Adam Scott was surprised by his Severance co-stars who sent him a video congratulating him on winning the Canal Plus Icon Award at the Cannes series.
“You are so deserving of this award. You make going to work feel like going to summer camp, a weird summer camp where the sun doesn’t shine. You lead with kindness and work hard with joy, and I am often struck by how good you are at acting and how slow you are walking down the hall,” said Britt Lower, who also questioned Scott.
“Is your day built around routine rather than spontaneity?”
“Walking slowly down the hall is shit,” he laughed.
“I’m a creature of routine. When I’m alone in New York filming the show, I like to do laundry. It relaxes me. When I run out of things to wash, I’m running around looking for towels or something to put in the washing machine. Routine suits me.”
Trammell Tillman asked another question, mentioning the fruit basket used to convince Scott’s character Mark to return to Lumont. “What fruit or food would convince you to do something that you find appalling or questionable?”
“I love ants on a log with peanut butter and raisins on celery. But is it so good that I would do something ethically questionable? Maybe a Rice Krispies treat.”
Speaking at the French Festival Masterclass, Scott said he never expected “Severance” to be such a hit.
“No, I really didn’t know. I don’t think any of us knew. We all thought it was weird and maybe it would be greeted with a shrug. In the back of my head, I thought people were going to point at us and laugh and make fun of us and run away. That was my ultimate nightmare,” he confessed.
“I’m always in a state of relief with the response to Season 1 and the even greater response to Season 2. It’s really amazing that people connected to it and understood it. And the fans are really creative and it fuels their imagination. I couldn’t have asked for more.”
However, he still doesn’t feel part of pop culture.
“That’s hard for me to understand. I’m so involved in pop culture that for some people to think I’m woven into its fabric is strange and hard to recognize.”
He doesn’t consider himself an icon either.
“It’s strange that something has the word ‘icon’ in it. I still feel exactly the same as I did when I was 20 years old, looking for an agent and not knowing if I would ever find one. It doesn’t really feel like 30 years have passed.”
Scott talked about his beginnings, recalling his early obsession with “ET.”
“This was the first movie I ever saw by myself. I forced every adult in my life to take me to see it. It didn’t matter if they were family friends or relatives. If you were able-bodied and my mom said okay, she would take me. One day, I was feeling grumpy because I hadn’t seen it in a day or two, and my mom said, ‘Why don’t you watch it by yourself?’ It was a transformative experience.”
For a long time he did not tell anyone that he wanted to become an actor.
“I kept it a secret. I was embarrassed. I kept it to myself for years and years. But ever since I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark, I’ve always felt like I could do it.”
“My mom was the first person I mentioned it to. I was watching the Academy Awards and River Phoenix was nominated for ‘Running on Empty.'” I was so proud to see him nominated for an Academy Award for this amazing performance. I said, “Hey, I think I can do it.” She answered: “Yes, I know.” And now you have to sleep. ”She was always incredibly supportive. ”
He didn’t really understand the odds he was dealing with. “I had absolute confidence, but I was also extremely insecure, and that combination was what kept me going.” So at first, he tried to emulate his hero, Ethan Hawke.
“In 1994, when I was just starting out, ‘Reality Bites’ had just come out. He was the coolest guy I’d ever seen. I wanted to dress like that and talk like that. I wanted to imitate him. Nothing. I was a little nervous about that, but I felt like I could grasp what he was doing. It took me many years to realize that if you want to create authentic work as an actor, you can’t imitate anyone else. The only power you have is yourself.”
He no longer compares himself to others.
“It’s a short path to one place: unhappiness. In show business, it’s easy to get caught up in jealousy. But that misses the whole point. What you bring to the table is yourself. It took me 12, 15 years to realize that to do this properly, you have to be willing to share everything that’s inside of you.”
Step Brothers was also an important experience for him as an actor that “turned everything upside down.”
“They had so much fun doing one or two scripted takes and then throwing everything up in the air and improvising and messing up. I never thought about anything like that. I was very strict, always trying to get it right. I liken it to learning to throw the javelin at the Olympics with all the cameras and the audience. But by the end of that movie, I didn’t want to go back.”
Yet, I never feel accomplished. At least in this industry.
“I don’t think anyone would. Everyone always feels like they’re on some shaky ground. That’s part of the excitement of this event. Everyone is a little unsure.”
