Scott had a small role in the 2004 film
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/aviator-1-50c3313bbdaf4af7b5c721ea21b07888.jpg "Martin Scorsese Leonardo DiCaprio and Adam Scott posing individually")
Credit: Getty(3)
NEED TO KNOW
- Adam Scott opened up about starring in 2004’s The Aviator
- He said he was at first ‘pretty freaked out’ working with actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett and legendary director Martin Scorsese
- Scott played Johnny Meyer, a publicist to Howard Hughes, in the film
Adam Scott was a bit star-struck making The Aviator.
Scott, 53, opened up about his career in an interview with The Guardian on April 23. One of the movies the actor appeared in early in his career was The Aviator, the 2004 film about Howard Hughes, an aviation pioneer who also directed 1930's Hell's Angels. The movie starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes, Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, with a supporting cast that included John C. Reilly, Alec Baldwin, Alan Alda and Jude Law. It was also directed by Martin Scorsese.
Asked about how intimidating it was to work on The Aviator, Scott admitted, “I was pretty freaked out at first.”
Things changed, however. “But once you're there, you realize these are just regular people who happen to be actors figuring out a scene,” he said. “Everyone was extremely kind and generous to me and made me feel comfortable straight away.”
Credit: Everett
Scott said it also became clear how Scorsese, 83, gets such strong performances out of his actors. “He's incredibly collaborative and encourages you to bring yourself to the proceedings and improvise,” he said. “I'm in one scene with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Jude Law on this giant Cocoanut Grove [nightclub] set. You really get a sense of the respect people have for Scorsese, because, between takes, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone was focused on making the best possible movie.”
Being on set with Scorsese, he said, was “loose, collaborative and great fun.”
The Aviator followed Hughes' life between 1927 and 1947, when he focused on both his life as a film producer and the founding of the Hughes Aircraft Company. At the same time, he grew more unstable due to severe obsessive–compulsive disorder. Scott played Johnny Meyer, who became Hughes' publicist.
The Aviator was nominated for 11 awards at the Oscars, winning five, including Best Supporting Actress for Blanchett. Both DiCaprio and Scorsese were nominated, as well. It was DiCaprio's second nomination after What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Scorsese's fifth as a director. He finally won in 2007 for The Departed, while DiCaprio secured his Oscar win in 2016 for The Revenant, his fifth nomination as an actor.
Credit: Everett
The Aviator received a leading 11 nominations at the 77th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (for Scorsese), Best Actor (for DiCaprio), and Best Supporting Actor (for Alda), and won a leading five awards, including Best Supporting Actress (for Blanchett).
After The Aviator, Scott became best known for comedies, including 2008's Step Brothers and the 2009 series Party Down. In 2010, he broke through when he was cast as Ben Wyatt on Parks and Recreation, which ran until 2015.
Since that show ended, he's balanced comedic and dramatic roles. He appeared in two seasons of Big Little Lies in 2017 and 2019 and has also starred in sitcoms like The Good Place, Ghosted and Loot. Scott currently stars as Mark Scout on Apple TV's drama series Severance. He's been nominated for four Emmys for the latter series, two for acting and two for producing.
This May, he'll star in the new movie Hokum, a supernatural horror film about a man who travels to a remote part of Ireland to spread his parents' ashes.