‘Ghosted’ actor couldn’t pass up chance to team with Robinson
Adam Scott is only 44 and has 100 film and TV credits to his name.
The actor, though, downplays the feat.
“It sounds cooler than it is,” Scott said modestly. “I started in 1993 — so, if you think of it like that, it’s not particularly impressive.
“And if you really parse out the credits,” he continued, “a lot of them were just enough to pay a $300-a-month rent and buy gas for a period of like 10 years. It’s so incremental that, if you really dig in, you’ll be far less impressed.”
Regardless, four-plus credits a year is impressive by any standard.
Scott, who is best-known for his long stint as Ben Wyatt on “Parks and Recreation” (2010-15), has had roles in films such as as Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” (2004), “Knocked Up” (2007), “Step Brothers” (2008), “Black Mass” (2015) and “Krampus” (2015). His other TV work includes “Party of Five” (1998-99), “Tell Me You Love Me” (2007), “Party Down” (2009-2010) and “Big Little Lies” (2017).
Through the years, he has proved himself adept at both comedy and drama, willing to make the occasional cameo appearance and eager to chase both mainstream studio fare and projects way off the beaten path.
Scott also occasionally does voice work for animated shows, has directed several shows and has produced a number of films and shows.
His latest project is “Ghosted,” a new sci-fi/ comedy series premiering Sunday on Fox. He co-stars and co-produces the show with Craig Robinson, with whom he briefly shared the screen in “Hot Tub Time
Machine 2” (2015). Scott and Robinson are joined as “Ghosted” producers by Scott’s wife, Naomi, and series creator Tom Gormican.
Max (Scott) is a disgraced astrophysics professor now barely getting by as a bookstore employee, and Leroy (Robinson) is an ex-detective reduced to toiling as a mall cop. Max believes deeply in extraterrestrials and the paranormal; Leroy doesn’t at all.
The two find themselves thrown together when they’re abducted by a topsecret government agency charged with investigating “unexplained” activity in Los Angeles and dealing with a wide-reaching conspiracy that threatens mankind’s existence.
“A lot of my saying ‘yes’ to ‘Ghosted’ was working with Craig, who is sitting next to me now in our makeup chairs,” said Scott, who then started to laugh. “It was the idea of a buddy comedy, and doing it with Craig. It immediately made sense in my head, not really knowing anything else about it.
“Tom, the creator of the show, when he originally pitched it to Naomi and I, referenced ‘Lethal Weapon’ ( 1987), ‘ Beverly Hills Cop’ ( 1984), ‘ Midnight Run’ ( 1988), these ‘ 80s action comedies I grew up on, and it just sounded fun,” he continued. “There’s a very particular tone to those movies, and you don’t see it very often anymore.”
Beyond those big-screen influences, “Ghosted” also includes a dollop of television’s “The X- Files” ( 1993- 2002, 2016).
On the new series, Max and Leroy will team with the clandestine group that abducted them and subsequently contend with a “monster of the week,” including an ancient sea monster that gets loose in an office and a ghost that haunts a Halloween hayride, plus the previously mentioned threat to humankind and the matter of whether or not Max’s wife was snatched by aliens.
Through it all, the two will, of course, make the journey from being at each other’s throats to becoming friends.
“Max and Leroy are ultimately working as a team,” Scott said, “and they earn every inch of it. So I think, as we move along, you’ll see that these guys agree on almost nothing, but they learn to care about each other and work together, and hopefully it’ll be funny and a little scary the whole time as well.”
Scott’s other partner on “Ghosted” is his wife, Naomi.
The couple, married since 2005 and the parents of two young children, formed Gettin’ Rad Productions in 2012. They’ve produced the indie films “The Overnight” (2015), “Other People” (2016) and “Fun Mom Dinner” (2017) as well as Adult Swim’s “The Greatest Event in Television History” specials (2012-14).
“Naomi and I work really well together,” Scott said. “We didn’t know how it would go. We started the company about five years ago, and we were unsure. But right from the start, we knew it was working.”