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Ben Stiller’s Apple TV’s new show Severance is a mind-bending, workplace- thriller where Lumon Industry employees undergo a controversial procedure called ’severance’ which separates their memories between their personal lives and their work lives. At the center of this is Mark, played by Adam Scott, whose world begins to unravel when he begins to explore some of the mysteries surrounding his work and himself.
Severance debuts on Apple TV on February 18th and ahead of its premiere, Screen Rant had a chance to chat with cast members John Turturro, and Zach Cherry, who play Mark’s (Adam Scott) workplace friends, and Britt Lower who play Helly, who’s is new to the Severance.
Screen Rant: First of all, guys, amazing job on this show. Severance mixes dark comedies, satire, sci-fi, and mystery all in a way that I haven’t seen done before. And John, we’ll start with you. What attracted you to this story and this premise?
John Turturro: I thought there was something organic about it, and I think people do separate themselves from work. The characters were all different and nuanced. I liked the whole idea of the character that they had offered me and I thought it would be interesting to see someone who’s really formal and disciplined and rigid. Then all of a sudden, he gets rocked and this wave of emotion comes in. Then when I spoke with Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson, we discussed it, they said, « Well, who would you like to work with on that? Do you have any ideas? » And I said Chris Walken because I’ve known Chris a long time and I don’t have to really act like we’re friends.
And he’s kind of like a jazz player. So, there were all those elements. Then I got to meet Britt Lower and Zach Cherry and Adam Scott and Tramell Tillman. It was really a terrific group of people.
Britt, when we meet Helly in the first scene, in the first episode, we’re kind of thrown in, just like Helly is. Can you talk to me a little bit about Helly and kind of what’s going on with her at that time, when she’s thrown into that situation?
Britt Lower: What struck me about he is that she wakes up on an office table having no memory of who she is or what she’s doing there, and she’s immediately defiant, rebellious, and she knows in her gut that something is off about this place and immediately wants to escape. I love that in each episode, she escalates those escape attempts and essentially becomes this disruptor of the office status quo and calls it to question the nature of their work, what they’re doing on the outside. I think all the characters kind of get rattled by Helly showing up.
Zach, I always love Dylan’s kind of theories on what their outies are doing. Dylan is almost like Mark’s little brother in this. Can you talk to me a little bit about Dylan and his relationship with his coworkers?
Zach Cherry: Yeah, I think you’re right. He does sort of having a brotherly relationship with Mark and Irving, John’s character, where they care about each other, but there’s a lot of kind of competitiveness and also just a little bit of playful antagonism. They kind of get into it. Especially when Mark is in charge, he likes to give him a hard time about things like that. As you mentioned, he has all these theories about what may be going on outside the office, but I’m not sure he’s super invested in their reality. It’s just kind of a fun way to kill time, to be like, « Ooh, what if it was this? What if it was this? » He’s kind of like a conspiracy theory guy?
Yeah. I think I would be the Dylan in that situation there. Now, John, talk to me about Irving, because I really love this character a lot. What did you want to bring to the role of Irving that wasn’t necessarily on the page?
John Turturro: Well, Dan Erickson had a whole sort of background of it, which I can’t really speak about, otherwise I would be executed, but it becomes a very disciplined and regimented world. I thought it would be interesting to explore that. I did a lot of research on who that person would be on the outside, which helped me sort of than when he unravels later on when you see. They’re all kind of reduced to this child state, kindergarten state at moments. You’re always looking for worlds maybe you haven’t fully investigated or whatever. Then obviously, it depends upon your interplay with your partners. They really help form your character. You could think all these things, but if Britt does something, or Zach does something to me, then I have to respond to that within that world. That’s what makes it interesting. It’s also about what happens between the people too.
Britt, Ben Stiller, directs seven of the nine episodes. Can you talk to me about working with Ben as a collaborator? I know that you’re a basketball player, and you kind of said that running down those halls and stopping at those marks felt kind of like you were on the court. Can you talk about that a little bit too?
Britt Lower: Yeah, well, both Ben and I love basketball, so I love to refer to myself as the point guard, and especially there’s a lot of action sequences. Helly is literally trying to physically escape, so I get to run down hallways, smash through windows, throw speakers at Adam Scott’s head. I had a lot of fun with the physical aspect of the show, and that’s a lot of what hell has to go off of because she has no memory of who she is again and she has a real drive to get out at all costs.
You talked about this earlier, John, about bringing Chris Walken in as Burt. I want to ask you actually, Zach, because I love your character’s kind of opinion on Burt’s character. Can you talk to me about how your character, Dylan, views Burt?
Zach Cherry: Yeah, he kind of just doesn’t like his vibe. He gets a bad vibe off the guy and he doesn’t really change his mind. He kind of sticks with that. He gets a bad gut vibe.
John Turturro: He’s just jealous. He’s just jealous. It overwhelms him. That’s my point of view.
I was just going to ask you because your character actually has this chance meeting with Burt, which changes your character’s whole direction. Without going into spoilers, can you talk about Burt’s relationship with Irving?
John Turturro: Well, I just think sometimes you meet people and you connect and you’re similar souls or something, and that’s very hard to act.
I watch a lot of things, when people are supposed to be in love or this or that, and you just go, « I’m not feeling that. » If you have someone who gets your sense of humor and you share certain things, it’s easy to build up from that, and then see what happens between you. It’s not like there are decisions that are made. When you work with someone like Chris Walken, I know I’ve directed him a bunch of times too, he’s sort of like a jazz player. He comes at it from all different angles. And that’s kind of the joy of working with someone like that. And then you see there’s always a surprise. That’s all I can say.
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