Adam Scott has spent the past few years making workplace dread feel unnervingly believable on Severance, which is streaming for anyone with an Apple TV subscription. Yet his horror roots go back much further than Lumon Industries. I’m not talking about his turn in the 2026 movie release Hokum, either. I’m talking about how, after getting killed off in Hellraiser: Bloodline, he apparently had a sneaky return plan, and the whole thing is painfully funny.
During a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Scott was promoting his new horror movie when Meyers brought up one of the actor’s earliest film credits: Hellraiser: Bloodline. As it turns out, his history with the Cenobites isn’t just a fun bit of trivia, but also comes with a wonderfully awkward audition story. He admitted he was not exactly a “Hellraiser-head” before landing the role. To him, the appeal was simpler, as he explained:
I didn’t know about Hellraiser, but I was like, ‘Oh, this is an acting job?’ So I was so excited.
That is honest, and probably how a lot of early-career actors end up in some of the most intense horror movies or genre franchises in general. The bills do not care whether you understand the lore.
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Meyers then showed a bit of the Party Down actor’s work from Hellraiser 4, and things apparently did not go great for his character. Scott joked that he thinks someone bites his face off, though he did not sound entirely sure on the details. What matters is that his character does not survive the movie.
But a few years later, Hellraiser 6 came around. Scott said his agent sent him to an audition for the sequel. Instead of immediately pointing out that he had already appeared in the franchise as a doomed character, he gave it a shot. He decided to rely on the ancient Hollywood strategy of pretending nobody would notice. He recalled:
I’m like, ‘Now wait a second. I was in Hellraiser 4’… but I need a job. So, I’m like, ‘Screw it.’ So I go to the audition thinking, ‘Maybe they won’t notice that I was in Hellraiser 4.’
Honestly, if you know anything about the Hellraiser franchise, Scott’s logic is pretty sound. I would have bet good money nobody clocked that he had already shown up and died in Hellraiser 4. And even if they had, I’m not sure it would have mattered. As popular as the horror franchise is, it is not exactly known for its airtight continuity.
The best part is what happened once he got to the audition. The Saviors star said he was sitting in the waiting room when he spotted a producer from Hellraiser 4 through an open office door. His response was basically to hide behind his audition pages and hope the man either missed him or had no memory of the previous movie.
Unfortunately, the strategy did not work, and the Step Brothers alum did not get the role. Amusingly, he and Seth Meyers also joked the rejection had nothing to do with continuity or the fact that he had already been killed in the series, but that the powers that be simply did not like the audition: “We don’t care.”
They’re kidding, but also maybe not?
The story makes the Emmy-nominated actor’s return to horror with the wonderfully creepy Hokum a little more fun. He told Meyers that the first footage he saw from the flick scared him during ADR, even though he was watching himself walk through a scene he remembered filming, which is a pretty good sign for a scary movie.
The Parks & Rec veteran actor may not have managed to sneak back into the convoluted Hellraiser franchise, but the failed attempt gave him one of those perfect actor anecdotes, and I’m so here for it.
Hokum, a much more successful Adam Scott scary joint, is now playing in theaters, so be sure to check your local listings for showtimes. Plus, the third season of Severance is officially on the way, and the star can’t stop raving about it, giving fans another reason to get pumped for the show’s return.