The actor opens up to ET about his new Max series, watching his daughter binge 'Grey's Anatomy' and more.
Scott Foley has been a part of plenty of bingeworthy television series throughout his career, but fans first got to know him as Noel Crane on Felicity.
As the resident advisor-turned-love interest to Keri Russell's titular character, Foley won plenty of hearts as fans of the show debated "Ben vs. Noel" over the four-season run, and now, more than 20 years after the series finale, he admits that he wouldn't immediately say no to the idea of some type of reunion.
"I had always said I wouldn't -- you know, there's no reason to do anything," he admitted to ET's Rachel Smith in a recent sit-down. "But just to be with them again, I think would be really nice... When we did the 20th reunion down in Texas at the [ATX Television Festival], we were onstage in a panel answering questions, and I missed being with them."
"I don't know if it could ever really happen, you know, Felicity was such a specific show at a specific time that took took place in a specific moment in people's lives," he added, joking, "And it's really hard to recapture -- especially with the amount of gray going on right now."
Since his breakout role, Foley has made memorable appearances on series like Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and more. He returns to the world of political drama in his new Max series, The Girls on the Bus, in which he plays a small-town mayor running for president, who does his best to connect with the cadre of journalists following him on the campaign trail -- four of whom make up the titular "girls."
"I was so sort of familiar with the political world from Scandal that this seemed like an easy fit," Foley said of taking on the role. "It's fun and light, and for me doing something different sort of in the same sphere, it was an easy transition."
"The show is about these four women, and the found friendships they have along the way," he noted. "It's like every other TV show -- it can be politics or it can be medical, like Grey's Anatomy, or legal like Law & Order. It's really about the relationships."
Foley shared that he was inspired by Pete Buttigieg when shaping his character, a military veteran who aspires to a higher political position. However, there was no roadmap in Buttigieg's history for the shirtless dance scene the actor performs in episode 3, which airs next week.
"In the show, Sadie McCarthy, played by Melissa Benoist, she has these sort of fantasy episodes," he explained of how the scene came to be. "It was at once the most terrifying and sort of the most rewarding thing to shoot."
"I'm 51 years old. It's not great. Why the hell am I taking my shirt off on TV?" he added with a laugh. "I remember a couple of days before we shot it, I was sitting at breakfast with my wife about to take a bite of bread and she sort of grabbed my hand and put it down just like, 'Maybe we put the bread down for a couple days.'"
Other career moments for Foley that have recently come full-circle include his former Felicity co-star, Scott Speedman, joining the Grey's Anatomy cast as a love interest for Ellen Pompeo's Meredith Grey. So, has the actor revisited any of his old episodes of the medical drama?
"I haven't seen Grey's Anatomy in a while," he admitted. "Although I catch -- you know, my daughter's 14 and sort of like everybody else now, the new generation has started watching it on Netflix."
"I'll walk by while she's watching an episode and sort of be like, 'That's not me, she's gonna get to me sometime,'" he teased. "I've been really fortunate in my career. I'm so proud of a lot of the stuff I've done."
The Girls on the Bus is streaming now on Max, with new episodes dropping every Thursday.
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