Scott Foley has spent twenty-five years as television's other man, the decent one the heroine does not pick. The one film he has written and directed suggests the nice guy had been keeping a grudge.
Fi1m perspective
Scott Foley's job, for most of his working life, has been to be the man the story does not choose. As Noel Crane on Felicity (1998–2002) he was the resident adviser, the kind corner of the triangle a sensible person would pick and the heroine did not. As Jake Ballard on Scandal (2013–2018) he was the other man again, older and armed this time, and again the reliable second option in somebody else's decision. He is good in company, and long-running series have leaned on that. Television has kept him busy with it for a quarter of a century.
The film work has been thinner. His debut was Scream 3 (2000), as Roman Bridger, on the Hollywood backlot where Wes Craven had moved the murders; we found that film's best joke in Parker Posey and had little to say about Foley, and he took some flak at the time for doing a slasher at all. The Unit (2006–2009), David Mamet's military drama, gave him four seasons as Bob Brown and a harder edge, and he began directing episodes of the series he acted in. He is due back as Roman Bridger in Scream 7 (2026).
Then in 2014 he wrote, directed, produced and co-starred in Let's Kill Ward's Wife, and the nice guy showed what he had been thinking. It is a comedy about three husbands who agree, evening after evening, that their friend's wife should be dead, until one of them acts. Foley gives himself Tom, the tired new father, the sensible one, and directs himself blandly. Patrick Wilson, who produced it with him, is funny as an actor between jobs, and Donald Faison carries the title with a slump in the shoulders we believed. The trouble is the wife. Stacy is written from her first scene as a list of charges rather than a person, and the film needs us to want her gone so the men can be forgiven for wanting it. We laughed twice, both times at Wilson, and then we sat there tired, because it dawned on us that the film was not joking about its premise.
That is what the one film tells us about the career. When someone else writes the reasonable man, Foley plays him and the series runs for years. When he writes the reasonable man himself, the reasonable man turns out to have a grievance, and the woman across the table turns out to be the cause of it. Television has served him best: a room full of other actors, a script he did not write, a part that asks him to be decent and stay decent. Roman Bridger is coming back, and we will watch. If Foley writes again, we hope he lets someone else play the sensible one, and someone else write the wife.
Biography
Scott Foley is an American actor, director and producer. Born on 15 July 1972 in Kansas City, Kansas, he made his television debut in the mid-1990s with guest roles and achieved a breakthrough as Noel Crane on the series Felicity (1998–2002).
Foley is known for his film role as Roman Bridger in Scream 3 (2000) and Scream 7 (2026), and for television performances including Jake Ballard on Scandal (2012–2018), Bob Brown on The Unit (2006–2009) and recurring appearances on Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs. He has directed episodes of Felicity and Scandal, and wrote, produced and directed the feature Let's Kill Ward's Wife (2014). Foley has been married to actress Marika Domińczyk since 2007 and was previously married to actress Jennifer Garner.
