Posted in: Apple, TV | Tagged: adam scott, AppleTV, conan o'brien needs a friend, Severance

Severance: Adam Scott "Freaked Out" Seeing His Face in Season 1 Ads

Severance star Adam Scott shares how he "freaked out" seeing his face being used to promote the first season of the hit AppleTV+ series.

Published Wed, 19 Feb 2025 10:37:08 -0600

by Tom Chang

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Article Summary

Adam Scott reflects on seeing his face on Severance ads and why it freaked him out.
The actor discusses the pressure of leading Severance as its main star.
Scott reveals the uncertainty about audience reception before the series aired.
Severance explores identities at a mysterious company with memory separation.

Adam Scott has been active for well over 30 years but largely thrived in ensemble projects like NBC's Parks and Recreation, STARZ's Party Down, and the 2008 Sony classic comedy Step Brothers. When it came to the Dan Erickson AppleTV+ dystopian drama in 2022, the actor faced the reality that he would be the face of the series. While promoting the long-anticipated second season that premiered in January, the actor appeared on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast on the streaming platform's minimalist promotional campaign that featured The Monkey star.

Severance Star Adam Scott on "Freaking Out — Adam Scott in "Severance." Image courtesy of AppleTV+

Severance Star Adam Scott on Being "Freaked" Out Over Apple's Season 1 Promotion

After noting how Scott had a "comforting" feeling being part of ensembles throughout his career, "'Comforting' is a perfect word for it. And it's part of why I was so freaked out when Severance first came out a few years ago," the actor said. "It's like, suddenly, the billboards went up, and it was my face around town. And really, it should have been this big, happy, monumental moment that I've been waiting for for 30 years, but it just freaked me out."

Scott plays Mark Scout, who leads a team at Lumon Industries, a mysterious company that separates their employees' work and personal lives by switching their personalities and memories between the start of the work day and the end in a controversial procedure. Their personas in the real world are called "outies." The twist is the outies agreed to be part of the program, whereas the innies have no initial awareness aside from the tasks assigned to them and sharing their work environment. As the innies gain self-awareness, Lumon management like Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) enacts contingencies accordingly.

Scott recalled how he wasn't sure about audience responses and how it fed into his nervousness before Severance's premiere, "Just because, at that point, we made the show in a bubble, and no one had seen it, and we loved it but had no clue if anyone would like it or if people would just make fun of us," he said. "You just don't know at all, other than your own barometer, and we thought it was cool. But, man, you just have zero sense of how it's gonna be received, so it could have been this big, embarrassing thing." Severance, which also stars Britt Lower, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Dichan Lachman, Michael Chernus, John Turturro, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, Marc Geller, Sarah Bock, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Bob Balaban, and Alia Shawkat, streams Fridays on AppleTV+. For more, you can check out the full episode.

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