Adam Scott pulled a Jerry … in front of Reese Witherspoon.
The former “Parks and Recreation” star, who stars as conflicted husband Ed Mackenzie in “Big Little Lies,” admitted on “Conan” this week that, even though he has worked with some big names in the past, he still gets intimidated by his super-famous co-stars on the HBO hit drama.
The list includes Meryl Streep (Mary Louise Wright), Laura Dern (Renata Klein), Nicole Kidman (Celeste Wright) and Witherspoon (Madeline Martha Mackenzie).
“It’s hard because everyone in the cast is so incredibly famous and talented,” he told host Conan O’Brien as he transitioned into an incredibly embarrassing moment involving Witherspoon, who plays his wife on the show.
“We were shooting a scene, it was the last scene we had together for Season 2 and it was a scene in a therapist’s office,” the 46-year-old actor explained. Scott said that between takes Witherspoon said something funny, causing Scott to laugh nasally.
“But a string of snot like came out and wrapped around my nose,” he said.
Scott said he excused himself and someone grabbed a tissue and helped him clean it off. But when he came back to do another take with Witherspoon, he felt pretty awkward and didn’t know whether to reference what just went down.
“Should I make a joke about it or just apologize for the disgusting thing that just happened?” he said. “And I didn’t.”
Scott said that for the next six months he “tortured himself” about whether he made the right decision by pretending bodily fluids didn’t shoot out of his nose in front of one of the most famous actresses in the world. He concluded by telling Conan that he never mentioned it to Witherspoon again, even at the premiere, and Conan said Scott made the right call.
Here’s hoping that Jim O’Heir, who played Jerry/Gary/Terry/Larry Gergich — a lovable and accident-prone goof who was constantly picked on by his co-workers on “Parks and Rec” — saw this interview with Scott and responded to the story a bit like this:
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