Adam Scott, best known for his role in the hit Apple TV+ series Severance, has been keeping busy. The actor is now starring in a brand-new Irish horror film called Hokum, directed by Damian McCarthy, the filmmaker behind the cult favorite Oddity. And it turns out, making this movie took Adam all the way to the stunning countryside of west Cork, Ireland.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Adam opened up about what the experience was really like — and he had nothing but good things to say about it.
“It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth,” Adam said about west Cork. “When we weren’t shooting, I would just go get lost, walking and listening to podcasts.”
He stayed at the Liss Ard Estate, a gorgeous property surrounded by nature. Most of the other guests were there for romantic getaways — honeymoons and anniversaries. Adam? He was there alone, deep in character prep. “I was just the American weirdo staying upstairs,” he laughed. “I loved it. And it lent itself to the story.”
In Hokum, Adam plays Ohm Bauman, a successful but troubled horror novelist. Bauman travels to a remote part of Ireland to scatter his parents’ ashes at the hotel where they once honeymooned. But the trip quickly turns dark. He gets tangled up with strange locals, a missing woman named Fiona, and a reportedly haunted honeymoon suite that leads him somewhere deeply unsettling underground.
It’s a meaty, complex role — and Adam didn’t shy away from the fact that his character isn’t exactly likable. “He’s an asshole,” Adam said plainly. “What makes a person like that? And how do you untangle that with someone who isn’t particularly interested in untangling it? I thought it was a really fun prospect.”
Adam was already a fan of director Damian McCarthy before signing on. He was especially drawn in by Damian‘s bold, uncomfortable filmmaking style in Oddity. “He makes these wild choices to keep the camera on inanimate objects and stay for an uncomfortable amount of time on things that are not alive,” Adam said. “It really frightened me.”
That kind of fear, it seems, is exactly what pulled him in.
This isn’t Adam‘s first time dipping into the horror world. Last year, he appeared in Osgood Perkins‘s dark and gory film The Monkey. And way back at the start of his career, his very first movie role was in Hellraiser IV: Bloodline — a film tied to the iconic horror villain Pinhead.
“Hellraiser IV was my first job in a movie,” Adam recalled. “For the first 15 years or so of my career there was nothing strategic about any of it. It was just about getting the next job.”
Of course, most people know Adam Scott today because of Severance, the mind-bending Apple TV+ drama about a company called Lumon Industries where employees split their memories between work and personal life. When Season 2 dropped in 2025, it became the most-watched series in Apple TV+’s history — breaking the record previously held by Ted Lasso. The show also earned a massive 27 Emmy nominations that year, winning eight.
But back when the show first launched in 2022, Adam was terrified. “My face was up on billboards. That was something I’d always thought I wanted. But when it happened, it just scared me,” he admitted. “You realise you have no control over how something is received.”
Clearly, audiences made the right call.
Hokum hits cinemas on Friday, May 1st. If you’re a fan of slow-burn, deeply unsettling horror with a strong lead performance, this one is worth watching.
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