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Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
‘What if this doesn't work?' The ‘Severance' cast reflects on Season 2's biggest swings
On Feb. 18, 2022, Apple TV+ unveiled 'Severance,' a striking new series set at Lumon Industries, a mysterious biotech company whose employees in the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) division have undergone a procedure in which their at-work consciousness (known as their 'innie') is 'severed' from their personal-life consciousness (their 'outie'). Over the next two months, audiences obsessed over the show's seductive examination of work-life balance and the different guises we wear throughout the day. Then the series went on an agonizingly long hiatus — and not just for fans. 'Our No. 1 concern was people sticking with us after a three-year break,' admits star and producer Adam Scott. 'We stopped shooting about a year ago — I've been spending all of that time either watching cuts of the show or discussing the show with [executive producer] Ben [Stiller] and [creator] Dan [Erickson]. 'Severance' is a constant in all of our lives. Whether we're shooting or not, we're always in close contact talking about it.' That angst is apparent when I speak to Patricia Arquette, who plays Lumon's icy, menacing Harmony Cobel, the day of the shocking Season 2 finale. 'How's it going?' she asks excitedly about the online response. Relieved that fans hail 'Severance's' sophomore run as more provocative and moving than ever, she confesses, 'I was scared of some of the risks [the creative team] were taking: 'What if this doesn't work?' They really didn't sit on their laurels from the first year's success — they took a lot more chances in the second year.' Because of the outsize anticipation, initial reports of delays and extensive rewrites on Season 2 created worries that the series' intricate narrative puzzle might implode. Scott dismisses those reports now that audiences have seen the finished product. 'It's a unique show,' he says, 'and in Season 1 we were figuring out what it was as we were doing it. In Season 2, the show was changing and expanding — we were figuring out what it was all over again because it was important to all of us that it not feel the same. Sometimes it takes a while.' Certainly, the show's emotional stakes are raised. Dichen Lachman, who plays Ms. Casey/Gemma, is especially proud of this season's heartbreaking seventh episode, 'Chikhai Bardo,' which flashes back to Mark and Gemma's once-blissful time as husband and wife, their relationship affected by miscarriages and IVF treatments. Lachman felt responsible for ensuring 'Severance' properly conveyed the anguish of infertility issues. 'I have not been through the process of IVF, but I just know [from] speaking to my friends how difficult that is,' she says. Without getting into specifics, she says, 'I've had things happen. It is very shocking — you do think that there's something wrong with you. It's a difficult thing to talk about — and it's very difficult, I think, for a man to understand it on the same level as a woman.' The actors' personal experiences informed the season in other ways. John Turturro's older brother, Ralph, died in December 2022. 'It was hard to go back to work,' says the actor, who plays Mark's Lumon co-worker Irving. But something shifted once the cast headed into the freezing wilderness for 'Woe's Hollow,' an episode that finds the MDR division engaged in a bizarre team-building exercise. 'When I was up in the mountains, it just felt like I was invigorated,' Turturro recalls. 'It was also arduous, being in the snow — [my character] had a lot to do and I was very active. But along the way, I felt myself being able to incorporate it. You're surrounded by trees and snow, and it was beautiful. You could contemplate a little bit and look out at the sky. I was appreciative of that.' For Tramell Tillman, whose breakthrough performance as the eerily formal Lumon manager Mr. Milchick was among the first season's revelations, the series' central themes — especially the unknowability of one's 'true' self — continue to hit home. Reflecting on his journey to come out as gay — he was raised Baptist — Tillman says, 'I've always admired people that were consistently the same, no matter the circumstance. I think me being able to become a chameleon is just a condition of growing up and who I am — that kind of malleability has afforded me a lot of opportunities. But I never as an adult walked away from the true essence of who I am — I never wanted to step away from my values. That took a while for me to learn: What is it that I believe in?' Living multiple lives is also something Zach Cherry, who provides both comic relief and pathos as fellow data refiner Dylan, understands. The actor long knew he wanted to be a performer, but initially he had to get a day job. 'I was an office manager,' he says. 'It wasn't quite as distinct as the innie/outie, but they didn't know that I was doing comedy every night. I wasn't that version of myself [at work] — I was compartmentalized in that sense, so that informed what I did on this show.' Cherry was at the job 'for quite a few years,' but where other actors are quick to dismiss their earlier 9-to-5 gigs, he proudly declares, 'It was a job that I did enjoy. I was good at it! But it very much was not my passion.' Since this season's finale, which sees Mark abandon his outie's wife, Gemma, to run away with the anarchic Helly, Britt Lower, who plays the character, has observed fans' impassioned response to that cliffhanger. But she won't answer a question many viewers have: What, exactly, is Helly thinking when she looks at Gemma just before she and Mark escape? Does she feel bad for Gemma? Or is she feeling triumphant that Mark chose her? 'It's a Rorschach test of how it resonates with a viewer based on their own experience,' Lower says of her character's neutral expression. 'I would never want to rob someone of their interpretation. I will say that a woman simply looking across the hall at another woman can be interpreted in so many ways.' As for what awaits viewers in Season 3, the 'Severance' castmates are uniform in revealing nothing. 'I'm just excited to see where they go,' Lower says. 'For the time being, it's really fun to let my imagination run wild.' Throughout her career, she has taken to drawing to help enter the headspace of the characters she's played — has she done any sketches about what Helly's future might look like? Lower sparks to that suggestion. 'Not yet,' she replies, 'but maybe next time we talk, I'll have some drawings to show you.'
Geek Tyrant
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Michael Scott From THE OFFICE Amusingly Inserted Into SEVERANCE — GeekTyrant
Here's an incredibly funny and entertaining video that inserts Michael Scott from The Office into the world of the hit Apple TV+ series Severance. It specifically places the character on the 'Severed Floor' at Lumon Industries, and as you might imagine, the whole thing is ridiculously silly. The video came from the YouTube channel hyperspacefool, and I hope you enjoy it!
Daily Mirror
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Clever and funny film way ahead of its time on Netflix - perfect for Severance fans
The film stars Jim Carrey as a man who discovers his entire life has been a 24-hour reality TV show - and it's still incredibly relevant today Fans of the mind-bending Apple TV series Severance are eagerly awaiting its next instalment, following the second series that concluded this spring that left audiences and critics singing praises about the truth unravelling about Lumon Industries. With fingers crossed for a shorter than three-year hiatus, Severance fans looking for something that hits the cerebral, surreal, and heartfelt notes of Severance need look no further than Netflix. The Truman Show is ready to fill that void. Starring Jim Carrey, the 1998 satirical gem uncovers the life of a man who realises his existence is the subject of a 24/7 hour reality TV show. The film follows Truman's stranger-than-life story as he grapples with the earth-shattering revelation about his idyllic existence – and the millions of viewers hooked on his daily life. Despite the lie at its core, the movie is funny, heartfelt, and thought-provoking. And for those yearning for original storytelling, it's neither an adaptation nor a sequel. What people are saying about The Truman Show Widely acclaimed by both pundits and the audience, The Truman Show boasts a 'Certified Fresh' status on Rotten Tomatoes, with an impressive 94% approval from critics and 89% from over 250,000 viewer ratings. "A funny, tender, and thought-provoking film, The Truman Show is all the more noteworthy for its remarkably prescient vision of runaway celebrity culture and a nation with an insatiable thirst for the private details of ordinary lives," reads the critical consensus. Legendary critic Roger Ebert reviewed the movie when it was released and evoked Princess Diana as content to be consumed. "We're invited to think about the implications," he wrote. "About a world in which modern communications make celebrity possible, and inhuman. "Until fairly recently, the only way you could become really famous was to be royalty, or a writer, actor, preacher or politician–and even then, most people had knowledge of you only through words or printed pictures. "Television, with its insatiable hunger for material, has made celebrities into 'content,' devouring their lives and secrets. If you think 'The Truman Show' is an exaggeration, reflect that Princess Diana lived under similar conditions from the day she became engaged to Charles. Jim Carrey's performance in the film is often considered one of his best. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, whilst Ed Harris, who plays a ruthless executive producer, won for Best Supporting Actor. The Guardian's 1998 review praised Carrey as "impressive in deftly satirical comedy", noting that his role combined "Cliff Richard's wholesome grin, Jerry Lewis's comic energy and Anthony Perkins's spooky mildness". The performance has stood the test of time, according to a 2024 review from The Highlander: "Through Truman's mannerisms from start to finish, Carrey truly excels in the main character role as his mannerisms along with his gradual realization that he is living in a simulated reality. Carrey has been known for many great performances, but this is one of his best." The legacy of The Truman Show Despite coming out 27 years ago, The Truman Show's themes of exploitative media, hungry audiences, and surveillance culture will resonate with 2025 audiences. When it was released in 1998, reality TV hadn't yet reached its peak - Big Brother US and UK didn't follow until 2000 - but the film foreshadowed the rise of reality TV and social media culture. The movie was a smashing success both with critics and at the ticket stands, bagging three Oscar nods to boot. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, director Peter Weir shared his astonishment at its prescience with BBC Culture: "I had no idea the tsunami of reality TV lay just below the horizon." He added: "It seems to appeal to a young audience which is unusual for a film older than they are."
The Independent
13-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Severance's John Turturro on fans getting ‘intimate' tattoos of him: ‘I don't want to look at that'
Severance star John Turturro has a blunt response to super fans getting tattoos of him on their bodies. Speaking to People at a Severance event on April 11, Turturro shared how social media has altered the relationship between actors and fans. He said it's been an adjustment, especially as he's gone viral for a singular line on the latest season of the hit Apple TV show, in which he plays Lumon Industries employee Irving Bailiff. "Years ago, people didn't have social media, so they would say those lines to you on the street or they'd get tattoos of you," Turturro, 68, told the outlet. "A lot of people have tattoos of me on intimate parts of their body and they sometimes want to show them to me and I'm like, 'I don't want to look at that', you know what I mean?" he continued. Turturro also largely stays off of social platforms, he revealed. "I'm not really on social media because I don't really want to read about myself and then I don't want to be self-conscious. I like being free and oblivious," he explained. But that doesn't mean Turturro isn't grateful for how audiences respond to his roles. "You're always appreciative when the audience responds, because you do it for people," he said of performing. "I do it for myself, but you hope that it will reach someone." The second season of Severance recently came to a close with a finale that left viewers with more questions than answers. Fans have been especially concerned that Turturro might not be returning for season three due to the season's penultimate episode and how his character's arc concluded. But Turturro has reassured viewers that he doesn't think this is the end of the road for Irving. 'If someone wanted the story to be complete? It could be! But I think there's so much more here,' Turturro told The Hollywood Reporter. Severance has been renewed for season 3, but it's not yet clear when it will premiere. In the meantime, fans can catch up on the first two seasons on Apple TV.
Khaleej Times
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
UAE: How to master power dressing in 2025 using Apple TV+'s 'Severance' for inspiration
Eid celebrations are over, school holidays are winding down and regular office hours have resumed. The UAE is back to business. And, for the first time since Covid took a wrecking ball to office dress codes, workwear is at the top of the fashion agenda, thanks to the most-watched TV show in the history of Apple TV+, the sci-fi dystopian thriller Severance. If you've not seen it (and you really must), the overall premise is an exploration of what happens if our work lives are entirely separated from our home lives. The protagonists undergo a procedure that separates their conscious into Innies (corporate drudges tasked with 'work that is mysterious and important' for Lumon Industries, their employer and inventor of the severing concept) and Outies, the side of the self that gets to live life, blissfully ignorant of office politics, and immune from Sunday night dread as the work week looms. To be 'severed' promises the ideal work:life balance. As you'd expect from Apple, the production design is impeccable, a masterclass in storytelling through the use of colour. On the severed floor at Lumon, the protagonists of the Macrodata Refinement team are shown via a palette of almost exclusively blue and green. Not since the 1988 movie Working Girl made Melanie Griffiths' boxy suits and bouffant hair de rigueur, has office style been so aesthetically all-in. But while Working Girl was about power dressing, Severance's corporate automatons are powerless. Each day they are dressed by their Outie, consciousness switching to their innie persona in the Lumon Industries elevator. 'She dresses me in the morning, like I'm a baby,' bemoans Helly R, played by Britt Lower, of her Outie's control over what she finds herself wearing each day. While the conflict between Helly R's inside and outside selves is central to the show's narrative thread (no spoilers here), were I in her nude, block-heeled shoes, I'd be less quick to condemn my Outie's fashion choices. Like Apple's iconic founder, the late Steve Jobs, who wore an Issey Miyake black turtleneck, Levi's 501 blue jeans and New Balance trainers from the 1990s until his death in 2011, there is something to be said for a workwear wardrobe that is reliable, repeatable and rudimentary, as Lumon Industries' verbose Mr Milchick may or may not have said. As Severance 's central female character, and the standard bearer for the show's style credentials, Helly R's office wear, as chosen by her Outie Helena, revolves around some form of blue A-line pencil skirt, three-quarter length sleeve knit top, and those nude heels (specifically French footwear brand Repetto's Marlow style; designed for dancers, durable for eight hours at your desk, whether your job entails running down Lumon Industries' endless sterile corridors or not). There are no prints, no extraneous detail, and very little variation in silhouette, bar the occasional shift dress. Build a wardrobe of mix-and-match block-coloured basics, and you too can devote as little time as Helly R does to thinking about what to wear for work (even if her lack of sartorial say-so is down to bioengineering rather than free will). The trick is to find a palette you are comfortable working within, pun entirely intended. For me, it would be a spectrum of beige, from ivory to camel (do not attempt this if you have children under the age of five). Then, harness the discipline to shop only within those shades, sticking to simple shapes that suit your body type. Thus, in true Lumon style, freeing your creativity and frivolity to run wild outside of office hours. Just not too wild. Where Helly R's wardrobe is a lesson in restraint, it's wise to be discerning in your choice of televisual style cues. I once got carried away watching a Love Is Blind reunion show, ending up down a Google rabbit hole and impulsively ordering a floor-length rhinestone sheath dress from partywear brand Babyboo. It looked fantastic on screen, but, being neither a reality TV star, nor a highschooler with an upcoming prom, it has yet to emerge from its box. In a world of unlimited style choices, there's something to be said for limiting your shopping self's freedom of thought (Season 3 of Severance?). So, the next time a new series of Selling Sunset tempts me with the prospect of 150mm heels, I'll stream some discordant jazz and hit up Clarks for a Helly/Helena-approved court shoe instead.
