On Severance, there are the people that know and the people that don’t. The ones with answers and the ones with questions. Main characters like Mark S., Helly R., Irving, and Dylan don’t know anything. They have the questions. Behind the scenes, showrunner Dan Erickson is one of the guys with answers. And, in the world of the show, it’s characters like Mr. Milchick, played by Tramell Tillman, and Harmony Cobel, played by Patricia Arquette, who know what’s going on.
io9 sat down with two of Lumon’s finest to try and get a few of those answers while also discussing their excitement for season two. Read our full interview below.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Germain Lussier, io9: Both of your characters are more in the know than anyone else on the show, for the most part. Does that extend off-screen too? Does Dan share with you more of what’s going on or any little secrets?
Patricia Arquette: I don’t know that they actually give us any more information than anyone else, but we are kind of indoctrinated in that power dynamic of authority and structure and all of that. So I think we’re so used to pretending everything’s okay or pretending things are a certain way, pretending there’s some kind of certainty. And also keeping secrets is such an important part of it.
Tramell Tillman: I think this is a great example of how the character knows more than the actor. It’s wild.
io9: The wait has also been pretty wild. I’m wondering, in your regular day lives, have people come up to you over the last couple of years and been like, “When’s Severance coming back?” Do you have any fun stories?
Arquette: I just saw a ramping up of hostility, basically.
io9: [Laughs] Yes.
Arquette: There’s like “When’s it coming back?” They didn’t even want to say “Hi” or anything. “Is it coming back? What’s happening?” Believe me, it’s out of my hands. There’s nothing you can do about it. But it was coming back and then at a certain point, they told us the date, but then we weren’t allowed to say the date. So they’re like, “When’s it coming back?” I’m like, “I can’t say anything.”
io9: Right. Well, finally, we got it. Now, at the beginning of season two each of your characters has a new starting place here, right? Can you each tell me, in broad terms, a little bit about, your characters’ journeys this season?
Tillman: Well, definitely the stakes have increased for Milchick. We pick up right where we left off at the end of season one, and he is responsible for cleaning up the mess that he created with the OTC [Overtime Contingency Protocol] and what took place at the gala, and then also moving the ship forward with higher winds, if you will.
io9: And for Harmony?
Arquette: Harmony, at the beginning of the season, has really lost her power in this dynamic that she’s grown up in and that she’s had a lot of pride in, working her way up to her position of power. And also, she’s been able to utilize that position of power to have a little rogue situation that she’s working on, that she thinks is in keeping with Kier’s original concept, melding with the future, and differs from this new Lumon guard—the more Jame and Helena kind of concept of Lumon, which she doesn’t exactly agree with. So she’s like a Lumon purist, a Kier purist. But again, she’s been exiled, and so she’s having this cyclone of feelings about this organization, revenge, missing it, wanting to be embraced and brought back home and hating them all. So she goes through this journey this season where we see her origin story.
io9: Oh, excellent. I’m very excited to see that. Now, with streaming these days, there are so many shows out there that we’re lucky when something like Severance, that’s so good and noteworthy, comes along. Looking back on the first season, when did you realize, “Oh, I’m on a show that’s a hit, and we might be around for a little bit”?
Tillman: For me, it was the reception. It was the fan art, the amount of artistry that was birthed from this show, how people were inspired, and took so much time to craft gingerbread houses in the shape of Kier’s home, or costumes, and so forth. The fact that celebrities, other celebrities, were watching the show and commenting on it was really like, “Oh, this is getting attention across the world.”
Arquette: I mean, it’s a lovely feeling when something’s successful, and you know you’re not done telling this story, and you’re working with your friends, and you’re making this thing. And then you have all these really smart fans that are asking funny questions and are funny themselves, and they’re bringing other things to the table, and all of a sudden you feel like you’re all playing together. I mean, I’ve been in things before, like True Romance was a big bomb. But I knew it was good, and when I saw Severance coming together, and when we did it, when I saw it cut together, whether it was successful or not, I knew it was really interesting and good. So it’s just fortunate that other people thought it was good, and we’ve been able to make a second season.
That second season starts Friday January 17 on Apple TV+.
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