"Severance" Season 1 Was Filmed Out Of Order, Like A Movie, Plus 24 More Facts You Might Not Know, But Should
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🚨 Warning: There are MASSIVE — and I mean, MASSIVE — spoilers ahead for Severance Season 1! 🚨
The Emmy-nominated cast, creator, and director of Severance swung by San Diego Comic-Con 2022 to chat about the show and reveal some amazing behind-the-scenes secrets from filming Season 1. Here's everything we learned:
1.First, creator Dan Erickson joked that the idea for Severance was born out of his own "corporate misery" of working a string of office jobs and wishing he could "skip ahead eight hours and just be done."
"I caught myself sort of walking in one day and was like, 'God, if I can just skip ahead eight hours and just be done with this, I would totally, willingly, give up that time of my life. And, it was kind of a messed-up thing to catch myself wishing for. So, I was like, that should be a show," he elaborated.
2.Also, Dan Erickson said he's always loved "sci-fi that gets into the social elements of something" like the film Contact, where the story is more about "how it affects people." He also took inspiration from "a lot of late '90s films" and literature.
"I was so excited to write things like the non-dinner party in Episode 1, where you're just hearing people debate this and, in some cases, being insufferable as they debate this, is really interesting," Dan said. "That's what I am excited about moving forward, like going into Season 2, is building out the world a little more and being able to see this one slight tweak to reality and what the different ramifications of that would be."
3.Executive producer and director Ben Stiller got involved after reading Dan Erickson's original pilot script for the show that was originally just a writing sample. Ben also explained that when he first read the script, the first thing that jumped out at him was that it reminded him of some of his favorite workplace comedies, like Office Space, The Office, and Parks and Rec, and he was interested in finding the humor in a very dramatic series.
In fact, Dan sent in the writing sample to Ben Stiller's production company, in hopes that it would lead to him getting into another writers room, but secretly hoping that maybe Severance could become a show.
4.Originally, the Severance pilot opened with Mark lying on the table and waking up at Lumon instead of Helly. In fact, Helly was going to be the "more seasoned person" instead of Mark. Once they switched Mark and Helly's roles in the pilot, it opened up a whole new world where Helly, who is the only woman in the office, can upset the status quo.
"We switched it around for various reasons," explained Dan Erickson. "Once we had the idea for it to be Helly, there is an obvious thing of once you bring anybody into a setting that previous was all one way, and you get to introduce an element of diversity to the environment, you're going to have new ideas introduced that are going to help and improve things. So this idea that it was kind of this boys club, and that Helly was the one who steps in and sort of becomes the instigator of change."
5.Also, Dan Erickson's original pilot script was a little more "acid trippy" and even included "a pair of disembodied legs that ran by."
Dan joked that the "legs didn't make the cut. They were good. They just weren't good enough."
6.For Season 1, the cast and crew filmed it like a movie, meaning they were jumping around episode to episode and didn't film in order.
"We shot the whole season, essentially at once, like a big movie," Adam Scott explained. "We were jumping around. In fact, sometimes we would be shooting an innie scene from Episode 2 in the morning and then an outie scene from Episode 6 in the afternoon."
7.They filmed Severance Season 1 "over the course of almost 10 months," with the team filming from November to June, and then picking up again in August and September. So, because of this shooting schedule, continuity between shots became super important.
"We were matching scenes from, like, literally seven or eight months previously," Ben Stiller explained.
8.The entire severed floor in Severance was built on a soundstage in the South Bronx in NYC, and it actually took up the entire stage and all of the hallways connected to each other.
Ben Stiller explained that filming in the hallways was awesome and they were constantly changing camera angles, moving doors, adding walls, and more to make it feel as confusing as possible. In fact, Adam Scott recalled that he got lost several times on set while trying to find "the big room with the green carpet."
9.Once the Severance team found Bell Labs in New Jersey, which is the exterior of the Lumon office, they felt like they had found the aesthetic for the series that they had been searching for.
Ben Stiller recalled that they ended up building everything around the idea of using Bell Labs since a lot of scenes would be taking place in the same area. From here, they built the color schemes, sets, and even the costumes around this '70s modern aesthetic.
10.Adam Scott said while he was initially going to approach playing Mark's innie and outie self as two different characters, he ultimately decided to treat it as if they are "different halves."
"Like, one of them has 40 odd years of life experience and sorrow and joy, and all the stuff that goes into that. And then the other one's like two and a half years old," Adam joked.
11.Dichen Lachman knew about the massive Ms. Casey/Gemma reveal that happens during Season 1, and she said a lot of "fine tuning" went into her performance so that she didn't "give anything away."
Dichen said she worked a lot with Ben Stiller to help fine tune her performance, and that the whole process "was actually quite challenging."
12.One of the earliest conversations Ben Stiller and Britt Lower had about Helly R. was about her "hair color and thinking about what would look good in the color scheme of the show." And from Britt's audition, Ben knew she would be the perfect Helly.
![<div><p>"The first time that I saw Britt for the part, she sent in a tape. It was an incredible audition tape. And she just did the first scene. It was amazing," Ben began. "For me, I was like, 'That's it. This is the person.' There was something about who [Britt] was as a person and an actor, they all kind of just felt like, 'OK, this is very clear. This is you.'"</p></div><span> Apple TV+</span>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/QP5pbywL9AoEMwBlZu5rTA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY0MA--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/158d18fda2fcff51875ba1138876ac67)
"The first time that I saw Britt for the part, she sent in a tape. It was an incredible audition tape. And she just did the first scene. It was amazing," Ben began. "For me, I was like, 'That's it. This is the person.' There was something about who [Britt] was as a person and an actor, they all kind of just felt like, 'OK, this is very clear. This is you.'"
13.When Britt Lower read the script for Severance, she immediately knew that this was one of the "best roles" she's ever gotten to read for. She said that even if she didn't get the role of Helly, "at least I get to be Helly for today in my bathroom."
Britt filmed her first audition tape in her bathroom, and she got so into performing Helly's first scene that there are still footprints on her bathroom door from when she kicked it. Britt said she was drawn to Helly as a character because she has "this unapologetic rebellion inside of her," and it's a "very human experience to want to know who she is at [the] core."
14.Jen Tullock made the decision to not read the Lumon sections of the scripts because she wanted to remain in the dark like Devon.
Jen explained, "I was like, 'Oh, Devon's not privy to this part, and the entire thrust of her narrative is her curiosity and the torment of not knowing — then maybe I shouldn't be privy to it either.'"
15.Ben Stiller recalled that Dichen Lachman and Patricia Arquette did a lot of "experimentation" when filming began to try to find the right balance between how much of their outie personalities would be present in their innie characters. He also said it was fun to find the tone of the show through these characters.
"It was just experimenting and the actors were really, I feel, so willing to take chances and go one way or the other and try things," Ben began. "We said, 'Let's just try things, and let's see what it feels like and find it through the editing.' It felt right sometimes, and then other times it would be like, 'OK, let's just try something else.' And that was sort of the process of making the show."
16.Dichen Lachman said it was "extremely difficult to memorize" the psychological reassessment lines because it was all "very random." However, at one point Ms. Casey says, "He likes the sound of radar," and then we find out that Irving's dog is named Radar, and that was intentional.
"I think it took me, like, three months to memorize it even though she's reading it; I just have to be prepared," she said.
17.Tramell Tillman said that Seth is "not severed" and he's just someone who has embraced Lumon so intensely.
Tramell explained that in order to play Seth, he drew a lot from his own experiences of working in various places, especially having to have many jobs while trying to make it as a "New York-based actor."
18.According to Dan Erickson, the original script for Season 1, Episode 9 included more dialogue for John Turturro, but they ended up cutting it so that the only thing Irving says is "Burt."
"He's like talking to the dog, or whatever, but I remember John was like, 'I think I can do this without dialogue.' I think that that was part of the conversation," Dan said.
19.Jen Tullock explained that in the beginning of filming, she and Michael Chernus talked a lot about how their characters are really "all about Mark" and how they relate to him.
"I think Devon's one of the only people who is carrying the emotional sobriety of having not been severed," Jen explained. "She's living in this terrifying reality that the persons he arguably loves most is now well, and she can't figure out why because half of them is completely off limits to her."
20.Also, Jen Tullock thought a lot about how Devon also lost Gemma, and while Mark has chosen to "bifurcate his pain, Devin's still very much grieving her friend and sister-in-law."
Jen continued, saying, "I think it ultimately became, for me, a storyline about a person who's carrying the weight of everyone around her, and doesn't necessarily allow herself to carry her own."
21.Tramell Tillman said that they actually worked with a choreographer for the musical dance experience scenes in Severance. Also, Ben Stiller added that they shot those scenes "like a music video."
Tramell said he worked with the choreographer to come up with "how these people [were] moving and how they relate to one another." They then had the idea to make it more of a dance-off.
22.Also, Adam Scott said the cast didn't know that the musical dance experience lights were installed on the set, so when they were first turned on, everyone was stunned and just rolled with it.
![<div><p>"Ben [Stiller] hadn't told us that those lights were installed, and that that was going to happen," Adam recalled. "So, it wasn't until we were shooting the scene that suddenly those are switched on and everything is a big deal to us down there, and us as actors who've been trapped in that room for eight months. So, when those lights went on, we were like, 'Oh shit!'"</p></div><span> Michael Buckner / Variety / Getty Images</span>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/gorcgFn.1vLN7R4L74IvzA--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTc2OQ--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/5b6b301f247229d91b5257578733c915)
"Ben [Stiller] hadn't told us that those lights were installed, and that that was going to happen," Adam recalled. "So, it wasn't until we were shooting the scene that suddenly those are switched on and everything is a big deal to us down there, and us as actors who've been trapped in that room for eight months. So, when those lights went on, we were like, 'Oh shit!'"
23.The cast and crew actually watched a real neurosurgeon to show everyone how the severance chip would be inserted in real life. In fact, that same neurosurgeon can be seen in Episode 2.
24.While filming Season 1, Tramell Tillman said he only broke character once while filming, and it was while he was filming the "kind eyes scene" alongside Adam Scott.
![<div><p>"I remember because the camera was on me, and I was watching [Adam] make [a] face, and [he] would go from subtle to this great expression. Just exaggerated," Tramell said.</p></div><span> Michael Buckner / Variety / Getty Images</span>](https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/SfVe.Y71QJ68vxP_3LWnuw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTY2OQ--/https://media.zenfs.com/en/buzzfeed_articles_778/763f3510c96ab43601488777885acc8d)
"I remember because the camera was on me, and I was watching [Adam] make [a] face, and [he] would go from subtle to this great expression. Just exaggerated," Tramell said.
25.And finally, the cast said that while they all learned refining, Zach Cherry was the "best at it." Britt Lower explained that he would have the numbers "swirling around" and "making art."
Severance Season 1 is streaming now on Apple TV+.
Also at San Diego Comic-Con, developed in partnership with the series’ executive producer and director Ben Stiller, Apple TV+ gave fans a unique opportunity to experience first-day orientation at Lumon Industries.
Fans can sign up for registration at welcometolumon.com.
