Ben Stiller put in a lot of effort to persuade Apple TV+ to cast Adam Scott as the lead character, Mark S., in the drama series “Severance.”
Stiller, who serves as the executive producer and directs several show episodes, felt it was essential to convince the streaming platform to allow Scott to play the role.
He had previously directed Scott in his 2013 film “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” which made him confident that Scott was the right choice for this part.
So much of the show [‘Severance’] is based in ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks and Rec’ and ‘Office Space,’ and that genre, The humor in the script that [creator] Dan [Erickson] wrote was in that world but had this other layer to it. Casting was about figuring out who could handle that.
Stiller said, citing Scott’s tenure on NBC sitcom “Parks and Rec,” another workplace comedy.
Even Adam Scott understood that it was a risky decision for him to be chosen as the main character.
I couldn’t really blame [Apple] at the time. I was thought of as more of a comedic person, and it’s a big swing. I’ve never experienced anything like that before in show business. No one’s ever stuck their neck out for me like that.
Scott said of the streamer’s apparent apprehension to his casting, and further Scott added that Stiller really advocated for him
Ben Stiller said on the show “Hot Ones” that the way they planned to create “Severance” changed while they were working on the series.
It always, for me, started in comedy because it’s sort of a workplace comedy, but it’s also very, very strange and maybe a little bit scary. And then as the show developed, it got a little weirder and stranger and maybe less comedic than I’d originally thought it was. But I feel like that’s always at the the kind of the root of it, is that workplace comedy, kind of like shows like ‘The Office’ or ‘Parks and Rec.’ Those were shows for me that were sort of in the DNA of what the show was.
Stiller said
Before “Severance,” Adam Scott had acted in a lot of comedies like “Party Down” and “Step Brothers,” but “Severance” was his first time starring in a drama.
Ben Stiller even said that Scott’s amazing performance was similar to Bryan Cranston’s role in “Breaking Bad.”
There are actors like Bryan Cranston who get to go to another place when people see them in a certain role. That’s what I felt with this.
Stiller told The New Yorker, referring to Cranston’s leap from “Malcolm in the Middle” to “Breaking Bad” and how Scott has followed with a genre turn.
Source: Indiewire