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Adam Scott Stars in the New Series Severance

Photo: YouTube

Adam Scott has been patiently waiting for almost four years to get a lead role in “Severance.” He never thought that he would ever be given the opportunity, but it looks like his time has come.

“I just figured, somewhere along the line, someone else is going to want to do this, and this is going to slip away from me,” the comedian said in an interview. “All along, I was hoping that I would get to be part of it. It sounds corny, but it really is the kind of role I’ve been waiting my whole career for.” 

“Severance” premieres on Friday on Apple TV+, where Scott plays a rare and chunky, leading-man role, portraying a sorrowful and office-drone protagonist, Mark. 

“I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” Scott says, recounting the moment he first heard about the project. “It’s just a fun, hooky idea, but then there are all of the possible implications of it, which is what made me continue to come back to the idea.”

“Severance” is a movie about an office where employees are set apart by their work life and personal lives. The characters have 8 hour periods without knowing what goes on outside that period. While their “innies” – what the employees inside work are called – continue to complete their tasks, the “outies” – the one from outside the company – does not know what’s going on in the job; therefore, there are no risks of taking their work home with them. 

While it indeed sounds ideal, the implications are pretty alarming and stimulating. In Mark’s case, he underwent this process following his wife’s death in an automobile accident, striking his family as an unhealthy way to cope with his grief. 

“Mark has made a conscious decision to not move on from it,” Scott revealed. “He doesn’t want to heal because I think healing would mean saying goodbye forever, right? So rather than sit in it and feel it, he’d rather just switch off for eight to ten hours a day.” 

In 2017 (January), Scott recounts that he was initially attached to “Severance.” Then, at the Sundance Film Festival in the middle of “standing in the snow,” he got a call from Ben Stiller, who had read the pilot script by Dan Erickson. 

When he read the script, Stiller knew that Scott was just what they needed to make their show a success. So, Scott’s doubt was not necessary.

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