Before he was ‘Innie’ Mark S. in Apple TV’s Severance, Adam Scott was neurotic government worker (and disgraced former mayor) Ben Wyatt in Parks and Recreation.
It’s been 10 years since Parks and Rec officially ended, and though the show has gotten pretty popular over the years, Scott reveals that he barely revisits the series—but it’s for a more bittersweet reason.
Adam Scott on Parks and Recreation
In a recent interview with Happy Sad Confused’s Josh Horowitz, Scott was shown a clip of his character Ben from Parks which had become a meme over the years (“You think a depressed person could make this? No.”), and he explained:
“I haven’t seen the show in a long time. Honestly, because it makes me sad to see the show because I miss them, and I miss all the actors even though we’re constantly in touch and stuff, but I miss the time of making—it was a really just joyful five years for me, seven years for the show—Getting to go work there every day with that group of people, we had so much fun and we’re making something that meant something to people, it meant something to us… So yeah, I haven’t seen it in a while, but I should.”
Ben Wyatt, Human Disaster
For context, Scott came around the end of the second season, introduced as auditor Ben Wyatt along with his partner Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe). The joke was that Chris was overwhelmingly positive and sunny, but ultimately useless without Ben, who was the sarcastic deadpan one that delivered the bad news.
Scott became a regular for the show by the third season, and his character eventually evolved to be the main love interest of Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler). Besides being an efficient auditor, Ben was made to be the biggest nerd in the show who loved fantasy and board games; he would even do accounting for fun.
Compared to The Office, Ben is kind of the series’ version of Jim, who always gets to look at the camera when some other character does something weird. Even if he was the straight man though, Ben also has his goofy moments in the series—several of which have become timeless memes.
Scott on Severance
While Ben may have been an effective character for comedy, Mark in Severance is the opposite in several ways. His Innie is pretty plain when it comes to the office, but his Outtie is severely depressed and is trying to figure out some huge conspiracy.
After several breakout roles in comedic properties like Step Brothers, Scott is currently embracing his more dramatic talents with Severance, and lot of people are on the edge of their seats just finding out what is going on with Lumen, and why it’s so necessary for them to make sure their workers have to be ‘severed’.
The first season admittedly ends with more questions than answers, and after years of waiting, fans are finally ready to see just what Mark S. thinks now that he's had a taste of what it's like to exist outside of the office.
Catch Scott in the second season of Severance now streaming on Apple TV+.