Adam Scott isn’t taking anything for granted, even though he’s now on an Emmy-nominated comedy, “Parks and Recreation,” and part of a killer ensemble in the new comedy “Our Idiot Brother.” Scott plays one of the few people enamored by the titular idiot, Ned (played by Paul Rudd), in a cast that includes Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Steve Coogan and many more. Metro caught up with Scott to talk about couch-surfing, Emmy recognition and the legacy — and future — of “Party Down.”
Do you know anyone like Ned in real life?
Mm hm. He’s in his 40s and he has yet to have an apartment or a job, but still somehow exists in the world and just couch-surfs — and has been for about 15 years. And hats off to him. I mean, think about how charming you have to be to be able to do that. And he is one charming motherf—er. I mean, he’s a terrific person, but holy s—.
Most of the characters get pretty fed up with Ned’s super-positive outlook. How did you see it?
It’s infuriating, yeah. I guess I saw him in that way, but I think the way my character sees him is I just think he’s awesome and we just become buddies. Because he is great. He’s one of those guys who’s great at first, and then after a couple months you’re like, “Wait a second. What the f— is this guy’s deal?” But I think we just become fast friends, which was easy to do because Paul and I are buddies. So you know, it was stress-free.
Have you been finding a lot of “Party Down” fans in the industry since the show ended?
Yeah, it’s great. I mean, when we were doing it, no one was watching it. Do you know how many people watched our series finale? Sixteen thousand. But since it got canceled its popularity has really exploded, thanks to Netflix, mostly.
There’s always the “Party Down” movie — or rumors about the movie at least.
Yeah, it’s like 90 percent there. Hopefully if we all get our s— together we can shoot it next summer.
How has it been to get that recognition for “Parks and Recreation” while the it’s still on the air?
It’s great. I mean, we got nominated for best comedy for an Emmy, and
we were all so, so happy. It feels great because when we started the
season last year, we weren’t on the fall schedule and we didn’t know
when we were going to be on the air — if at all. The business is so
unpredictable now. So to get that recognition was really, really
satisfying — I think more than it would’ve been if we had been totally
confident the whole time.
