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Henry Pollard, played by Adam Scott, isnt the funniest character onParty Down.
Hes not the biggest, craziest, or weirdest either.
And having quit acting, hes the only character without a motivation.
While smoking a cigarette outside, he meets Casey (Lizzy Caplan).
Casey says, I remember you.
What are you doing here?
He responds, Do you remember me from anything else?
Adam Scott:Everyone in the cast connected directly with these characters.
Like the Can you hear me now?
It was an interesting twist on the usual fame and success narrative.
We imagined Henrys satisfaction when he gets this big ad campaign and buys his car.
Hes driving a beat-up BMW when we first see him.
Fred Savage was directing that episode.
All you have to do is sit here and listen to Casey and enjoy it.
You have plenty of time to throw in all these different things youre feeling and thinking.
But for now, were gonna see a lot of you, so dont worry about it.
JE:We worried about Henry the character more than anybody else, because hes almost an inside-out protagonist.
Hes not striving for anything.
Hes not on his way to anything.
It was the hardest role of the whole cast.
Henrys kind of nowhere.
We were very fortunate that Adam was able to find the compelling sides of that situation.
Henry reveals that he believes the Are we having fun yet?
At first Henry demurs, but eventually he finds himself getting excited about this possible break.
Youre surprised to see him tending bar while youre doing big movies.
Then pushed ever so slightly, hes like, Yeah, thats great.
Then pushed a little more, hell talk to the producer.
Pushed a little more, hell perform the most humiliating five words of his life for the producers daughter.
Then he gets left behind even more humiliated than he was before.
JE:We wanted to play the nuances of Henrys up-and-down experience of holding out.
He always holds this little buried shred of hope, and it never quite comes together.
But its always there, because its not that hes turned his back on it.
Its that hes burned out on it.
After being a disruptive ass in front of the staff, Ron asks to talk to Henry outside.
Ron claims he did it all on purpose to teach Henry a lesson about managing.
Based on Rons hurt reaction, Henry pretends he was joking.
JE:We had been toying with the What are we doing here?
nature of the Henry-Casey relationship.
But then she went off on a cruise-ship comedy tour.
That left Henry in this place where he had nothing.
AS:It was another avenue I completely understood as a freelance actor.
That whole thing was so attractive to Henry, and he felt settled and more like a real person.
Then Casey shows up and its like,Well, shit.
Thats a non-boring thing.
The character is trying his best to lead a normal life and suppress his creative impulses.
He convinces everyone to perform one of Romans (Martin Starr) screenplays.
The first attempt goes terribly, but Steve encourages them to rewrite it and add more pathos.
They perform the scene, and Henry blows everyone away.
JE:It gave us an opportunity for Henry to actually perform.
We get to both see him do it and have Casey see him doing it.
It becomes this pivot point in their relationship reigniting.
But John really threaded the needle, because its in the context of Romans ridiculous sci-fi script.
Were injecting emotion into that world.
Then you see some genuine emotion between Casey and Henry.
Its a chance for them to reconnect.
Its a chance for her to see something in him.
Everyones rolling their eyes.
He lets go of all of that and has an incredible moment with acting artistically and with Casey.
Its clear that those are the two most important things to him.
Hes been there, but now hes somewhere else.
We always referred to it as a hope gap between them.
It was this relationship that could never quite get out of the show it was trapped in.
Thats how this works!
Hes a bit selfish in that moment.
Although Party Down is working the event, only Ron and Roman are still catering.
Henry catches up with Ron outside.
Everything is pleasant until Ron mentions the big break that explains Caseys (and Caplans) absence.
When we first started talking about it, we did have this idea for a Henry-Casey reunion.
Its just that schedules didnt work.
He longs for a stability of one sort or another.
He cant believe where he has ended up and the manner in which he ended up there.
I dont think Henry is at the place yet where hes admitting to himself that its depressing.
Hes at the point where he needs to talk about it with someone, but hes stillin it.
Hes still living that life, so he needs to share it to get to justify it.
It looks like he came straight from the high school where hes working.
We kept referring to it as The Last Temptation of Henry.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
