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This is Jane Pauley. Whether you know him from Parks and Recreation, Big Little Lies, or the hit streaming series Severance. You'll want to hear what actor Adam Scott has to tell Sunday morning's Connor Knighton. Severance is one of those shows that people obsess about. Between each week of it airing, they're talking about what's going to happen next.
What were those shows for you as a kid? Were there shows or movies that you were obsessing about? Yes, that's so. I love. that question, is that something I love?
Talking about, and I think everyone who lives in my house with me is sick of hearing me talk about any of it. Let me be those ears then. Yeah, bring it on. My dad got me a TV when I was a kid. I was probably like 10 or 11 years old, a five-inch black and white, like portable television.
But we didn't have a TV over at my mom's house.
So I had my own television that I could just watch with abandon. And I watched. Uh you know, from like seven o'clock when whatever was syndicated. was on to usually when they Do you remember back when they used to just shut off? Oh, yeah, there's like the American flag, and then like they would play the national anthem, and then TV would just end.
I would watch every night, usually after whatever came after Letterman. But the things that I loved, that I grew to love in my room, just watching on that five-inch TV, that were the Twilight Zone. But then I discovered David Letterman there, and that was a huge. uh perspective change for me as a kid just seeing stuff on that show that I had never seen. On TV before.
They were just trying things and doing things and kind of reinventing comedy. And it was every day there was another hour of it. And it was all. To me, it was all incredible. That original kind of 12:30 a.m.
NBC show just sort of shifted my perspective on everything. Were you looking at that thinking, oh, I might like to do that professionally? Did that even cross your mind? 100%. In fact, I used to practice on my bed.
I would set it up like a couch. I would shove all the pillows around so it was like a couch, and I would practice being on David Letterman. Representing some other as a guest, saying, Yeah, you know what? It was a lot of pranks on set. That's right.
Just like coming up with whatever. Fake pro I remember I had a project that I would pretend I was promoting where Harrison Ford and I were playing father and son cops. And so I would talk about that with Dave and like make jokes about it with an imaginary. I'm sure I just looked like an insane person. For what it's worth, I would watch that today.
It's not too late to make that joke.
Sounds great.
Well, and so that like I don't know, there's a lot of sort of kid versions of that where you're also pretending to land on the moon and you're pretending that you're dunking a basketball in the NBA finals. When did it start to transition into something that you actually thought you might be able to do professionally? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think it really started with. Raiders of the Lost Ark and just saying, like, I want to do that, not really thinking about acting so much because I think it was 81, I was like eight years old, but just like, nothing looks more fun than that.
And it was, I remember it being funny too. And In excitement, calling my mom when I got to my friend's house after seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark and trying to explain to her. I couldn't stop talking, and there were all these feelings, and it was that it was so funny. I was trying to. Convey, like it was this big adventure thing that I, that, you know, no one had seen anything like that movie at the time, but also it was hilarious.
So, Anyway, that was sort of Shifted, and it was from then on that I knew that's exactly what I wanted to do as far as like. It being acting, and that's a profession. And that kind of came later, I think. Like, really, ET was a big shifter, seeing those kids up there doing that. E.T., you know, I went and saw just over and over again.
I would go by myself, just ride my bike, and watch that movie again and again. And I think seeing Henry Thomas and Drew Barrymore, kind of these kids, and seeing them actually. Uh with that job, it it sort of sunk in for me. Tell me about Santa Cruz because it's always sort of seemed like it's doing its own thing. It's not Southern California.
It's not white Northern California. And it certainly doesn't seem like a place where there's a bunch of child actors. Like you're seeing these people in movies and on TV, but like it's not a town, it's not an industry town like that, where if you went a couple hours south, it would be. Yeah, it's really not. I mean, it may as well be.
Alaska or something as far as show business is concerned. It sort of felt like I may as well have been wanting to go land on the moon or something, being an actor on TV or in movies. But at a very early age, a production The mini-series version of East of Eden came and shot directly across the street from us. And so I saw the trailers and they covered all of our streets in dirt and there were horses, horse-drawn carriages. And I remember Richard Thomas and Jane Seymour seeing them from like 50 feet away walking to their trailers and my sister sort of saying like, those are the actors.
And they're going. And I just couldn't believe it. It just looked.
So fun just pretending they had these big fancy costumes on and stuff. I just couldn't believe that that's how they actually made the thing that I watched on TV.
So that really stuck in my mind. I still remember that so vividly. But then. Like a few years later, when I was like 12, 13 years old, they shot the movie The Lost Boys in Santa Cruz, and my next-door neighbor. Joe Ferrara, he owned the comic book store that they shot all the comic book store scenes in in that movie.
So I got to visit the set and meet Joel Schumacher and I saw Corey Feldman and Corey Haim walking around. And that was really like, this is a real thing. And I can see those guys walking around. I want to be like them. And that being such a big, cool movie.
And then getting to see it a year later and being like, holy cow, that's a real thing. I've been inside that comic book shop. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um and so then What steps did you take at that point? Did you start, was there a theater kid version of you?
How did that shape out in high school?
Sort of, I was a little bit, socially being an act, being in the drama department was frowned upon at the high school I went to. And so I sort of shied away from it, but eventually. Just it sort of drew me, and there was this really lovely theater there at our high school. And when I was a sophomore, I started going there and participating in the plays, and then just sort of Yeah. Never left.
It's every year that's what I did. I was directing plays and acting in them, and I just loved it and felt like. I was accomplishing something that was special. It felt like this was something that not everybody could do. And up until that point, there was nothing I could never really find a foothold in sports or academics.
But in this theater, and the community around it, I felt like I found something that I excelled at. Were your parents supportive of that? They're both teachers.
Son wants to be an actor. Is that a difficult conversation? No, they were very supportive. I mean, as far as wanting to do it for a living, I kept it a secret. It was something, like I said, I knew since I was nine years old that I wanted to do, but I kept it a secret until I was, you know, close to graduating high school.
I remember I told my mom. Um That That's something that I want to do. It was, I think, when River Phoenix was nominated for an Academy Award for Running on Empty.
So it would have been like 1988. And I remember she dipped her head into my room to check on me. And I pointed at the screen. They were showing a clip from Running on Empty. And I idolized River Phoenix, obviously.
And they said, I think I can do that. I think I want to do that. I think I can win an Academy Award.
Well, no. But seeing him and how great he was, and thinking, like, I think. I think I could do that. And she was like, Yeah, I know you can.
Now get to bed. Like she just, she had already absorbed it and knew somehow that that's what I wanted to do. It was something that I kind of kept from everybody. until it was time to make decisions when I was graduating high school. Yeah, and so then how did you pursue that path at that point?
I moved to LA. I moved to Pasadena and went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. And it was this two-year school. I wanted to, I just wanted to get started as soon as possible. I was 18 and I moved down here.
alone not knowing a soul. And uh moved into a guest house in Pasadena and just started going to theater school. And sort of starting to started to make my way that way. And it was a couple of years later when I graduated and came here to Hollywood and started, you know, auditioning and stuff. It seems like if you're a theater major, At A more traditional college.
Well, then there's also kids doing biology and chemistry. But like when you're at a theater school, is that did that? Help focus? Was that ultra-competitive? What was that environment like to only be around other actors?
It was super scary at first because it was all actors, and I was suddenly a tiny fish in a large pond rather than in high school. I was like, a starter actor. Right. But the cool thing about it was, oh, these are all Theater and acting and movie nerds, just like I am, like people who think about. Movies and TV shows all day, like I do.
I'd never been around that many people who just wanted to talk about acting and talk about Robert De Niro or whatever.
So I finally was in an environment where I got to do that. And rather than it being a distraction, it helped me thrive in this environment. I was interested in everything I was doing rather than in high school where. Regrettably, I was not as interested in algebra and biology and more interested in whatever play we were doing. And what type of actor did you envision yourself being?
Who were your idols that you were looking up to at that point? When I was in theater school, I really fancied myself as a very serious actor in the vein of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. In fact, At one point, I wanted to change my last name to Cordero. because I remember writing on a piece of paper, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino. Adam Cordero.
My mother's maiden name was Corderaro, which is Sicilian name, like De Niro and Pacino. But it was long, so I shortened it from Corderaro to Cordero. And I remember looking at it on a piece of paper and just being like, That's the one. This is it. No doubt.
If anything, Adam Scott kind of sounds like a fake name. That's your real name? That's what people say, it sounds fake. And I always thought it sounded. I don't know, it didn't sound distinct enough or Italian enough as it, as you know, because I thought those guys are the best ones and they're Italian.
I'm part Sicilian, I should be able to have it. A long time that was the idea was to change it. And then I think it just became too much of a hassle, or someone explained to me how lame it was.
So I, so I never.
So there's not headshots out there that say Adam Cordero on it.
Okay. I wish. But I made the mistake of. Of telling this story to my co-stars on Party Down. And so, whenever we were shooting a scene that had any sincerity to it or any note of, Of anything dramatic in it, everyone would just stop and be like, uh-oh.
Cordero's on set. Everybody, watch out.
So, unfortunately, it's all true. And so, when you graduate, there's a fair amount. I mean, just starting off like a lot of actors do, you're doing some background work. Tell me about that. Because I think that's a process that everyone sees, but unless you participated in it or been on the set, you don't really understand what goes into that and how sort of exciting it can be.
And then also maybe segueing into like demoralizing it can be. What was that experience like? I'm so glad I did. As much background work as I did because now working on sets, I can see the background actors are always around and I know exactly how it feels. And it's good to kind of be able to put yourself in the shoes of as many people as possible on set, I think.
And it's hard work being a background actor. You have to be really patient and there's a way to do it. that's really bad and doesn't look right. on camera and there's a way to do it where it where it does look right and it makes the scene feel legitimate.
So it's not just standing around. It actually does, there actually is skill to it. And I was not one of the skilled ones, just to be clear. Would you call people and say, hey, tune in tonight? And then blurry in the background, you might see me.
Were you excited about this at the time? I was extremely excited. In fact, the first one I did was a music video for Tia Carrera, the actor from Wayne's World. Yeah, sure. And she was singing a song, and I was in the background.
I had a beret on, my own, that I brought. And I was at a table having coffee with a young woman. And I remember talking to her and trying to like work out a scene between the two of us because I was taking it really seriously. And I soon came to realize that was not necessary. And she did not think it was necessary either.
And I did just mostly music videos, is what I was doing, background work. This is in. early or mid like the summer of 1993. And so then, like, as things did start to work out for you, what were those early moments where those early successes where you thought, okay, this might I might not have to move back home, this I've got something going here? Yeah.
I think that um That I had enough of those. little Um those jobs I would get where it would feel like I was getting some momentum, and something was happening just enough to keep me satiated and be able to keep my hopes up. Because it was, it ended up being. 15 years until I actually had a career that I could kind of. Look at and say, I finally have something palpable that I can actually call a career.
It took a long time. Um But up until then, I was kind of, you know, leapfrogging from one guest spot to another, one small role in a movie to another, enough to make a living and enough to keep me sort of creatively engaged. And, but most importantly for me, just kind of keep my hopes up that whole time. I think delusion is the wrong word, but there is a certain amount of Um Hope. that you need to keep yourself afloat with.
And for me, I needed those jobs here and there. And there were some false starts, things that I thought were going to going to, you know, provide me with more solid ground to to to to to piece piecemeal a a a career together upon that ended up not really being the one pilot that doesn't go or pilot that doesn't go or I I got a You know, as a fluke, I got one of the lead roles in this Ashley Judd Morgan Freeman movie that was. Just such a big deal. Just out of no, someone fell out, and so they needed to cast it quickly. And I got the role, and it was this unbelievable opportunity.
And You know, it's certainly... uh helped and helped kind of You know, as far as me learning how to work on a larger set like that with these huge stars. But it wasn't the kind of watershed moment that I thought it was going to be. But I think it's important for actors to know that. You've got to just keep your head down and keep at it.
No matter how incredible or fancy the job may seem, you never know what it's actually going to bring. You were in Party Down, which is a show about struggling actors doing another job to pay the bills. What was your version of that? Were you doing other jobs to pay the bills? Luckily, I wasn't.
From the moment I sort of got my first few jobs, I was able to skate by. Certainly, when I was first starting out, I was doing background work, and my grandma would pay my rent for me. I remember I was staying in a place that was like $275 a month, and she would just pay it for me for those first several months I was down in LA. Saved me. I don't think I could have stayed down here otherwise because I was spending all of my time hustling and trying to.
Uh get representation or get uh Uh auditions or whatever. In the studio, you play a version of yourself where you're accepting a Golden Globe for an imaginary project. But in that speech, you thank one of the characters on that show for letting you sleep on his couch. And so, was there a version of that in your life? Do you have a Sal Saperstein who you feel grateful to from back in those days?
I think all of my friends that we all kind of went to school together and then kind of ventured from Pasadena to Hollywood, not the longest trip, but it felt like a completely different world. We kind of did that together. And I don't know if I could have. survive those first you know, a couple of years in Hollywood without this tight-knit group of friends. We'll have more from our Sunday morning extended interview after this break.
What does possibility mean to you? Um, that's a hard question.
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Sometimes, if it's a bunch of friends trying to do the same thing, that can get a little competitive, supportive and competitive. I've been in that situation where it's like, oh, good for you.
So, were there versions of that where you started to see some of those friends succeed, and then that made the fact that you were still maybe you hadn't gotten to that level yet frustrating, or were you able to just be happy for them? I think that one thing I always felt that I knew about myself is that I was never going to leave. I didn't have any other options. And a lot of people from school, I saw them give it a few months or a couple of years, and then one by one, they.
Sort of move back home or decided, you know, this isn't for me and decided to do something else. But I knew that I was just going to stick around until.
Something happened, something came together for me. And And so I feel like that's something. At the time, I felt I had on everyone else, whether they were my friends or just people in my peer group. I just knew I was never going to leave. A friend that I knew from that I met because of the academy was Paul Rudd.
He graduated a couple of years before I started there, but we had the same friends and stuff and started hanging out way back then. And It was clear from the get-go that Paul was like a star because he got this Nintendo commercial right out of school. I hadn't seen that Nintendo commercial. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, you can just tell.
Uh But with Paul, it was complete there was never any competition. It was... We were always just close friends and I was always so psyched for him. I remember Clueless was the big thing where suddenly people were recognizing Paul out in the world. It was so weird, but so fun.
Um And With he and I, it's always been the most supportive. uh relation and i have a lot of my career i have i have paul to thank for it in the first place you know um And uh he's always just been the the coolest and Best friend a person could have. I feel like you guys both met up at the same fountain of youth because there's been, I don't know if you've seen this recently, but in the last week, there's been some like series of articles where I think the fact someone found out you have children who are like 18 and 16. Adam Scott has an 18-year-old kid? What?
I thought he's 30.
So. Listen, I'll take it. My God, please. Fine. A lot of people relate to severance because of that sentiment of like, wouldn't it be nice to turn your brain off from nine to five and not do my mind-numbing job?
See, I think you never really had a job like that, though. How do you tap into that? It's funny because the things that ended up really sort of making a difference in my career were like Parks and Wreck and Party Down and Severance. They are largely shows that are about work. And these are jobs that I've never actually had to participate in in real life because I was always in a play or doing a guest spot on NYPD Blue or whatever.
I was able to just stay afloat without having to do that. I did work at Johnny Rockets once for one day. That's as far as I got with waiting tables. I was not good at it. To the point that they sort of showed you the door after that?
I don't think they were sorry to see me go. But uh But yeah, I think that I I guess I relate to these kind of feelings that these characters have. Because It's been sort of this long uh path for me in show business Where it was Years and years of sort of walking uphill and not knowing if it was ever going to happen. And there are a lot of. moments of heartbreak and I guess you could say humiliation.
It's sort of an embarrassing job. Whether you're successful or not, acting is kind of embarrassing.
So I feel like whatever it is, I like with party down. I think all of us certainly. Uh Felt. In our bones, what those characters were feeling, the sort of frustration of. uh being at this for so long and You know, staying completely anonymous and people not even seeing you at the party when you're holding up the hors d'oeuvres.
You're just sort of this invisible person. I think we all knew exactly what that felt like. And You know, the fact that the show wasn't this hit at all while we were on the air, it sort of was an anonymous show. We it sort of made us corral around and made us even Mm-hmm. Uh More solidified as a group, and we did the show for each other because we all understood how each other were feeling.
So now that obviously a very comedic show, but prior to that, it had been sort of a run of dramas for you, right? And certainly Adam Cordero wanted to be a dramatic actor. That's right. When did the pivot to comedy happen? You know, it happened Pretty suddenly with stepbrothers, which was a total fluke.
Like that was another situation where someone dropped out of the role at the last minute and they had to cast it quickly. And I happened to get in there on the right day and just have the right, I was usually terrible at auditioning, but for whatever reason, when I auditioned for Adam McKay and Will Farrell was there. It just sort of clicked and I got the part. I was... As shocked as anyone, because, like you said, up until that point, I hadn't really done anything.
At the time, I was doing this. deeply dramatic show on HBO that was that wasn't funny at all. And nor had I I used to have trouble getting auditions for things that were comedic. I think you kind of jumped not just to comedy, but that's Will Ferrell Adam make, hey, that's comedy at the highest level. Oh, yeah.
Was that intimidating to be like, listen, I haven't even done a couple of jokes. Unbelievably intimidating. And those guys love to improvise, which I had never really done before. And I think it was. It was apparent when you saw me on the set of stepbrothers that this was something I didn't really know.
So I kind of felt like I was. I don't know, like learning how to throw the javelin at the Olympics, like with all the cameras and the stadium full of people watching you, and you're around Olympic athletes who are at the very top of their game, and you're holding a javelin for the first time to sort of. Watching them, how do you, you know, but they were patient with me. And I think by the end of the shoot, you know, a couple months in, I started to kind of. Of get the hang of it, and just seeing how those guys work and seeing how generous they are with each other and how much fun they were having.
and the unpreciousness of what they were doing. Like, let's just try everything. And There's no pressure on getting it right because we'll just try a bunch of stuff and take the bits and pieces that are hilarious and that work and we'll put those in the movie. And the stuff that doesn't work, who cares? We're just having fun.
Like Who cares? And that was sort of uh eye-opening and I just at that moment Kind of felt like I never wanted to go back. Like comedy just felt. Uh First of all, there was this camaraderie in it where you're all doing something together that you're trying to make something hilarious, and it only works if everybody's working in sync together, which is just so much fun and much different than everyone kind of being siloed off from each other and trying to cry or be as dramatic as possible, which is sometimes how I felt doing more kind of dramatic things.
So it was really, really fun. And it sort of from there, led me to party down and park some rat good stuff. That Stepbrothers character, very memorable character, and a type that you haven't done often, but when you do, you do it really well. Which is, I don't know how I describe it, sort of like cocky. A-Hole jerk.
Yeah, exactly. That's it. And the Sunday morning way would be a-hole. Yes. And so, which is, you know, very much not you as a person.
How do you tap into that? And is that fun for you to play such a jerk? It's super fun. And I love it so much. I think a-holes are hilarious.
I think William Atherton in Ghostbusters was an early one that I loved. He's sort of the mayor's, the assistant mayor in Ghostbusters. The guy's trying to shut him down the whole time. The worst. And just, he's a great actor, so funny.
But I always found the a-holes to be hilarious, both on screen and in real life. I remember when I got the role in Stepbrothers, I immediately went out and got. A couple issues of the Rob Report, which is all rich guys with their jets and their suits and their cigars. And I think that's really funny. Guys who think they're awesome is the best.
Sure.
So for whatever reason, I I always loved playing that that that role. And so in some ways it's almost seemed like Like You've had to Pivot. Back, at least in people's perceptions, because then you became known as a comedic actor, even though you'd had this whole dramatic career, just maybe in projects that had been lesser seen. Do you now find yourself, or was there a point where you found yourself? Almost pigeonholed as a comedic actor.
Oh, for sure. Yeah. after Parks and Wreck ended. I wanted to do kind of veer into something a little more dramatic and just do something different because that was the only work I could really find or could be seriously considered for were. were comedic roles, hence seeing me in Hot Tub Time Machine 2, you know, that's what I was seen as.
So After parks and wreck ended, Uh you know, I was looking for and having trouble finding something that I could be taken seriously for.
Something a little more dramatic. And then big little lies came along and I really, you know. wanted that role. I knew the scripts were incredible and obviously the cast was incredible.
So I went and auditioned a few times for that and really fought to get that role and was pleased when I did. Parks was It I'm guessing just because of the duration of Of how long you were on it. To date, still the character, Ben Wyatt, is who you've played the longest, right? For sure. And so that.
Is a show that's continued to have a life on streaming. I think for a lot of people, it's a comfort show. Totally. Because it sort of represents a more comforting time. I mean, it's government, but it's not scary government.
It's like happy government. Yeah. What was the place you were in your own life back then? Like, can you think back to that and just what that being in an ensemble, being on sort of a more cheerful, regular show that wasn't cynical? What was that like?
It was so fun and just so special. And I think all of us knew it at the time. We all knew that this wasn't something to take for granted. This was so much fun. fun And it's such a supportive environment, Amy Puller and Mike Scherr, and Greg Daniels, who really ran the show in a lot of ways.
They really are looking out for everybody and making everybody, cast and crew, feel included and comfortable. At all times, and that was objective number one, which really makes all the difference when you're on set and you're driving to work. As quickly as you can. You miss these people when you go home at night. It was so much fun.
It really was as warm and fuzzy as it looks when you're watching it. And every day someone comes up to me saying that parks. Helped them through the pandemic or saved them during the pandemic every day. And I ask other people on the show, and they say the same thing. Just knowing that it means that, continues to mean that much.
uh to people uh is is amazing. Is there any moment where someone comes up to you? And mention something that means a lot to you because it's a project you don't get recognized for a lot. Do you have anything? Because I'm sure people talk about Severance, they talk about Parks, Stepbrothers.
Is there something where it's like, oh, you saw that? Or like, yeah, I did a good job on that. Thanks for notice. What's special to you for that? You know, when people come up and ask me about the greatest event in television history, I get very excited because it's something that Naomi and I made together that she produced and I directed with my friend Lance.
It's this project where we recreated opening credit sequences from Bozembuzzy. Yeah, Bozen Buzzy. Yeah. And heart to heart and Simon and Simon and Too Close for Comfort. And it was such a meticulous, difficult thing to make, but so much fun.
And we just did it with our friends. And it's not, you know, people don't. you know, it's not like widely known or anything, but when people. Uh bring it up. I love stopping and chit-chatting about it.
Well, so now, like... With Severance, there's a big change from ensemble to it being your face on the poster. What was that like? All of a sudden, I mean, there's still a very talented ensemble on Severance, but like, but it is you front and center. Right.
Was that. A shift for you just in terms of seeing those billboards and realizing that you're fronting a project versus maybe blending into a cast? Yeah, it was terrifying. Like truly. It was something that.
You know, as an actor, it's something you wait your entire career for, your entire life for, whatever, to see this thing you're really proud of. You know, these billboards that go up around town, and it's your head and your face, but when it happens, happened. I remember it was like January of 2022 and those billboards went up. I was immediately terrified and didn't quite know. Why it was just a feeling of kind of nauseous.
Um Well it it was like it was like feeling like It was far more unsettling than I thought it would be. I thought it, kind of like when you're. Fame, or whatever you want to call it, when you're recognized out in public growing up, you think it's going to feel a certain way. And then when it finally happens, it feels differently than you did, than you thought it would.
So, this moment. I was just scared and kind of It felt like there was this train. Coming towards me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. And the train was the release date of the show. And I think maybe it was connected to the fact that the show is weird and it's a big swing.
And we all loved it, but we didn't know how it was going to be received. You never know until it actually comes out. But I remember calling Ben Stiller as soon as those billboards went up, and I was having this weird panic. And Just said to him, Like, I don't know why, but this is really freaking me out. And he's the one person I could maybe say that to, where it wouldn't sound like a backdoor brag or anything I could actually tell him that this was.
Uh an ill feeling I was having he's been on the business And He said, I know exactly. What you're feeling, and it's a very real feeling, and it is terrifying, and it is weird to see yourself. Your head up on these billboards around town, particularly a showbiz town. And everyone's, you know, I guess I was. Afraid that I was just going to end up being embarrassing, and people were going to make fun of us and make fun of me.
And And he was very wise about it. He just kind of said, you know, We made this thing and we're really proud of it. We love it. We know that it works. Um beyond that We have no control.
So we've done our part. Our job now is to just sit back and tell people about it and hope that they like it. Other than that, there's nothing we can do.
So just kind of Taking my hands off the steering wheel or trying to control something was a huge part of it and really helpful. that nausea, was it because you realized you're about to become much more recognizable? Or there's a lot riding on your shoulders because when you're fronting the show, when it fails, it feels like you failed. Yeah, I think if it failed, um It would be my face up there, but I really wanted it to succeed because I thought it was really special. Um And I thought people could really connect with it if they were giving it a chance.
And obviously it did, it succeeded massively. What was it like to realize that all those worries were for nothing and people loved it? That was even weirder. I think that the show being as strange as it is, we expected a certain amount. of uh if it connected a certain amount of uh Of people, you know, watching it and enjoying it.
But hearing the terms innies and outies and all the kind of Lumen slang out in the culture was very strange. And suddenly needing to encode our emails talking about the next season and needing to be top secret about it was. Even weirder that people cared. Because we made season one in a bubble, and no one cared about anything we were doing. Yeah, that's a different type of show for you at least, right?
No one's being like, what?
Next week on Parks and Ref, does Lil Sebastian escape, whatever. But to be on a show with secrecy, and the one thing I won't ask you about, and people, friends of mine, when they knew I was gonna talk to you, were like, oh, make sure to ask them what this does or what happens in season three. It's the last thing I want to do. Because I feel like that takes away the fun of watching it. And yet, I'm sure people hit you up for that all the time.
Although you do have to be secretive. How do you manage that? Also, when you shoot it all in one shot. at least as it's airing, you don't, you're remembering things that you've shot from episode nine. We're only talking about episode two.
How have you dealt with that and sort of maintaining that culture of secrecy?
Well, I think that if someone came and told me everything that happened on Lost before the episodes aired, I would be furious. I don't want to know. I think when people are asking me that, they don't want to know. They just like the fun. of the question and the fun of kind of being on the edge of something and not quite knowing where the next step is going to take them.
So, you know, I usually just say, do you really want to know? Because I'll tell you right now. And they don't. No one actually wants to know. That's what's so fun about it.
Do you look at it as playing two different characters or the same person two different ways? How do you approach any mark and out e-mark? I think a good way of thinking about it is that it's two different parts of the same guy rather than two entirely different characters. There are things that they share. Obviously, beyond the body that they share, there are certain things that you kind of can't get away from as far as a personality goes.
But then there are very different things about them. One of them is, you know, 40 odd years of life experience of trauma and joy and love and hate and all the stuff that goes into a very full life. And the other one is, for all intents and purposes, like three years old, two and a half, three years old.
So there are some inherent differences. And, you know, in our story, by the end of season two, you know, the whole season. Was about this collision course that they were on, and by the end of season two, they're uh. There are loggerheads. Let me go back to Ben for a moment because we spoke with him in New Jersey and he was very complimentary of you.
And I know that he was a champion of you for this role because it wasn't necessarily the most obvious casting choice, at least as far as the executives would have been concerned. What was it like to have him rooting for you from the beginning? I mean, it was incredible. I owe Ben so much. You know, from my career and as a friend, he's just a terrific person and collaborator.
He's the best. And I think one of our very best filmmakers. I mean, what he's, if you take reality bites, cable guy, Tropic Thunder. Severanth. I mean, this is a wide breadth of work that I think is a very good thing.
You can't compare to anyone. Right now. Yeah, having him sort of in my corner was obviously, you know, it's the only way I would have ever gotten this job. When I first read the script, I thought, This is amazing. I'll never get this role.
But if I do if The chips fall in a place where I do end up getting this role. I felt For me, it will be because It's something that I've been earning. for over 30 years. That's the only way I could play this is that This is something that little by little I've been working my way towards getting a chance at something like this. Whether I was going to get it or not, I wasn't sure, but I knew that.
It was 30 years of plugging away that was going to get me at the doorstep. of the role. Um And luckily it it worked out. It very well may not have. And I totally accepted that.
I don't know if I would have been my first choice. You know, there's, you know, super. Mm-hmm. There's huge fancy stars that could have Played the role, but because there's not some bank of Hollywood where they look and they're like, well, he made 30 years of deposits, so finally you have to cash it in. No, there's absolutely, you're entitled to nothing in show business, and I knew that.
But. I also knew that there was something I could bring to it that nobody else could. I think that's true of any actor. If you bring yourself to it, There's something special you can bring that no one else could and I and I knew that I would have to give all of myself to it in order to pull it off. I would have to use absolutely everything I've learned.
over 30 years if I was going to do it right. And so when I was lucky enough to get the job, That's exactly what I did. I'm Jane Pauley. Thank you for listening. And for more of our extended interviews, follow and listen to Sunday Morning on the free Odyssey app.
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Now streaming on Paramount Plus. It's an all-new season of adventures. We have to stop this invasion. Get into the ship! This crew is a team.
We are going to find our way out of this. Star Trek, Strange New Worlds, new season now streaming on Paramount Plus.
