Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Severance Season 2.
As Apple TV+’s Severance continues to explore the various mysteries surrounding Lumon, one of the aspects of its story that has become increasingly more complicated is the ongoing divide between innie and outie. While the employees we’re introduced to in the series have elected to undergo a procedure that effectively “severs” their work memories from their home life, those once-stark lines have become even more blurred thanks to the plot that’s unfolded. Not only has Irving (John Turturro) agreed to a dinner date with Burt (Christopher Walken), the co-worker his innie fell in love with at Lumon, but Helena Eagan’s (Britt Lower) decision to impersonate her innie on the severed floor had huge ramifications that are still playing out for the remaining employees — not to mention that Dylan G.’s (Zach Cherry) meetings with his outie’s wife Gretchen (Merrit Wever) are still under wraps!
Ahead of Severance’s long-awaited return, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several cast members — including Turturro, Lower, and Cherry — about some of their characters’ biggest moments over the first few episodes of Season 2. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above or read below, the trio reflects on how strange it was to be confronted by a watermelon-sized version of Turturro’s head as well as the less-than-hospitable conditions of filming the ORTBO episode, “Woe’s Hollow.” They also discuss how complicated the story is becoming for someone like Dylan, whether the divide between Helena and Helly is shrinking, and more.
COLLIDER: Zach, did you ever envision that this season you would be talking to a giant, melon-sized version of John’s head?
ZACH CHERRY: I could never have envisioned it, but I loved every second.
JOHN TURTURRO: I don’t even know if I’ll be able to watch this.
CHERRY: What’s funny is, that scene really was kind of strange. John wasn’t there for that scene, and it was very emotional.
BRITT LOWER: We missed you so much!
CHERRY: Having this representation of you there was very impactful, honestly. That watermelon head.
It does lead me to something I want to ask you about anyway, which is the friendship between these characters. I think Dylan has his own regrets about not helping Irving before the termination. Zach, how do you feel losing Irving in that way really drives Dylan to finish the investigation that he started?
CHERRY: It’s a complicated season for Dylan because he’s grown close to these people at work over the course of the first season, and then he’s offered this little slice of his outside life that opens up his perspective and his world. He isolates himself from them a bit, and then we see the fallout from that. So, it’s an interesting journey for him this season.
Britt Lower Discusses Juggling Her Character’s Innie and Outie in ‘Severance’ Season 2

Britt, this season, we get an even deeper glimpse into Helly’s outie life. What did you really enjoy about juggling those two personas, and how did that really flesh out your own understanding of who this character is?
LOWER: Part of the fun of Season 1 was Helly going around and noticing how weird everything is and asking, “What the hell is going on and why are you all acting like this?” And then in Season 2, I, as an actor, get to embody that weird side of Lumon that the outie has grown up in and get to be inside of that world. It operates really differently than the innies, who are, for all intents and purposes, this sort of id-like energy. As opposed to the ego of the outside and the conditioning and the nurture, you have more of the nature and the inner child. So it’s really exploring both sides of the kinds of energies that we all have inside of us. I thought that was really relatable to be at odds with oneself. It’s like they say: we’re often our own worst enemy. No one speaks to anyone in the world as painfully as they speak to themselves at times, and I kind of came at it from that direction, too.

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They also discuss what Milchick really thinks about Miss Huang and why Cobel feels betrayed by Lumon.

Zach, I did want to ask you about working with Merritt Wever this season and getting to play both sides of Dylan’s consciousness a little bit more. How did that change your perception of him with the added context of his home life, [and] the way his innie is really approaching this relationship that his outie has had with fresh eyes?
CHERRY: Working with Merritt was amazing. On this show, I have been insanely lucky to work with so many incredibly talented people who make the job easier and help you elevate what you’re doing, and Merritt was wonderful to work with. As far as exploring Dylan’s innie and outie, the metaphor I’ve been using is that I think of the innie and outie as two slices of pizza from the same pizza pie. They’re distinct.
TURTURRO: One’s pepperoni, one’s mushroom?
CHERRY: One’s pepperoni and one’s mushroom, but sometimes, right on the edge, you get a little mushroom that crosses over, a little pepperoni that crosses over. So they’re distinct and discrete individuals, but they’re the same part of a larger whole, and there’s a little bit of carry-over.
LOWER: Same oven.
CHERRY: It was fun to fold those two pieces of pizza together.
John Turturro and Britt Lower Felt Safe To “Go There” During Their ‘Severance’ Drowning Scene

Image via Apple TV+

Episode 4 is a real turning point for this group in a lot of ways, not simply because there’s a major confrontation between Irving and Helly. John and Britt, specifically, I wanted to ask you about filming that moment, especially in that particular setting — because it looks cold to watch, so I can only imagine how cold it was in the moment.
TURTURRO: It was very cold. Britt and I have a good relationship, so you want to do all the emotional stuff and also take care of the other person at the same time and make sure the other person is safe and you’re not hurting them and stuff like that. So, it was hard for Britt, and it was hard for me in other ways, because part of my brain was thinking about, “Okay, I gotta take care of her, and I’ve got to do what I have to do at the same time.” But I think that was an exciting episode to do. It was almost like its own little short story or little film. It’s interesting, I think when you actually like someone and care about them, you can actually go further. If you really don’t, there’s kind of a block sometimes because then you realize, “This is the imaginary story, and we’re playing like we’re in the sandbox together.”
LOWER: John is such a professional, and it was almost like we were doing this dance together.
TURTURRO: We did the steps.
LOWER: We were able to go there because the actor part of me, Britt, knew I was in such safe hands and that we really work in abandon inside of the character.
TURTURRO: So, I’ve been in the opposite situations with people and people get hurt really easily. Anyway, it was good when it was over. I felt like, “Okay, you’re alright.” [Laughs]
LOWER: But it was cold, yes.
TURTURRO: It was freezing. Worse for her.
Britt, you touched on this a little bit already, and it spoke to a question that I was thinking about watching these episodes. It’s really interesting to see Helly wrestle with what her outie is doing once the knowledge about her identity spreads among the group. I was wondering if you feel like the doubts that she’s having, the second-guessing, would be a part of Helena if she hadn’t severed that consciousness? Would that be a part of her day-to-day thinking?
LOWER: It’s a great question. What’s exciting is that’s the audience’s job, really, to parse out for themselves what it means for them. I do think all of these innies and outies have a lot to learn from one another, and that information that seeps through that’s either literal or subconscious is kind of what Season 2 is about. Like, who am I? How am I in connection to other people, whether that’s my chosen family or, in Helena’s case, her given family that she has no control over, and how much shame that invokes for both parts of them, perhaps?
TURTURRO: I think Helly’s character, the child that is Helly, or the childish part of Helly, is part of Helena. It’s still the same child. You know what I mean? She may not have memories of all of that. So, that, to me, is really fascinating, what was done to that child who maybe was rebellious — most kids are rebellious. But also, if your father was Kier, that’s a whole different other thing. So it’s almost like a sacrificial thing. But to me, it makes real sense that that is her child. That’s just my view.
LOWER: And the conditioning of the outside world for all of these characters has changed them into who they are, and maybe the innie is this kind of unmediated, pure, raw version that’s inside. I think that’s what I really resonated with was seeing everyone kind of wake up to that consciousness in Season 1, and I think it’s a great question for the audience to grapple with about their own inner child and inner critic.
New episodes of Severance Season 2 premiere Fridays on Apple TV+.

Severance

Release Date

February 18, 2022

Showrunner

Dan Erickson, Mark Friedman

Writers

Dan Erickson