Adam Scott already knows how Disconnect will end.
“Oh, yeah. I’m the executive producer of the show, so I’m involved in everything. I talk to the writers and Dan (Erickson) all the time. I know everything that’s going on. (As an actor) I like to have as much information as possible.”
Like the whole world, he’s more than ready for Season 3.
“It’s going to be amazing. There are lots of surprises. I can’t wait to shoot it,” he said. As previously announced, Ben Stiller will not be directing this time.
“Ben is still very involved in the show, and I’m sure it’s going to be great. As you know, it’s been over two years since we finished filming season two. We’re all anxious to be back. We’re all looking forward to seeing each other.”
Scott, who will receive the Canal+ Icon Award at the Cannes series this week, admitted he really, really wanted the role.
“I don’t know if you could classify this as a battle, but I definitely had to prove that I could do it. That’s understandable. This was a big show and a big investment for Apple, so they needed to see that,” he recalled.
“This is an incredible role in an incredible world. It’s everything I’ve always wanted to do. When I read the script, the first thing I thought was, ‘I’m probably not going to get this job. But if I get this job, it’s going to be because I’ve earned this much over the last 30 years. It’s an opportunity to be considered for a job like this and a role where you can explore different sides of this person.’
“Fortunately, I’ve only auditioned once. The more you do, the more likely you are to fail.”
When “Parks and Recreation” ended, he wanted to find “something a little more dramatic.” “I just wanted to change things up. It was hard to get recognition for things that weren’t comedies. For example, I really looked for Big Little Lies. That’s what I really wanted to do. I wanted to work with Reese Witherspoon and the actors and Jean-Marc Vallée. But to do that, I had to really campaign and do a few auditions and prove to them that I could do something that wasn’t a comedy.”
“Retirement,” he says, “felt like a full meal.”
“It felt like a complex character, a complex world, and an adventure. Everything I’d done before, they all fulfilled me. But this felt more like a culmination.”
He took some time to figure out how to portray the infamous transition scene. “It can be really corny to switch from one thing to another in an elevator. Ben kept this ‘elevator set’ aside, so whenever he had a few minutes he could go in there and practice and see how the change happened.”
“We must have done it hundreds of times before we came up with something that worked. I think it was Ben who came up with it with a little blink of an eye. Oh, I’m sure we did a lot of stupid things.”
With many questions left unanswered, “Severance” quickly achieved a cult following similar to “Twin Peaks.”
“I love ‘Twin Peaks,’ and I love that people keep discovering it over and over again. I don’t know if[Severance]will live on in the culture and be remembered that way, but I agree. There’s great power in what you don’t know.”
“What we always try to do on the show is leave an element of mystery. I loved the way ‘The Sopranos’ ended. It was frustrating, but great, and we still don’t get it. I like that not just in TV shows and movies, but in music. I’ve always liked bands that don’t try to tell you everything about how the music is made and who makes it. I like having a place where the imagination can reach out and find the mystery that makes it work.”
Scott isn’t worried about being typecast again after being “fired.”
“The great thing about a role like Mark is that you never know what aspects of the role will typecast me. And even if that happens, I think it’s all worth it because I love this show so much.”
He recently produced the horror film ‘Hokum’.
“It’s really scary. As just a fan and as someone who participates in horror movies from time to time, I feel like the criteria for a horror movie is that it should first be a good movie, and then it should be a good horror movie. It needs to be able to stand on its own as a character, as an interesting character, as an interesting story. And the horror elements are pretty much an added bonus,” he said.
“It’s been a while since I’ve starred in a movie that’s going to be released in theaters, and I love it. That’s what first made me want to do this movie. Sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers and seeing something that really moves and excites me.”
“Disconnection” also moves people.
“When this show first came out, we were still coming out of the pandemic. People were gradually returning to offices or working from home, and this new work-life balance felt strange for everyone. I think this show evoked those feelings,” he said.
“With a high-concept work like Disconnection, there has to be an emotional element that you can relate to, and you have to have characters that you can relate to. Otherwise, it’s just funny and not emotionally engaging.”
He added, “If you were presented with this technology, would you do this? Once you seriously consider that question, you start thinking about your life in a certain way, and that leads you on an interesting journey.”
