feel like broadening something out and making it as accessible as possible and keeping in mind an audience and wanting everyone to get it and understand and connect with it, usually, or not usually, sometimes has the opposite effect. Yeah, waters it down where it's... Yeah, whereas the more specific. you get and the more personal you get, and the more of yourself that you're willing to pour into it, and more of yourself that you're willing to share

with an audience, the more the audience will connect. I think, is there a saying? The more specific you get, the more universal you get. I don't know. I don't know. It also depends on the world and the project. You know, it's always somewhat of a crapshoot. crapshoot. You never quite know what's going to work. But I feel like this, we were all really

lucky to stumble upon that Ben and Jackie Cohn and Nikki Weinstock as his company at the time came upon the script. And the script, by the way, was a writing sample. He wasn't submitting it to get severance produced. He was submitting it just to say, hey, I wrote this. I can do other stuff. Yeah. No, Dan's story in and of itself, you should look up. It's just amazing because he did not have this resume. This is a guy just out of nowhere seemingly with this. That's right.

How was your barometer been over the years when you've done TV or film projects? Do you feel like you've had a good sense of what's going to click or not? Like, when you're making torque or you're like, I'm going to make seven torques. I'm not all set now. Yeah.

I don't know. I mean, you always feel like you know how something's feeling and then when it's all cut together and there's so much beyond an actor's control honestly that i've learned to just disconnect as far as trying to um trying to predict or guess how something is going to end up we were talking backstage i brought up david lynch with you i mean were you like twin peaks guy a lost guy i mean this follows in a lineage of these great mysteries and kind of dull out just enough and keep an audience going what what What kind of shows have intrigued you, have brought you in, like, severances for the modern audience today?

I am, I was at the time, and still am a huge fan of Lost. I just love that show. Yeah. It's so amazing. And they were making 22 to 24 episodes a season. And you go back and watch that show, particularly the first season, when they were, they didn't know if anyone was going to like this. It was super weird and that show is just so ambitious. I mean, towards the end, there's people, some of them are out on a raft.

Some of them are digging and, you know, trying to get the hatch open. And I have no idea how they were able to do that. Are you the kind of fan that has theories? Like when you were watching Lost, did you have your own theories? Oh, absolutely, yeah. What did you think? What, did you know that they were all dead? I don't remember.

Were you in Reddit? Did Reddit exist? Was there a blog? Man, if Reddit existed back in the lost days, wow. Wow. That almost sounded like Christopher Walken. That was going to be my next question. Do fans want to know more about walking or the goats when they come up to you?

That's a really good question. I think I get the goats more often, actually, which is crazy. I would ask about walking. Same. What have you learned from working with Christopher Walken? Walken. He's a unicorn. He's one of the kind. He really is and he's just such a sweet, cool person. And, you know, I, you know, when you're working with Christopher Walken and in season one, I didn't get to work with him, you know, all that. I had a couple scenes. And so what I

was able to notice right off the bat is that there is absolutely zero difference between between him pre-action and post-action, meaning that his presence is so relaxed and so he's so present that he's able to bring a full understanding and full life to what he's doing on camera, which is what we're all trying to do. We're all trying to get there. That's the name of the game. Yeah. Shut out the noise.

Yeah, man. He's just, he's as good as it gets. That's why when you watch him, you believe every nanosecond of it, because it is. It's real. He's managed to, and he's always been that way. You watch Annie Hall, he was that, you know, he's just one of our great actors. Start eliminating punctuation. Does he do that?

Is that real? that he actually gets rid of all the punctuation scripts? I don't know. I don't know. I heard that, you know, heard him say that on James Lipton, I think. So, okay, season two, this audience has just seen the first episode. For those that haven't seen season one, just catch us up in 30 seconds. What happens?

No problem. There is an amazing bit of exposition done in this episode, thanks to the voice, as it were, of the Lumen Building. Did anybody recognize that voice? Keanu, yeah. We can say that now. Yeah. Keanu Reeves.

I know. When, how, what do you know? Ben, you know, I guess he just reached out. I actually don't. It's perfect. I know. On so many levels. It is.

I remember when he told me on set who's going to do the voice, and I was just so unbelievably happy. And first thing I did was text my wife Naomi, who's just an enormous, an enormous Keanu Reeves fan. As am I. I mean, good Lord. He's so great and did an incredible job. Could he show up in corporeal form, in human form? How great would that be?

Have you shared space with Keanu Reeves in your life and your many Hollywood adventures? I have, actually, once, yeah. I've got to eat dinner next to each other once. Yeah. It was magical life. It was as magical as you would think it would be. Great table manners. Of course.

Infamously, the nicest guy in showbiz. Yep. Okay, so again, this is one of those shows. It's hard to talk about going forward because we're not going to spill any secrets. But the journey of Mark this season, obviously we ended on a hell of a cliffhanger in season one. How would you define Mark's journey through this season? Well, I think that, you know, the show really, we kind of widen the aperture of the show in season two. And I think also the characters, their worlds get a bit bigger.

And we, you know, we watch them all expand. And so, and Mark is no different. We get to see the, you know, Mark's Iny and Audi, you know, Marks Inney, obviously, is dealing with this vital, explosive piece of information, and whether or not his Audi is, you know, becomes privy to this information. the any and the Audi, do they have similar interests? Will their interests, you know, join together? Will they collide? We don't know, but you know. You can, I do know.

So you can just solve it for us very quickly. You can rest assured that it will be quite a journey? I don't know. Turned into promo guys. Let's stop saying journey. But do you guys, I mean, I would think you, Ben, Dan, everybody that works in the show, again, the lost analogy, I think is a good one. Like, there has to be that discussion of, like, how much to dole out, how much to keep an audience

kind of asking questions, asking new questions, what's satisfying for an audience? Is that an ongoing kind of debate? Sure. I mean, I think it's a legitimate thing to be thinking about. And, you know, I think that it's good to kind of be thinking about, you know, we don't want to keep every, the audience in the dark. I think, you know, somewhat of an unofficial rule is for any question that might be answered, there should be a few new ones asked, you know. But I think that, yeah, I mean, there certainly is a reason for everything occurring on the show. It's all rooted.

There's been a lot of talk, obviously, the opening scene of season two premiere as you running. Yes. Have you ever discussed your physical activity this much in the course of your press? Well, I've never run this much, that's for sure. Period. In a show or just in your life? Never. No, in life, nothing.

My God. Yeah, it was, it all started because as Ben and Dan were figuring out the beginning, you know, how we, the season gets kicked off, Ben asked me, you know, what would you do if you were, if this happened to you, what would you do? And my sort of knee jerk was that I would just start running. I would run and try to find Miss Casey because I just found out, you know, it's been three years for us, but for the character, it's been 10 seconds since the end of season one. So that kind of got Ben off on this kind of creative, set him on this creative path where he came up with this running sequence that we ended up shooting bit by bit over

about five months and has everything from me kind of, you know, in the elevator with this big kind of robotic arm spinning around me and going around and where I had to be, we had to choreograph it very carefully because once the robotic arm is set in motion, there's no stopping it and this thing is

huge and could, I don't know, take off your head. What a way to go though. What a story. Oh, fantastic way to go. Imagine the ratings. And all on camera. Yeah. And then at one point I'm running on a treadmill while on a harness, in case I trip, I can just kind of float there.

I knew more running was coming whenever a PA would come up to me and say, hey, which color Gatorade is your favorite? That meant within the next couple of days there would be some more running. And yet it wasn't the running that caused the concussion and the bloody nose? It's not the running that caused those things. What's happening to you? Are you falling apart? I guess so.

Thank you. It's okay. Is that what Jeff Goldblum screamed at? Yeah, I warned Adam, I called the Jeff Goldblum rule because we get audience questions. And Jeff reacted, he was a little extreme in his reaction. That's scary. So I warned Adam. Okay.

That's why I did. But I saw fear in your eyes. Yes. But no, the concussion and the bloody nose. Yeah, you know, it was just macro data refining. That's right. And I just, like, hit myself. Yeah, the bloody nose.

I didn't know why that was happening, but it wouldn't stop. So we had to shut down production. I had to go get, go to a emergency room and get the inside of my nose cauterized. Have you had this done? No. You got to do it. Everyone in Hollywood's doing it now. It's so fun.

Zemphic and cauterizing. Yes. It's, I asked the doctor if it was going to do. going to hurt. And he just said, well, yeah. But the far more challenging aspect is that it's going to feel like I'm shooting pepper up your nose. Don't sneeze. So he, it did feel like there was a lot of pepper in my nose. And he had to cauterize. Meanwhile, Ben is in the corner taking photos. Sure. For posterity. Yeah. For research. But it stopped the nosebleed. Does, you've, speaking of the physical activity, you've worked with a number of co-stars who have gotten like the eight-pack abs and turned into superheroes.

Yeah. Whether it's Pratt or Rudd. Yeah. Adam, it's your time. It's time. The running was the beginning. That's right. The nose story doesn't help the cause necessarily.

But are you willing to get the eight pack? Yeah. How do you know I don't already have an ape? I don't understand. Show it off. We're ready. What a twist. The first time at 90's you why someone just raised for a shirt. Very different culturally for those people. You did dabble in the superhero world.

You're Peter Parker's uncle, apparently. That's right. According to Canon now. That's right. He was, of course, in Madam Webb. Anything to say about Madam Webb? I mean, what is there left to say? I left an open-ended for your... Sure.

Yeah. And I appreciate it. Oh, this is it. Oh, this is it, the day you finally ask for that big promotion. You're in front of your mirror with your Starbucks coffee. Be confident. Assertive. Remember eye contact.

But also, remember to blink. Smile, but not too much. That's weird. What if you aren't any good? at your job. What if they dim out you instead? Okay, don't be silly. You're smart, you're driven, you're going to be late if you keep talking to the mirror. This promotion is yours. Go get them.

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Okay, so this one, your involvement in this, you're a producer now, I believe, in season two, correct? So does that change, it must change the job. Or is it once you're in production, you get rid of the, you get rid of the show? the producing hat and you're just wearing actor hat. Is that tough to kind of go back and forth when you're in production on something like this that demands a lot of you as an actor? No, I love it.

I've, again, I've been doing this for 30 years now, which is so weird. And I've found that for me, I am at my happiest when I get home and I've worked all the hours of the day. the three-hour breaks and stuff are nice and you know but I like being able to fill my time as much as possible and creatively I love producing and I love being helpful where I can and that's essentially what I try to do as a producer is just be as helpful and be available as much as I can to help solve problems or just discuss something creatively if it needs discussing. day-to-day in your life now, is Parks and Rec just always a part of your life? Like, are there quotes, references from fans every day, pretty much?

For sure, yeah, and the Parks fans are the best fans, always, always. Just the sweetest, smartest, kindest group of people. And, yeah, and the whole cast is close. We're all on a text chain together and everything. So it's all great. We're all buddies. Who's the best texter in that chain? The best texter?

Yeah, who delivers the best gifts, the best commentary. You know, Reda's an excellent texter. Yeah, Red is great at everything, so, you know, texting is no surprise. I'd love to just show a clip from Parks and Rec, just to reminisce. Sure. We're here anyway. I love it. If you guys can play the Parks and Recreation clip next, that would be amazing.

Hey man, you want to go for a jog to sort of kick out the cobwebs, get some dorphins going? Oh, no thanks, Chris. I'm kind of tearing this claymation video a new one right now. You know, Ben, I really think you need to take a step back here. I think getting some perspective would be good. What are you talking about? I've known you a long time. And right now, you need help.

With my claymache? With your life. You are wildly, insanely depressed. Depressed? I'm the furthest thing from depressed. I mean, look at what I've accomplished. Do you see him? Do you think a depressed person could make this? No.

Well, I haven't seen that in a really long time. I mean, I've seen the meme part. The depressed part? Does it take you back? What do you remember? Well, I haven't seen the show in a long time. Honestly, because it makes me sad to see the show. see the show because I miss them and I miss all the actors even though we're constantly in touch and stuff but I I miss the time of making it was a really just joyful five

years for me the seven years for the show getting to go work there every day with that group of people we had so much fun and it and we're making something that you know meant something to people. It meant something to us. And so, yeah, I haven't really seen it a while, but I should because that was fun. It's a good show. You should watch it. Yeah. It is one of those shows. You're going to your dying day, going to be asked about. Yeah. Be asked about getting back together. For sure. In your mind, is it the kind of show that you want like every 10 or 15 years to like do something together just to try it? Or does that feel like leave well enough alone? I don't know. I mean, that's entirely up to Mike Schur and Amy Poehler and

Greg Daniels who created it with Mike. I mean, but, you know, we did something during the pandemic. We made, like, a new episode where we were all in our homes. But the show itself, the series finale kind of took us to the end. It jumped pretty far ahead in the future. So I'm not sure what else there is to add, but, you know, it's not up to me at all. Is it harder to describe macro data refining? for Cones of Dunshire.

Oh, my God. Honestly, probably macro data refining is probably easier. Easier, okay. Yeah, oh, easier, yes. I think Cones of Dunchyre is impossible. Didn't we play Cones of Dunchyre at one point? There was video evidence in the internet. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what are you doing when you're refining? What's the directive? How have you figured out to how to macro data? refine you mean like technically yeah literally what are you doing yeah we well those computer monitors and the keyboards are specifically designed for the show and they really do work and so the sort of mouse type device that you're using you're grouping numbers together but it's entirely based on feeling and you're kind of selecting a group of numbers and then binning them

one group at a time, pretty much as you see it on the show. That's what you do. And we're all quite good at it. You've had, you've put in the hours. We sure did. You are hopefully going to be embarking on yet another new adventure in your career. You want to direct a movie. This is an aspiration.

Yeah. Has this been something on your mind for a while? It has been. I've been looking for something for a long time. And, yeah, we hope to. We hope to be doing it sometime soon, but yeah, we have an incredible cast, and, yeah, I mean, I couldn't be more excited. It's just a matter of finding the time to do it, but yes, we hope to be rolling ASAP. Do you feel like you've found some kind of balance?

We talked at the outset of kind of like the odd nature of your career, of kind of finding yourself in this. comedy realm and then kind of backing into drama and back and forth. It feels like now people know you for both, thankfully, and that's quite an achievement to know that you can do both and can do both very, very well. Do you anticipate it's always going to be the case of like, as soon as you've done one, it's time to try the other? That's an interesting question. Or as Zach Galefenakis said when I was on Between Two Ferns, he said,

comedy, drama, what can you do? I think so. I mean, I think that it's always fun to kind of vacillate back and forth, but at the same time, it's also just project specific and what kind of makes sense for me at a particular moment. It's all material-based, I guess. We don't know officially yet. Hopefully we'll get more severance, but do you and Ben and Dan know if the audience is there? I don't expect you to answer this, by the way.

How many seasons? Do you have an idea of what this would be in your perfect world? Pretty much, yeah, I think so. I think so. Three to five, five to seven. It's worthless. Less than 70. Oh.

Yeah. It's an exclusive. Okay. We're going to end here with the happy second fuse profoundly random questions, Adam. Are you ready? Yeah. Dogs or cats? Dogs.

Hmm. But I really don't qualify. I know. I hate cats. But I do love cats. But dogs. Yeah. I didn't have a dog until about eight years ago, nine years ago, ever.

I always wanted one. We got some dogs and it's just unlike. It's just unlike anything else. What do you collect? What do I collect? I mean, I used to collect Blu-rays and CDs. Don't say like that.

That'd be proud. What do you mean? Physical media is still around? It's still around, but it's in, you know, boxes. Bins under my house. I guess maybe I enjoy clothing,

you know, because all that has kind of gone out the window. What's the best video game of all time? For a video game you spent the most time playing? Maybe... Boy, I was never the biggest video game person. But when I was a kid, I played a lot of Castle Wolfenstein. The original Apple 2E version.

Do you remember that? I don't know if I remember the specific version you're talking about. I remember Castle Wolfenstein. Are you killing Nazis in that? Yes. Yes. Which is always good. Always good.

Never goes out of style. Get rid of them. Yeah. I'm going to take the controversial stance that I'm anti-Nazi. That I'm against Nazis. That's right. What's the wallpaper on your phone? Oh, it's a picture of my kids embracing.

Wow. Yeah. Aw. Yeah. Last actor you were mistaken for? Oh, that's a good one. Boy, I don't know. Does it ever happen?

Have you ever signed someone else's photo? Have you... No. I don't know. I don't know who the last actor I was mistaken for. Was there ever appeared because you've known Rudd forever. I could imagine there were some parallel parts you were maybe up for along the way. Did you have that at all?

Really, he kind of became a big deal right away. Like when I was in acting school, he had graduated, he graduated, I guess, two years before I did, but we all knew about him because he had gotten a Nintendo commercial and was already a huge deal. But yeah, early on he got clueless, which was like, you know, we were just like in our 20s, and he suddenly got this big thing, and yeah, he was always a big deal. rightly so. Yes. What's the worst note a director has ever given you?

Oh my gosh. You know what one that I am never able? I never know what to do with. And it's not a bad piece of direction. I just can't, for whatever reason, I can't turn it into anything good is when they tell me to just have fun with it. Right. I don't know what that means.

I don't know how to just have fun. That's a bigger issue for you. Yes. That's actually a good sort of peek inside my process. So that one, it's not bad per se, but for me, it won't get us anywhere. Right. And in the spirit of Happy Second Fuse, who's an actor who always makes you happy. You see them on screen.

You're in a better mood automatically. Harrison Ford. Yes. Yeah. He's, you know, everything to me. Have you told him this? I've never met him. But we went to the premiere for Indiana Jones in the Dial of Destiny,

and which I've seen many, many times now. now. Yeah, I know. And so we were sitting there, getting ready, John Williams and his orchestra was playing, and then Kiwi Kwan came down and sat right in front of me. And I know him a little bit, and so I said hello, and we were both excited to see this movie. Now, Temple of Doom is my favorite movie.

I love it. Okay? Doom, Alzheimer. Unbelievable. Everything is unbelievable. And I was 11 when it came out, so it was made for me. It was perfect, and I still feel that way about it. But I was sitting behind short round, watching the new Indiana Jones movie, and that was

one of the great moments for me. But still, I did not go and meet Harrison Ford. I think it was too, I would be too freaked out, probably. I'll be Harrison. You come up to me. Hey, kid. Can I get you anything to drink, sir? I'll be right back.

A movie that makes you sad. That makes me sad? Boy. You know, a movie that makes me sad every time and is wildly underrated and excellent as the Curtis Hansen movie in her shoes. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's very good and just beautifully acted by Tony Collette and Cameron Diaz. But the ending of that movie is heartbreaking.

And finally, a food that makes you confused of. That makes me confused? You don't get it. You know what? I'm going to say, and this goes directly to Parks and Rec, is for all the, you know, hubbub about Ben Wyatt and his favorite food, I find calzone's confusing. Why? And often when I go to Italian restaurants, they ask me if I would like to try the calzone.

And sometimes calzones are sent over. And every time that happens, I text Mike Schur and I just say, again, thanks. People were trying to give you bread and cheese. Yeah, and it's delicious, but I still find it an utterly confusing food. It was a love fest for you. We all loved you up until that moment. Now you've lost the crowd. I turned on the calzone.

I think that's a good note to end on. Severance, Season 2, it's just getting started, guys. I say spread the good word, but everybody knows about severance. But tell your friends, thank you so much for coming out tonight. Give it up one more time. Adam Scott, everybody. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh. Hey, Michael. Hey, Tom. You want to tell him or you want me to tell him? No, no, no. I got this. People out there.

People. Lean in. Get close. Get close. Listen. Here's the deal. We have big news. We got monumental news.

We got snack-tacular news. Yeah, after a brief hiatus, my good friend, Michael Ian Black, and I are coming back. My good friend, Tom Kavanaugh and I, are coming back to do what we do best. What we were put on this earth to do. To pick a snack. To eat a snack. And to rate a snack. Nentifically.

Emotionally? Spiritually. Mates is back. Mike and Tom eat snacks. Is back. A podcast for anyone with a mouth. With a mouth. Available wherever you get. your podcasts.