John Turturro, Zach Cherry, and Britt Lower are back at Lumon forSeveranceSeason 2. The Dan Erickson-created psychological thriller concluded its first season with the aforementioned trio, alongside Adam Scott’s Mark Scout, pulling off a coup at Lumon, as they all successfully made contact with the outside world while their innies were at the wheel ina process known as the “overtime contingency.“All involved in the overtime contigency pursued different areas.
Turturro’s Irving attempts to locate Christopher Walken’s Burt, a colleague who he began a romantic relationship with at work, in the outside world. Cherry’s Dylan is tasked with holding the controls that keep the overtime contingency active. Lower’s Helly finds herself preparing to speak at a Lumon gala, asshe is revealed to be Lumon CEO Jame Eagen’s daughteron the outside.
Severance’s Innies Vs Outies Explained: How The Procedure Works & What The Rules Are
In Apple TV+’s sci-fi thriller series, Severance, the characters’ lives center on the fact that they are “severed,” but what does that actually mean?
Ahead ofSeveranceSeason 2’s January 17 premiere on Apple TV+,ScreenRantspoke with Turturro, Cherry, and Lower to discuss how exploring their outieschange the way audiences will interpret Season 1 scenes, how they distinguish between their twoSeverancepersonalities, and where their characters' evolving confidence is coming from.
ScreenRant: We spend so much timein Season 2with your characters as outies. Do you think that we would watch any Season 1 scenes differently now that we know a little bit more about who your characters are on the outside?
John Turturro: It depends on how curious and obsessive or perverse you are, but I don’t know. I think there is a connection. It’s like when you used to buy a record. There was the A-side, there was the B-side. If you think of it that way, there is a connection, but maybe not. I’m not sure about that. I think that’s one of the mysteries of the show and one of its strengths is that we do have the capacity to be ignorant. They say ignorance is bliss about where we come from or our past, our baggage. So the show plays with that, and it plays with our separation from our work life and our personal life.
Zach Cherry: In Season 1 we learned very, very little about Dylan’s outie and then near the end, we start to learn about it, and then we learn a lot more this season. I think there are definitely things that if I were to think back or watch moments from Season 1 that take on a new color based on that new information. Your mileage may vary on that. It depends how perverse you are, as John said.
John Turturro: You can watch it backwards, forwards.
Britt Lower: I think there’s something to be found in a rewatch, for sure. Every prop and line of dialogue has been really cared for by the cast and the crew. It’s this giant puzzle that we’ve built and we all enjoy detailing each of the puzzle pieces for the audience to then kind of be in conversation with us about.
Britt Lower Explores More Of Her Helly’s Two Personas
Britt, I want to go down that rabbit hole with you about the difference between Helly and Helena. We spend a lot more time getting to understand who Helena is and what her motives are. These characters feel like completely different people, even though you guys look exactly the same. Same hairstyle, same posture, same everything. What are some of the nuances that you’re emphasizing as an actress to individualize both Helly and Helena?
Britt Lower: I want this to kind of be a package that the audience gets to open for themselves and have a relationship to each side of the same person. But as John was alluding to, they sound like different music in my head. I really have empathy for both of their situations. These are the same person but both are trapped by the same company. Helena is obviously trapped in a really different way. She’s stuck within this family that she didn’t choose. So it really becomes about kind of this inner critic, this inner child ego versus id nature, nurture opposite sides of the coin. I’ll stop my metaphors now (laughs).
John Turturro’s Irving Discovers His Confidence In Season 2
“There’s a process of discovery…”
Irving really develops his confidence in this season compared to where he was in Season 1. Where does that come from?
John Turturro: I just sometimes think it’s situational what happens, and I think his relationship with Burt pushes him over the edge. We never know why he was severed. I have my own ideas and that’s for me to know and no one else, but I think that kind of pushes him in a different direction to rebel instead of being the company man. And from that, there’s a process of discovery and I think people have that within them. They just don’t know. I think what Britt is talking about with her character, it really makes sense that if say, she was a child, and I never talked to Britt about this, it was kind of beaten out of her, her rebellion.
They say, ‘You can’t be this way, you have to be this way.’ That still remains somewhere in her. So when she serves, that’s part of her. And so that part, the child in you, is always there. It’s about accessing that. And children don’t have all these, they sit up straight, they don’t have the psychological baggage at a certain age. A 5-year-old is free. Look how limber they are. And as you get older you have all these things you carry with you. So I think people are infinitely complex. No, none of us know exactly what we’re capable of. And so to me, that’s one of the joys of exploring this profession.
Zach Cherry’s Dylan Finds His Balance Between Humor & Gravity
“He has all these theories about what he might be…”
You said something interesting too about how relationships change who we are as people. And Zach, I feel like that’s very true for Dylan with what I’ve seen from Season 2. In Season 1, he relies a lot on humor in high-stress situations. This time around we get to see a little bit more gravity and severity to him when he’s reacting to things that are going awry. Have you found that balance for Dylan between the humor and the gravity?
Zach Cherry: I think it is similar to what John was saying. So much of it is situational. In Season 1, Dylan is totally free. He doesn’t have any baggage. He doesn’t really know anything about his life except for the version that he creates for himself. He has all these theories about what he might be, and then once he learns what’s really going on out there, he starts to take on some of that and it does impact the way he interacts with the world.
AboutSeveranceSeason 2
In “Severance,” Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives. This daring experiment in “work-life balance” is called into question as Mark finds himself at the center of an unraveling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself. In Season 2, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.
“Severance” is executive produced by Ben Stiller, who also directs five episodes this season in addition to directors Uta Bresiewitz, Sam Donovan and Jessica Lee Gagné. The series is written, created and executive produced by Dan Erickson. “Severance” season two is also executive produced by John Lesher, Jackie Cohn, Mark Friedman, Beau Willimon, Jordan Tappis, Sam Donovan, Caroline Baron, Richard Schwartz, Nicholas Weinstock. In addition to starring, Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette serve as executive producers. Fifth Season is the studio.
Cast
Severance is a psychological thriller series featuring Adam Scott as Mark Scout, an employee at Lumon Industries who undergoes a “severance” procedure to separate his work and personal memories. However, as work and life personas mysteriously begin to collide, it quickly becomes clear that not all is as it seems. Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle.
