On "The Good Place," Adam Scott plays a bad guy, literally: a demon named Trevor who meddles and messes with those trying to stay away from the bad place he calls home.
But offscreen, Scott is one of the good guys, grappling with balancing his work and his home life with wife Naomi and trying his best to keep their tweens — son Graham, 11, and daughter Frankie, 9 — away from the kinds of traps his "Good Place" character might set.
Scott's kids, now in 6th and 4th grades, "are really smart and well-adjusted," he told TODAY Parents. He knows they will face more challenges in the teen years ahead, he said, but for now, they are focused on keeping them happy and protecting them for as long as they can.
Part of that has meant keeping them off Snapchat and Instagram. "Our kids are definitely aware of social media, but none of them are on social media," he said. "They don't have phones yet. All the parents in their classes have taken this pledge to wait until 8th grade to give them phones."
Scott said he feels like social media is a "Pandora's box" for kids. "They shouldn't have to worry about it," he said. "As much as we can, we try to keep that stuff at bay so they don't have to worry about it."
Being a parent to kids who play flag football and play at public parks and fields also led Scott to working with food company Stonyfield Organic in their #Playfree campaign to eliminate the use of persistent pesticides on playing fields and in community parks. Scott starred in a video for the campaign that makes good use of his dry wit while making the point that 65 percent of kids' sports fields are sprayed with pesticides.
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"This is important to me. A lot of us parents across the country are looking at our food, being really careful about buying organic fruits and vegetables, and looking out for our kids by wanting our food to be as safe as possible," he said. "Some of the same pesticides that we are protecting them from by buying organic food are being sprayed in these parks where our kids spend so much time.
"Our public parks are the last place where our kids should have to worry," he said. "They have enough to be freaked out about as kids in 2018."
Scott said he and his wife juggle their individual work and projects, sometimes with "grueling" extended time away from home, but they also have a production company together, Gettin' Rad Productions. He enjoyed making the 2017 comedy "Fun Mom Dinner" with Naomi, who produced the movie, because it gave them a chance to be in the same place with their children too.
"We all got to be together through the entire thing," he told TODAY Parents. "We love working together, but it also makes things easier family-wise."