Severance's Adam Scott Almost Quit Acting After Losing A Major HBO TV Series

On "Severance," Adam Scott has the tricky job of playing two roles in one. For part of the series, he plays Mark Scout, a sad sack who has become depressed following the death of his wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman). This has also led to him accepting a job with Lumon, a mysterious corporation that claims to offer the ultimate in work/life balance. Thanks to a brain implant, Mark loses all memories of the outside world when he's at the Lumon offices. When he leaves work, his outside memories are restored but his work day has been erased.

Of course, the Mark on the inside — "innie" Mark — has no memories of the outside world and quickly forms a personality of his own. Innie Mark is not told anything about his outside life, as he is required to be wholly devoted to Lumon. He doesn't even know his own last name and has never experienced sleep first hand. Mark is two tricky roles in one, and Scott has played them both so well that he has, to date, received two Emmy nominations for his work.

And it is well-deserved. Scott is one of those actors who has been relentlessly toiling away at his career for decades, constantly honing his craft and becoming better with each passing gig. He has been involved in dozens of hit films and TV shows, but he didn't really explode in the public consciousness until he joined the cast of "Parks and Recreation" in 2010. Only now that he's famous are people recalling that he began his career in the 1990s with small roles in movies like "Star Trek: First Contact" and "Hellraiser: Bloodline" (both of which came out in 1996). Scott has never had a "plan B" for his career, so it's a good thing acting has paid off.

But there was a time when he hit a career wall hard enough to give him an existential crisis. On an episode of "Good Hang," as hosted by his "Parks" co-star Amy Poehler, Scott admitted that he briefly considered giving up on acting after he wasn't hired to play the role of David Fisher on the HBO series "Six Feet Under."

"Six Feet Under" ran on HBO from 2001 until its much-celebrated finale aired in 2005. The show centered on the dramas and travails of the Fisher family, who ran the Fisher & Sons funeral home together. It was novel in how frank it was about sex and death, and its presence on HBO allowed for a high volume of cussing and coitus. Michael C. Hall played David, the middle of the three Fisher children, who spent much of the series wrestling with coming out of the closet. His family was largely conservative, and he ran into hate and bigotry a lot, so his sexuality was the center of his personal conflicts.

According to Scott, the casting directors on "Six Feet Under" had narrowed down the role of David to him, Hall, and one other actor. Scott bears no resentment toward Hall, of course, as he did a marvelous job and earned an Emmy nomination for his work. But losing the role didn't feel good either. He and Poehler even talked about losing roles on shows that would go on to become big hits, and how demoralizing that can be. As Scott put it:

"'Six Feet Under.' That was the one that I didn't get. Michael C. Hall's role. And it's good that I didn't get it because it wouldn't be nearly as good [...]. Because he was perfect and incredible. He's incredible, and I wasn't ready. [...] He and I tested for it [...] It was the one where I was like 'I might stop doing this. I think that it's time for me to read the tea leaves and walk away.'"

Scott is being self-deprecating, of course, and there's no reason to believe he wouldn't have played David well. Perhaps in 2001, he felt he hadn't developed enough as a performer to tackle a heady, downbeat drama like "Six Feet Under."

The show's casting directors must have remembered Scott, however, as he was eventually hired for two episodes of "Six Feet Under" as a character named Ben. In a strange piece of actorly synergy, Scott played David's boyfriend, and he and Hall two shared a tender kiss on screen. It may be one of the only times that an actor has kissed the character he lost in a previous audition. Ben was eventually dumped by David, though, after David confessed to still being in love with his ex. It was the second time David had pushed Scott away (in a sense).

Scott did like his experience working on "Six Feet Under," though, saying that Hall was "lovely, of course." But it was still difficult to lose that particular role. Scott continued:

"That was a blow. That was hard. But, you know, it's also important that you have those experiences."

Scott also admitted that he's terrible at auditions and that he was unbearably nervous while trying out for "Six Feet Under." Luckily, by the time he got to "Parks and Recreation," he no longer needed to audition. By then, his accumulated body of work could speak for itself. Scott essentially was allowed to walk right onto the show when it was already a hit, which was a career blessing. He didn't talk more about what he would have done if he had given up on acting, but it seems that he really did consider it for a moment. It's a good thing he stuck with it, however, as he landed more and more lucrative gigs and now has several Emmy nods to his name (courtesy of "Severance").