Reid Scott Is Actually Very, Very Nice
Reid Scott, the actor who famously played an almost-lovable asshole on the Emmy award-winning Veep—and who now stars as a less asshole-ish (but still not not asshole-ish) on the also Emmy award-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—is, in fact, not actually an asshole. Over Zoom, at least, he is very, very nice–a relaxed, candid, hoodie-wearing foil to the big-mouthed, irritatingly handsome characters he’s known for.
In Maisel, Reid’s late-night television host, Gordon Ford, swoops in during the fourth season. He's a blazered, throwback hybrid of charm and sexism, who eventually hires the show’s titular character, Midge (Rachel Brosnahan), to be his show's “resident lady writer.” The series finale is right around the corner, but the 47-year-old Scott hasn’t watched it yet. (He will, when his wife is ready.)
Before Gordon, there were seven seasons of Veep's Dan Egan–the bombastic Deputy Director of Communications for Vice President Selina Meyer (played, to no shortage of Emmys, by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Scott’s Egan was a walking cactus, a shit-slinger perennially set to nuclear assault mode. Scott loved it. For those of us who harbor a secret longing to see him and Louis-Dreyfus rip each other to shreds IRL, Egan was, unfortunately, merely a character Scott played supremely well. Egan was drawn partly from years of formative childhood pain, in which he was the receiver, and not the purveyor, of cutting insults.
We spoke about all of this and more–Scott's experience of Maisel, his years on Veep, and his attraction to “crazy.” When Scott's audio cuts out, he apologizes multiple times for the technical difficulties. “Zoom says my connection is unstable. It's like, ‘Oh God, if you only knew.’”
ESQUIRE: Do people still conflate you with being Dan Egan? Is that still a thing that happens?
REID SCOTT: Yeah, it is. It's funny. I suppose it's a bit of typecasting that's spilled over into my waking life. At first, I really enjoyed it. I'd walk down the street in New York City and some finance bro would yell out, "Hey, Dan Egan!" And I’d be like, "OK, all right!" But then I started getting little comments that were meant to be compliments, like, "Wow, you're actually really nice."
Maybe they expected you to start cursing them out?
I'm pretty foul-mouthed by nature, so that part's pretty genuine. The thing I was attracted to in that character was exactly how despicable he was. Before Dan, I was always pretty much the nice guy, the good guy. Veep I just loved because I was really bullied as a kid. This was a chance for me to play a bully the way I want them to be represented–warts and all. To show how broken and emotionally corrupt they really are. I really got off on the idea of, Oh, I get to layer this with all of these horrible people that tortured me when I was young. And maybe they'll see the show and think, Oh, shit, I know where he got that.
Have any of them gotten in touch and tried to apologize?
A little bit here and there. With the advent of social media, there were some Facebook pokes, things like, "Hey, buddy. So great to see you. Wow, keep it up!" And I’d think, The last time we saw each other, you had me in a headlock. It’s really weird but also kind of satisfying. I won't say I don't hold a grudge, because I totally hold a grudge. I do remember coming face to face with one of my bullies, because our moms were friends. This was 20 years after the fact, and they still lived down the street and he was home for Christmas. My mom asked me to come down and say hi. I could tell he was just brimming with regret, and he didn't have to say anything. There was no apology. And it was fine. It brought a bit of peace, actually. But I was also slightly pleasantly surprised to see that his life didn't maybe turn out exactly how he thought it would.
I mean, he wasn't on Veep.
Yeah, he wasn't on Veep. So, fuck him.
Did you grow up in a creative household?
My mom was a public-school art teacher, so we were very encouraged to be creative. I took art classes. I did drama club. I did some theater-y stuff. I was not fine-art artistically gifted or inclined in any way, but, to quote John Mulaney, I really liked attention. When I was in film school, I thought I was going to be a director and a writer. My parents, every semester, they'd say, "Well, if you want to drop out and go to dental school, you can do that."
When things started to take off, acting-wise, was directing still the goal?
I mean, for the first 10 years of my acting career, people would ask me, "What do you do?" And I never led with “actor.” I would say, "Oh, well, you know, I'm a writer and director and I do some acting." Not that I didn't love it; I really did. The actors, my contemporaries that I came up with, were just so brilliant and on this different level. And I didn't feel like I had the same kind of ownership of that craft. I was like, “No, those are actors. I'm just doing my best to keep up.”
You're friends with [the actor] Adam Pally, right? How did you guys meet?
On another film, probably 10 years ago or so called Slow Learners, this little indie comedy. Nobody saw it, don't worry.
The characters that you’ve played and that he’s played, there's a sort of overlap in the charming brashness that you both do well.
Yeah, we have that thing where it's like you really want to just hate us. We were in the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania, shooting this movie, and he and I discovered that we loved basketball and, furthermore, betting on NBA games. He's the kind of guy—and if he reads this or sees this, he'll take this as a compliment—he’s a beast. I love winding people like him up. I love crazy. I think I really am attracted to crazy.
Veep is one of those shows where any time it gets mentioned in conversation, it provokes this very intense response from people: "Oh, I LOVE Veep." What are the shows that did that for you?
My parents were real cinephiles, first of all. So watching movies and watching TV was a big part of our home life. It's also pretty dreary in upstate New York in the wintertime, so you indulge that quite a bit. But... Cheers. I could tell that I didn’t get half the jokes because I was a little too young at first. But my parents absolutely loved it, and I wanted to be in on the joke. I remember crying so hard when it went off the air. I thought Ted Danson—I still do—was the greatest. It was the first time I saw a leading man who was drop-dead funny. Quantum Leap is another. I would tape it, and then run home from school to watch it. The State on MTV. It felt like punk rock. Seinfeld. I mean, who didn't love Seinfeld? I'm a sarcastic motherfucker, so that was right up my alley.
When you first saw the script for Marvel’s Venom, did you think, What is this?
It was a trip. My first day on set, they'd already been shooting for maybe a week or so, and I roll in, and there’s Tom [Hardy] walking out of the stage. We all go inside to talk about the restaurant scene, the one where Tom jumps into the lobster tank. It was me, Tom, and Michelle [Williams], and we're figuring out how to keep the scene grounded, and there’s a giant whiteboard behind Tom.
He gets up and says, [switches to raspy Tom Hardy voice] "Alright, here's what we're going to do." And he started to draw out the emotional arc of the scene, mapping it all out. "This is the audience. Right? Right. And we're going to take it here and take it there and then they're never going to see what's coming, mate. It's going to be great." The writer and director and Michelle are all sort of staring and nodding. And he looked at me, and I looked at him, and I said, "I'm sorry, I have no fucking idea what you're talking about." From that moment, we were buddies. Again, I like crazy. He's the best kind of crazy. And he is much funnier than people give him credit for.
Are there any types of movies or shows that you haven’t done yet but want to do?
Absolutely. I really got a taste for doing period pieces from Maisel. The experience of showing up to work and going through hair, makeup, wardrobe and catching a glimpse of yourself in the mirror—feeling like you just went through a time machine—was amazing. I would love to do a Western. My grandfather was a real cowboy. He was a roper in the rodeo. He had six shooters and the whole thing. He grew up on a farm and was in the Navy. He was a real, true American bad-ass. I just idolized him. And his name was Bill. So we called him Wild Bill.
Do your character affectations ever bleed over into regular conversations?
Yeah, I've noticed, especially since the Veep days, I've had to curb my cursing as much as possible. I had a swear jar for a while but there was, like, $3,000 in it. After six weeks, I realized, This is pointless. I'll try hypnotism next. I've purposely had to slow myself down, just meter my words a little bit more. Veep was so crazy, the early days of it. Shooting in Baltimore, we were all on top of each other all day, every day. There was nothing left to do but work on the show and do bits. And I'm not a comic. I was just treading water, tap-dancing to keep up with everybody. When it was done, it was very hard to say goodbye. But more than being teary-eyed, I was fist-pumping because we did it. We survived this thing. Look at what we accomplished. It was amazing. Now we all go to therapy and we move on with our lives.
Burn some incense, clear it out.
Sage all day. Gordon Ford, I don't think I took him home as much as I did Dan. [Gordon] was easier to let go. Maybe it's just that I've grown up a bit, too. I learned how to turn it off.
Gordon is easier to deal with.
Certainly more likable, even though he's got his quirks and his pitfalls and stuff. But God, I love that character. I really do. I love that whole world.
The world that was created in that show–especially with the timing of the pandemic coming on in the background—what they were able to maintain is pretty remarkable.
It was a very special thing to be a part of—it was my pandemic savior. To get the opportunity to do the kind of research that I got to do and just dive into their world for a while, it was just weeks of joy. I hadn't seen the show for a while. Season One I thought was absolutely brilliant. But I had moved on to other things–so to get to go back and rewatch it and get myself up-to-speed … it was just delicious writing. And it looks so goddamn good. Every actor in it is incredible. I mean, Tony Shalhoub, who I shared no screen time with, is now one of my new buddies because we've gotten to know each other through the press circuit. I mean, he's an idol of mine. Rachel, just, God, there's nobody better. She can deliver anything. And she's a wonderful person on top of it. In a lot of ways, thank fucking God that Maisel got me out of the house.
Are there things when you're working on a new show or a movie that even at this point still surprise you, for good or bad?
Both, actually. I'm still so surprised by how much high school is left in Hollywood. I thought we'd outgrow some of this stuff at some point, but it just keeps going on. And people can interpret that as they will. We can do better. We're all artists. We're all in this together. But at the end of the day, I love going to set with 150 artists of all kinds. That surprises me. It was so evident in Maisel that the entire crew [was] invested in the show, and in the artistry to make it. I never get tired of that. When I'm on set, I don't really walk away. I don't go hang in my trailer. I'll slink off to my chair every once in a while, but I like to be there. I like to watch the camera crew set up their shot. I like to watch the art department dress the room. And I just have a million questions about everything. On that particular show, they were all masters of what they were doing. I was blown away.
Now you sound like a director.
Yeah, I know. I can't drop it.
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