Whatever Happened To Seann William Scott?
After breaking through with the iconic role of the objectionable but strangely lovable high school jerk Stifler in American Pie, Seann William Scott seemed to become a permanent fixture on the big screen. Indeed, at the turn of the century, the Minnesota native got decapitated in the cult classic Final Destination, endured an 1800-mile journey to retrieve a sex tape in Road Trip, and teamed up with Ashton Kutcher to ask one of cinema's most pressing questions, Dude, Where's My Car?
But as the decade wore on, the Sean with an extra N struggled to maintain his place on the A-list, with Role Models proving to be his only notable success. Southland Tales, The Promotion and Mr. Woodcock all flopped at the box office; Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot and Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach didn't even make it into theaters; and shortly after Cop Out bombed with critics and audiences alike in 2010, Scott had checked himself into rehab over undisclosed issues.
Perhaps as a result, the once-prolific actor slowed things down considerably in the '10s. In fact, he's only appeared in half a dozen live-action movies since reprising his most famous character in 2012's American Reunion. Fortunately, Scott has still enjoyed other successes in both his personal and professional life. Here's a look at what he's been up to.
Seann William Scott's dramatic turn saw mixed results
Robin Williams in One Hour Photo. Kevin James in Becky. Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers. Hollywood isn't averse to casting funnymen as sociopaths. But even so, Seann William Scott as a guidance counselor by day, serial killer by night? As unlikely as it sounds, that really is the premise of horror movie stable Blumhouse Productions' 2018 picture, Bloodline.
Nearly 20 years after playing a particularly obnoxious student in the first American Pie, Scott returned to the high school hallways, only this time as a figure of authority. Although he seems relatively normal on the surface, Evan Cole isn't exactly the kind of man you want advising troubled teens. For after hearing their tales of abuse, he sets out to seek vengeance the only way he knows how: gutting their perpetrators like a fish. Scott received rave reviews for playing against type, with the Los Angeles Times praising his ability to walk that "fine line between sympathetic and sinister."
Of course, this wasn't the first time that Scott had tried to prove his serious actor credentials. In 2014, he appeared in Courteney Cox's directorial debut, Just Before I Go, as a jilted husband who tries to put his affairs in order for before committing suicide. Unfortunately for Scott, critics weren't so kind on this occasion, with Variety tepidly lauding him — "Scott convinces well enough" — and describing the overall film as a "dismal, tonally disastrous small-town farce."
A starring TV gig was short-lived for Seann William Scott
Clayne Crawford's loss proved to be Seann William Scott's gain in 2018 when the American Pie star was cast in the third season of Fox's Lethal Weapon reboot. The former had was fired from the buddy-cop dramedy after clashing with co-star Damon Wayans — with audio of one particularly foul-mouthed argument between the pair going very public.
Scott was brought in to partner Wayans' Roger Murtaugh but instead of simply assuming Crawford's role of Martin Riggs, he was given his own brand new character. Wesley Cole was an ex-C.I.A. field officer and war veteran who relocated to Los Angeles to be with the son he shares with Maggie Lawson's emergency room surgeon character Natalie Flynn.
Some critics believed that Scott's natural charm would help the show to survive the dramatic departure of its joint leading man. Unfortunately, this didn't prove to be the case. Combined with a ratings dip, Fox appeared to have had enough of all the behind the scenes drama and the show was taken off the air after its 15-episode third season in 2019. Even worse for its loyal fans, the final episode concluded with a cliffhanger, with Murtaugh and Cole appearing to head to South America to track down the latter's villainous former mentor.
Is anyone as private as Seann William Scott?
Unlike most of his peers, Seann William Scott has always preferred to keep his private life strictly private. He must be one of the few young-ish Hollywood stars without an Instagram profile, if you need any proof. But he took secrecy levels to new heights in 2019 when his rep confirmed that he'd walked down the aisle — but didn't confirm his spouse.
The Bulletproof Monk star had previously told Us Weekly that he'd been "dating somebody." But the only information he gave about her was that "she's a great girl," and they're "super happy." Of course, nothing in Tinseltown stays hush-hush for too long and within a week of the news about his nuptials, the identity of the mysterious woman had been revealed.
So who was the woman who'd captured the heart of a man renowned for playing insufferable horndogs? The lucky lady was named by Page Six as Olivia Korenberg, an interior designer from Los Angeles. Korenberg had only just waved goodbye to the TwoFold LA firm she set up with pal Jenn Pablo when she became Mrs. Seann William Scott. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no photos, or indeed even any minor details, have emerged yet from the big day.
He was briefly engaged to a Victoria's Secret model
Olivia Korenberg may have been the first lady to walk down the aisle with Seann William Scott, but she wasn't the first to receive a proposal from the Hollywood star. Yes, seven years before saying 'I do,' the actor got engaged to Lindsay Frimodt, a one-time model for Victoria's Secret, following a romantic beach getaway.
And Scott, who was previously rumored to have dated fellow Hollywood stars January Jones and Jaime King, couldn't stop gushing about his bride-to-be at the 2012 American Reunion premiere shortly after. He told E! on the red carpet, "I don't know how I got a girl like my fiancée. She hadn't seen American Pie. Thank god. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be engaged."
Who knows whether a belated viewing of Stifler's frat boy antics did eventually give Frimodt second thoughts as within less than a year the couple announced that the engagement was off. An insider who, of course, wished to remain strictly anonymous, told Us Weekly that the split was an "amicable" one and that the pair "remain friends." Frimodt, who'd previously appeared in the music video for Justin Timberlake's "I'm Lovin' It," appears to have kept a relatively low profile since the break-up.
Seann William Scott became a priest — no, not like that
So it appears as though Fleabag's Andrew Scott may now have some competition when it comes to the title of the sexiest priest on TV. For in 2020, it was revealed that another Scott would also be donning a vestment for a comedy with roots in Britain.
Yes, apparently the whole Lethal Weapon debacle didn't deter Seann William Scott from sticking with the small screen. In only his second recurring TV role, the actor was cast as Father Joe in This Country, Fox's remake of the cult British mockumentary about the lives of two misfits living in rural England.
The Americanized version, which moves the action from the Cotswolds to the Ohio town of Flatch, centers on two cousins named Shrub and Kelly Mallet. After arriving from Minneapolis, Father Joe becomes a reluctant "father figure" to the unruly pair who continually test his patience levels. It's a role that was taken by Royal Shakespeare Company graduate Paul Chahidi in the BBC original under the name of Reverend Francis Seaton. Scott was the first cast member to be announced in the remake which is being executive produced by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) alongside its sibling creators Daisy May and Charlie Cooper.
Debunking the Seann William Scott v. Jason Biggs feud
Tara Reid sure knows how to stir up trouble. In a 2019 interview with Us Weekly, the actress inferred that Seann William Scott and Jason Biggs were at loggerheads when asked about a possible fifth installment of the American Pie franchise. However, the two men in question were left baffled by her comment of "Seann and Jason have to get along."
Indeed, Scott told the same magazine six months later that he's stayed closer to Biggs than any other star from the comedic series. "I remember there was, like, something in the news, like that he and I don't talk to each other. I think Tara Reid said something ... that there was never going to be an American Pie 5 because of Jason and Seann don't talk. And I was like, 'What the f*** is this?'"
In order to make sure that Biggs didn't harbor a secret grudge toward him, Scott got in touch with the man who shot to fame as the apple pie-humping Jim. Luckily, this wasn't the case. Scott recalled, "I text Jason and he texts me at the same time and he's like, 'We're good, right?' [And I texted back], 'Like, yeah, you still love me, right?' He's like, 'Yeah, what the f***?' And I was like, 'Alright,' I was like, 'I don't understand.' But yeah, he and I, we love each other. We trade messages every once in awhile [sic]."
Seann William Scott is open to returning to past glories
Seann William Scott isn't one of those actors who desperately tries to distance himself from his most famous roles. In a 2019 Reddit thread, the star revealed he'd be more than happy to return to not just one but two of his classic comedies in the future.
In fact, Scott seemed particularly excited about the prospect of joining forces with Ashton Kutcher again: "The world needs a Dude, Where's My Car sequel!!! It would be called Seriously, Dude Where's My Car." And he also expressed fond memories of his experiences shooting Role Models: "Every day was a ball on that film!! I would also love it if me, Paul [Rudd] and Wain [David Wain, the director] worked together again!"
But for those who will always see Scott as the oversexed idiot Stifler, then there's also promising news. If a fifth American Pie is ever greenlit, the actor is fully on board, as he told Movieweb in 2019: "I love those guys so much. And like, obviously, if I was worried about being typecast, I wouldn't have done four of those movies ... I just think it's always funny to see Stifler at different stages of his life. So to see him in his mid-forties just sounds really funny to me. But I don't know. I haven't really heard anything."
He's admitted to not being offered many parts
Seann William Scott is nothing if not honest. While promoting sequel Goon: Last of the Enforcers in 2017, the actor was asked by Yahoo Movies why it had taken three years for him to appear in front of the cameras again. And rather than make up some flimsy excuse, he gave an admirably candid answer.
Scott admitted, "I'm not a guy who's ever had tons of offers. I've always had to fight for an opportunity. And so it's a risk. Sometimes you go, 'OK, there's a lot of potential for this to be good. I just have to go in and try to do the best that I can.' And that's all you do. But I also don't want to do a bunch of movies that I know are gonna suck."
However, Scott also explained that there was another reason why he isn't as much of a presence at the cinemas as he was back at the turn of the century: "In the beginning of my career, they were making way more comedies, there was a real appetite for comedy. [Recently] there have been a lot of really good comedies that have come out, but they're just not doing [well] at the box office. They're not making as many as they did at the beginning [of my career] ... I had more opportunities."
Seann William Scott's healthy plan to return to the rink
Goon might not have broken any box office records on its 2011 release. In fact, it only grossed $7 million on a budget of $12 million. But as more and more fans of Canadian ice hockey comedies discovered its charms on DVD and streaming services, the movie developed a cult following. And by 2015, enough demand had grown for producers to greenlight a sequel.
This time around, though, its leading man wasn't prepared to put on extra weight for the role. In a 2017 interview with Wonderwall to promote Goon: Last of the Enforcers, Seann William Scott admitted that he'd deliberately overindulged in both food and alcohol to bulk up for the part of Doug "The Thug" Glatt in the original. However, he found it so tough to ditch the extra pounds that he turned down the opportunity to stuff his face once more.
He said, "It took me at least a good year, year and a half to lose that. So when we did the sequel, it was like, 'I'm not doing the pizza and beer thing.' I'm just gonna go to the gym and I'm gonna get in good shape because I can't deal [with losing the weight again] — especially now being older. It's gonna take me like three years to get rid of all the chunkiness."
The American Pie franchise has been good to Seann William Scott
A complete unknown when he auditioned for the part that would catapult him to fame across the globe, Seann William Scott was offered just $8,000 to play Stifler in American Pie, the gross-out comedy which would rake in a colossal $235.5 million worldwide.
Of course, by the time that the gang reunited for the belated fourth installment of the comedic franchise, Scott was in a much better position to negotiate. Indeed, with over a dozen box office hits to his name, the actor was able to command a far more impressive $5 million for reprising his most popular character, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This was apparently the same amount as co-star Jason Biggs but $2 million more than Eugene Levy and Alyson Hannigan, and significantly more than the likes of Chris Klein, Mena Suvari and Natasha Lyonne.
Furthermore, in another display of financial acumen, Scott also reportedly stipulated that he wanted a small percentage of the 2012 film's profits. And with American Reunion making almost exactly the same amount as American Pie, he enjoyed quite the payday. The Hollywood star appears to have been relatively sensible with his earnings, too. According to Celebrity Net Worth, he still has a cool $25 million to his name.