Reid Scott is best known for playing Deputy Director of Communications Dan Egan on HBO's comedy Veep. He also played Brendan "Brando" Dorff on TBS’s sitcom My Boys. Scott’s most recent role is Dr. Dan in the comic book movie Venom. Hitting theaters October 5, Venom is a combination action-film, comedy, and dark horror directed by Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer.
Screen Rant: So, there was a lot of secrecy surrounding your character. Now that we can finally talk about it freely, talk to me about your character's relationship with Eddie Brock and Anne.
Reid Scott: So, my character, Dr. Dan, is in a nice cozy little love triangle with Michelle William’s character Anne and Eddie Brock played by Tom Hardy. But we wanted to do something a little different in this love triangle. I think we've all seen the classic love triangles where the old guy hates the new guy. The new guy feels threatened by the old guy and then you're just wondering how they're going to duke it out and fight over the girl who's going to throw her hands up and be frustrated by how meat-heady these two idiots are and stuff. So, we didn't want to do anything like that.
We had a lot of fun playing with that. And where we sort of landed is… [the director] Ruben Fleischer and I talked about the character in the early days of shooting. I was like, ‘What if he just loved Eddie? What if he just thought Eddie was just cool and almost couldn't help himself around Eddie a little bit? And that would, in its own way, it’s not a tactic, because I think it's very authentic on Dr. Dan's part. But that in and of itself would sort of put Eddie on the back foot. Like, ‘Who is this?’ Assuming they're going to square off and it just doesn't happen. And in fact, Dr. Dan actually has to help them out a little bit.
Screen Rant: So, I'm glad you said that. Mainly because I wanted to tell you I'm on team Dr. Dan.
Reid Scott: Thank you.
Screen Rant: I’m a Dr. Dan guy. Hashtag TeamDoctorDan. Here's the thing. I love this character. I really do because he's the nice guy that just wants to help, right?
Reid Scott: Yeah.
Screen Rant: It was a lot of fun. So, what drew you to the script? And was there an evolution of Dr. Dan that changed throughout the writing process at all? That you saw?
Reid Scott: Initially, what drew me to the script was I was a Venom fan from the time I was a kid. I grew up on comic books. I also love horror movies. That's my happy place. If I'm having a bad day, I don't go for the pint of ice cream. I go for dark, dark, sinister horror. So, I love that about Venom. I was also a big fan of Ruben Fleischer's from Zombieland. And I just, I love the way he uniquely blends the genres. So, I knew that's what he was going to go for with this. And what was the second part of your question?
Screen Rant: Well, look, we're going to move onto this question. Is Dr. Dan the real hero of this story?
Reid Scott: [CHUCKLES] I wouldn't go that far. He's a good guy. He's definitely a good guy. He's a confident dude. He's not threatened by anything. He's a surgeon. So, all surgeons are somewhere between confident and cocky. He's got the girl. So, I don't think he feels he's really in a match necessarily with Eddie. But, yeah, it's nice that there's a humanity that we tried to bring all the characters. And that's what sort of fun about Venom, is all the layers you get to peel away. What's going on in the psychodrama. So, to steer away from classic archetypes and to have someone like a little more human, was definitely fun, especially for a superhero movie.
Screen Rant: Right. If we get a Venom 2, where would you like to see Dr. Dan go next? Because I would love to see him with the symbiote.
Reid Scott: [CHUCKLES] Just like hacking away patients. Giant blade hands. He would be a better doctor and he could reach inside and like fix somebody whatever they got there going on. And pull it back out. Yeah, that'd be cool.
Screen Rant: Yeah. Reid great performance, man. I'm a fan of Dr. Dan.
Reid Scott: Thanks.
