Spoilers for Severance episode 7 ahead.
In Apple TV+’s new sci-fi dramedy Severance, a person can achieve the perfect work-life balance with a surgical procedure performed by Lumon Industries, which separates one’s memories at work from the rest of their lives. The “innie” version can only remember what goes on at the office, whereas the “outtie” allows people to enjoy their downtime without ever worrying about unanswered emails, project deadlines, or even whether their co-workers like them. It is a best of both worlds scenario, except this is far from a blissful existence for the Lumon employees.
Leading the Severance cast is actor Adam Scott—who is no stranger to workplace settings (think Parks and Recreation and Party Down)—as Mark Scout. A personal tragedy has led Mark to make a career change from academia to a “severed” Lumon employee. When he gets caught up in an unraveling mystery, his heavily pregnant sister Devon is the anchor to his “outtie”—while his “innie” has no idea he even has a sibling.
“It wasn’t in response to lockdown though it certainly was informed by lockdown,” Jen Tullock, who plays Devon, tells ELLE.com about Severance’s timely themes. After all, many homes have recently doubled as office spaces, and this conversation is taking place over Zoom with each of us chatting from our respective abodes. Creator Dan Erickson wrote the pilot long before WFH became a familiar shorthand, and the initial table read took place in March 2020 before everything shut down. Filming finally began in the fall of that same year in a very different landscape. Tullock is also a filmmaker (she created the Eggshell series during the pandemic), but Severance marked her first time back on a set.
Ahead, Tullock explains what appealed to her about Severance, working with Ben Stiller (who directed six episodes), and the post-pregnancy storyline she championed. She also offers up a hint of what to expect from the new Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, and Octavia Spencer festive musical Spirited and Perry Mason’s second season—which Tullock is currently working on.
Garrett Coffey
I originally thought Severance was written in reaction to lockdown, but when did the show come to you?
I got the job in late 2018. Dan Erickson, the show creator, I had worked with him before. We both worked at a very short-lived company called Super Deluxe [in 2016]. At the time, he was working on the pilot of Severance, and I remember my friend Nora was like, You’ve got to read this guy’s pilot, it’s mind-blowing. And I was like, Yes, I will! And then I never got to. A couple of years later when I went in to read with Ben [Stiller] and Adam [Scott] for it when I was auditioning, they were like, Oh, you know Dan. I had not pieced it together because when your agents send you this stuff it’ll say like 80 names on the thing. It was cool to come into it knowing he was someone I cared about and is a genuinely wonderful person.
Devon serves as sort of an anchor throughout the series, especially for Mark’s “outtie.” Tell me about the character, and specifically about her relationship with both Mark and her husband, Rickon, played by Michael Chernus.
I loved Devon immediately. I kind of based her on a combination of a few people I know and love very dearly. For the first part of the series, she’s with child. So she’s gone through this incredibly intense biological experience while carrying the grief that she shares with Mark, worried about him daily, dealing with a husband who has a very big energy, and a blossoming career. And I was like, Okay, this is someone who instead of calling things out is very strategic and compassionate about the timing of gently helping people through growth. Oftentimes she forfeits her own autonomy and that was one of the arcs I was interested in trying to build out over the season.
The relationship with Mark is so special and tender. Adam and I got close very fast and he’s such a wonderful person, and so easy to build rapport with. I’m very close with my real brother, he’s my best friend. So it wasn’t difficult to pull from that. I also know from times in my life where I’ve been in a tougher time—or my brother has been in a tougher time—how specific the pain and fear is when the person you love most in the world is struggling. That’s where we meet Devon because Mark is clearly in a moment of crisis.
I think another actor could have made [Rickon] a hateable character, but Michael breaths humanity into him, and found the things in him that was so sincere. This is an opposites-attract relationship. Devon is sardonic and grounded, and Rickon is incredibly sincere and not grounded. I think they balance each other and he’s provided her some stability and also this sort of fantastical view of the world. I think she probably had a wild time in her 20s—dated everybody and backpacked through Europe.
Devon is not part of the “innie” world at Lumon, but did you get to see that set? How separate did they keep the “outtie” and “innie” characters?
There was [a separation], and not necessarily by design. Most of the Lumon set save those gorgeous shots of that giant atrium—which is so exquisite—all the stuff in MDR (microdata refinement), and the office with the cubicles was all shot on sound stages. Most of Devon and Rickon’s stuff was all on location. They were shooting in the Bronx, I was shooting in the Hudson Valley. I did have my camera test for wardrobe on that set and let me tell you that was wacky. They had us come there because they were shooting there. So I walked into that set with that lighting and I was like, Oh, man, this is crazy.
I had it easy. Those brilliant actors were in that windowless track lighting all day and I got to run around in the snow, and be in my giant Frank Lloyd Wright house. I remember talking to them and being like, Hi, everyone, we’ve had the same experience. And they were like, We’ve been on two separate shows. Because we really were. I hadn’t seen much of the show until recently and I hadn’t seen any of the “innie” stuff. To your point, it did feel like we were shooting two separate shows.
I guess that helped because your character doesn’t know anything about what goes on in there. You also get to see the other side of Patricia Arquette’s character who is posing as “outtie” Mark’s neighbor (and lactation expert), Mrs. Selvig. Can you talk to me about working with her?
It was an absolute blast. There was a particular day I’ll never forget, which is the scene where she’s teaching me how to breastfeed. And you know, I’ve got one boob out, a baby in my other arm, and Patricia sitting next to me—I’m pretty sure it’s the first thing we shot together. So you walk on, you’re like, Hi, nice to meet you. And then you whip your boob out. We got one take and we stopped, and she was like, Sorry guys, this baby is not swaddled properly. Jen, can I swaddle the baby for you? I was like, Please, by all means, I don’t have children. She tenderly swaddles this baby, which I should say that particular baby was not a real baby. It’s a fake baby. So she’s swaddling this tenderly, and handing it back to me she’s like, Here you go, sweetie. That’s gonna be better for you to hold. And I remember being like, I’m in good hands.
I’m not a mother myself either, but I’ve had friends who have struggled to breastfeed. It doesn’t happen straight away, and then they feel like shit because society has told them they’re terrible for not being able to do this. I thought it was really great having a storyline that isn’t covered very often. How was this developed?
When we started talking about the character, I asked Dan and Ben if they would be open to me exploring her having at least a version of postpartum. What does it look like in the world of this show for one of the only characters who’s chosen the emotional sobriety of not severing, the emotional intensity of actually living through all of the pain and having to remember? This is a beautiful opportunity in a post-pregnancy moment, we’ve met her when she’s peppy, and supporting everyone. What happens if she continues doing that, but she’s also incredibly uncomfortable and depressed?
They were great and we worked together on how to subtly weave that into the landscape of her arc. I’ve also had friends who have had trouble breastfeeding, and I’ve seen what it did to their experience, to their mental health. So that scene as small as it is when Patricia shows me how to do it when the baby latches for the first time, I remember feeling really emotional because I was thinking about my friends who had had that moment. That was a really cool thing we explored through the second half of the season was what happens when a character carries the pain, shame, and trauma of all of the people around her, and where does that boiling point happen? We all know someone or have been—I think particularly women—who carries everyone else’s shit and moves through the world with that type of empathy, but then also maybe sacrifices their own autonomy because of it.
Garrett Coffey
Sometimes with the supportive sister characters, you don’t get your own arc, and you are literally there as a support for the man. So it was great that Devon gets this whole arc.
One of the things I love and appreciate about them both [Dan and Ben], is there wasn’t a character that didn’t have a rich arc, a rich backstory, and a ton of conflicting nuance. Even for Devon, who’s a supporting character coming in with all of this stuff that moves to the second half of the season. I remember getting the scripts in real-time and being like, Oh, ooooh.
So you didn’t know at the start of shooting where you were going to end up?
I had a vague idea because I had spoken to Dan. There were small pieces in between that I didn’t know about, and there were big pieces in the world of Lumon that I didn’t know until I watched the show. So that’s been exciting to go back and be like, Oh, okay, that’s all making sense.
What was it like working with Ben Stiller as a director?
I loved working with Ben. He has such a specific vision and something I really respond to in directors is when you’re never left wondering what they want. I’m not being diplomatic in saying that, he has such a specific idea moment to moment, but also allows you to play. To me, that’s the magical combo where you know exactly what his vision of the scene is, but if you want to riff on that a little bit everyone always felt safe to do that.
It’s hard to say no to people that are that passionate about the thing you’re working on. It felt like it was his life while we were working on it and that’s an infectious energy. I also appreciate anyone who’s honest about where they are that day, and I feel like to me, I’m walking in going, Oh, my God. It’s Ben Stiller. He’s a giant. He’s untouchable. I remember one particular moment where I said, How you doing? He said, I’m tired today and I’m a little stressed. And I was like, Thanks for saying that. Because I feel like most people in his position are like, I’m great! He was always very warm, honest, and he checked in constantly.
I did want to quickly ask you about your future projects because I know you’ve got a Christmas movie called Spirited coming out with Ryan Reynolds. Is there anything you can tell us about that?
I can say it’s an updated version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. I can tell you that it is a musical, and the music is written by Pasek and Paul, who wrote the music for Dear Evan Hanson, and La La Land. I can also tell you that it is incredibly funny and I had a blast. I grew up loving musicals, so it was a dream come true to be on a giant musical movie set. And that will be out this upcoming Christmas.
Do you get to sing?
I sing a little. I can’t say too much. But I play a character you don’t want to hear sing, I’ll put it to you that way.
You’re currently shooting Season 2 of Perry Mason. What can you tease about your role on the show?
Not to be a complete Pollyanna, but I’ve never felt more like I was living my childhood dream than I do when I show up to the Warner Brothers lot in a 1930s period costume. It doesn’t get better than this. I play a character called Anita St. Pierre and she is a successful screenwriter—so a bit of an anomaly at the time being a woman. She is inspired by a real person called Anita Loos, who wrote Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and several other big giant studio movies at the time. She’s a bawdy, foul-mouthed, Turkish-cigarette-smoking, take-no-prisoners sort of person. But she comes into the life of Della Street played by the wonderful Juliet Rylance, and they end up teaching each other quite a bit about what they have both been missing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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