Seven-year-old Adam Christopher Scott is your typical Eden Prairie kid.
The first grader at Oak Point Elementary School plays basketball and video games, collects sports cards, roots for the Vikings and the Wild, and likes to trek outside on snowy days with his brothers, Ryan, 13, and Matt, 10.
“We’re definitely going to play snow football this year because we barely played it last year,” said Adam, the youngest of Bryn and Dave Scott’s three children.
However, there is one way the youngster stands out from his peers.
Adam is a budding actor with a recurring role as Hugo in a new TV series geared toward preschoolers called Hello Jack! The Kindness Show. All seven episodes have been streaming on Apple TV+ since early November.
As he and his mother Bryn explain, Adam is passionate about acting.
“It’s really fun acting,” he said.
When he steps into the shoes of a character, it’s like he’s someone else for the day.
“But, for my show, it’s kind of just me,” Adam said of his character Hugo.
How he caught the acting bug
Adam first voiced his interest in acting two years ago while watching TV.
“He said, ‘I want to do that someday,'” Bryn recalled. “I said, ‘Why don’t we start small?”
So, Adam began modeling in Minneapolis, “just to see if he would like that,” Bryn said.
No one in the Scott family has an acting background, so this was a “whole different experience,” she added.
(Bryn is a former marketing executive and Minnesota Vikings’ cheerleader; Dave is executive vice president and general counsel for Oppidan, a Minneapolis-based national property development firm.)
Adam signed with a couple of Minneapolis-based modeling agencies and began doing print work for such businesses as Target and Once Upon a Child.
Bryn said he liked it and wanted to do more. He eventually signed with Mavrick Artists Agency based in Beverly Hills, Calif., and started auditioning for acting roles.
Then COVID-19 hit.
“There was a little bit of a lull (because of the pandemic), but the good news is Hollywood is pretty smart,” Bryn said. “They figured out how they can do things not in person. Most do self-tapes, then the callbacks are usually done on Zoom.”
Bryn uses a cell phone to record Adam’s self-tapes for his auditions, in which he usually memorizes lines from a scene or two.
“Most people have a bit more sophisticated equipment,” Bryn said. “We just have some green lights and a phone holder and a blank background, and go for it.”
Landing the role
After months of auditions, Adam got the part of Hugo in Hello Jack! The Kindness Show.
The show, which teaches preschoolers how little acts of kindness can change the world, was co-created and stars Jack McBrayer. He played Kenneth Parcell on the long-running NBC comedy series 30 Rock.
“It is about everywhere you go, spread kindness,” Adam said. “In the middle of the scene, me and all the other people would joke around because we did stuff so funny every single person would laugh.”
Adam and Bryn stayed in the Los Angeles area from February to June while Adam filmed the series. Eighteen episodes were created during that time.
“I’m not exactly sure what their plans are (for the other 11 episodes filmed then),” Bryn said. “I can’t speak if the next ones are going to be Season 2.”
Adam appears in three of the seven episodes from Season 1. He is featured in episodes 2 and 5 and is in the background for episode 3. For that fifth episode, Adam as Hugo, Jack and the others build a new garden for a man who had just moved to town and missed his old garden.
Bryn said Adam is proud to be part of a show that spreads kindness. He hopes that his character of Hugo will influence kids positively and get them thinking about how they can be kind, too.
Speaking of kindness, McBrayer made quite the impression on Adam and Bryn.
“He is the nicest, kindest person on set,” Bryn said. “He’s almost the same person. I mean, he’s like a major person in Hollywood, but he’s so down-to-earth and nice. You (two) are buddies.”
“Yeah,” Adam enthusiastically agreed, noting he and McBrayer liked to talk about sports.
Last year, Adam started kindergarten in person at Oak Point. After getting the role, Adam switched to Eden Prairie Online learning, keeping up with the curriculum in California.
(As a minor, Adam could be on the show’s set eight hours a day, five on camera and three in school with a studio teacher.)
“It was like he was there,” Bryn said. “It wouldn’t be any different if we were home in Minnesota. We wanted to stick with the Minnesota curriculum, so when we came back, he could jump right back in.”
All seven shows surprisingly dropped on Apple TV+ the night of Nov. 4, a day before its official premiere. (To celebrate the Nov. 5 premiere, the cast and crew gathered for a virtual watch party.)
“I stayed up until almost 11 to watch a lot,” Adam said.
That was the first time Adam and Bryn saw the finished product. Both gave the show two enthusiastic thumbs up.
Adam’s friends think it’s cool that he is on a TV show. Some have jokingly asked if they can make a guest appearance.
He said his brothers are less excited about his star turn than they were at first.
“They don’t think it’s that cool anymore,” he said. “They only thought it was cool on the night that it came out.”
Future roles
Adam continues to audition for roles in films and TV series.
“I’m feeling like we’re seeing some bigger roles now since he has experience in Hollywood,” Bryn said.
Currently, he’s attending Oak Point in person. “Depending on what happens with Season 2 or when they film again, we will maybe hop over to EP Online again,” Bryn said.
So, what is Adam’s dream acting job?
“Probably to get on a movie,” he said. “Because it’s a full year to shoot, and it’s like an hour and 30 minutes long. You would probably get to see me a lot if I was ever in a movie.”
As Adam continues on his acting journey, Bryn says she and Dave will be careful to keep him grounded.
“I want him to grow up as a normal kid in Eden Prairie who can play basketball and play football and go to school,” she said. “But, still do something that he loves. We have to find the balance.”
For more on Adam, click on his website here.
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