Entertainment
'New Girl's Season 4 Premiere Will Feature 'Veep' Star Reid Scott & Here's Why You Should Love Him
There’s a wedding in the works and when New Girl Season 4 premieres on Sept. 16, the gang will be in attendance. (Haven’t they learned from Cece’s wedding that they can’t really handle going to these kinds of events together?) If just attending together isn’t enough pressure, it looks like there will also be some pretty big guest stars joining them as well. Jessica Biel might be the most headline-grabbing guest star, but I predict that after the premiere airs, Reid Scott will have stolen the show. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scott plays a wedding guest and in the premiere, Jess and Biel’s character — Kat, “the hottest scientist in the world” — will duke it out for his affections.
Besides New Girl, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of Scott in the future. He’s popping up everywhere. And here are some reasons why that’s totally okay.
Image: Paul Schiraldi/HBO
A Perfect Fit for ‘New Girl’
Scott is a perfect fit for New Girl, since Dan Egan, his Veep character, is somewhat of a combination of Nick and Schmidt. He’s put together, buttoned up, and ambitious — though probably a little too eager — like Schmidt. But he also has all of the crankiness of Nick, although he might be a little bit more prickly. Then again, he could really turn up the charm for New Girl and be nothing like his Veep persona. Reid is talented in that it’s equally easy for him to make his charisma come off as swoon-worthy or douchey.
Image: Ray Mickshaw/FOX
The Anti-Hero of ‘Veep’
As Dan Egan on Veep, the needle falls 100 percent in the scumbag column and Scott is a delightfully perfect prick. Egan is obviously out for himself, but he’s semi-competent at his job, which is no small feat on Selina Meyer’s VP staff. You totally get why Meyer keeps him around, despite the smarminess — and why, when questioned about hiring him, she’d say, “I need a shit.” Reid’s smooth Washington insider reminds you of everybody you’ve ever wanted to punch at your office, but couldn’t because they kept the wheels turning.
Image: Paul Schiraldi/HBO
and the Underdog
Then again, Egan is almost a better character when the D.C. gears aren’t moving smoothly and things are going totally off-the-rails for him. His night out with Jonah, where Jonah takes him to an extreme-metal concert, remains one of the best episodes of the series. And his mental collapse, complete with gone-to-seed beard, has some of his best character moments, especially when he says “I diagnosed myself with an acute case of everything’s fine.” The relaxed, “nice” Dan Egan is creepily off-putting, and Scott deserves credit for making us feel so uncomfortable with Egan’s inner peace.
Good with Facial Hair
Actually, Reid makes the gone-to-seed beard in Veep work for him. He does well with facial hair in general. His character Brandon Dorff on My Boys had that perma-stubble thing going on — not a full beard or goatee, but lots of scruff — and Scott definitely pulled it off. (Doesn’t “Brandon Dorff” sound like a character name that has to have permanent stubble?)
Image: ReidScott_/Twitter
Chemistry with Everybody
On the more charming end of the Scott charisma spectrum, there’s Dr. Todd Mauer, his recurring character on The Big C, who is sort of a love interest for Laura Linney’s Cathy Jamison. He works up a lot of chemistry with his co-star.
Image: @ReidScott_/Twitter
Married to Elspeth Keller
In real life, Scott has his own romance going. He married his longtime girlfriend, Elspeth Keller, this summer. A photo of the wedding was posted to Instagram by actor Ben Feldman, who will be on this year’s A to Z. (It’s funny, because Scott has re-tweeted posts from fans who think that Scott and Feldman look alike.) They are an adorable couple and sometimes coordinate their outfits (awwww).
Image: benfeldman/Instagram
Improviser
Scott told Gotham magazine that he gets his comedy chops from — where else? — the Upright Citizens Brigade, where he took improv classes. He said that it helps him keep up on Veep. “Everybody in the show has an improv background or can naturally roll with it,” he said. “I don’t know how anybody could step in, even as a guest star, if they couldn’t roll with the punches. It moves fast, it’s smart, and it feels real.”
In Every Upcoming Comedy
Scott will need those improv skills, since he has a stacked deck of comedies in the pipeline, with roles in movies like A Better You (directed by Upright Citizens Brigade co-founder Matt Walsh), I’ll See You in My Dreams (which stars Blythe Danner as a woman in her ’70s who decides to start dating again), and Dean (the directorial debut of comedian Demetri Martin). And for good measure, there’s The Veil, a horror movie about a cult written by The State’s Robert Ben Garant.
Image: @ReidScott_/Twitter
Knows What You Like About Him
Probably the highest-profile project Scott has in the works is The Intern , the next Nancy Meyers movie. The movie is about Robert DeNiro who, as a senior citizen, joins an internship at a fashion website run by Anne Hathaway. According to Vulture, Scott plays a “smooth-talking, cocky young businessman that Hathaway sees as a possible CEO for her company.” Sounds a bit like Dan Egan, no?
Image: @ReidScott_/Twitter
Good with Animals
And then there’s this, which is just amazing. Maybe he can bring those koala bears to Veep or New Girl?
Image: @ReidScott_/Twitter
