Among the best new reveals of 2022 is Apple TV+’s ‘Severance.’ HL spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Jen Tullock about Devon’s concern for Mark, getting solutions about what’s happening inside Lumon, and extra.
Severance is a office drama such as you’ve by no means seen earlier than. The Ben Stiller-produced collection follows Mark Scout, performed by Adam Scott, who works on the mysterious Lumon Industries and has undergone a severance produced, which surgically divides their recollections between their work and private lives. Jen Tullock stars within the collection as Devon, Mark’s sister, who is among the few characters who's not severed.
Jen spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HollywoodLife about how Severance is a “full-circle second” for her and creator Dan Erickson. She additionally revealed that the collection will peel again the layers for why Devon is so involved about Mark’s determination to be severed and her curiosity will ultimately attain a “fever pitch.” Learn our Q&A under:
This present is in contrast to something I’ve ever seen earlier than. What was your first impression of the script?
Jen Tullock: My first impression was abject intrigue as a result of I feel it’s very uncommon that one thing accomplishes such a tonal marriage and does it nicely, the place you may have at occasions outright comedy and at occasions it’s a deeply felt, nuanced relationship drama. After which at different occasions, it’s a Hitchcockian thriller. And the way in which that I feel it bobs and weaves between these is so seamless and virtuosic. Dan Erickson, the author and creator, is a savant I feel. I simply was so intrigued by additionally the idea of the within and outdoors world as a result of, clearly, that’s on the coronary heart of the story and the guts of the theme of the present. And so, particularly for me, I’m enjoying a personality who lives at the very least at this level within the season, utterly on the surface with little or no data of the within. I’m one of many solely individuals in the principle solid that that’s the case for, so it was cool for me and Michael Chernus, who performs my husband Rickon, to get to have this form of satellite tv for pc expertise. All the different characters, as a result of they stay in Lumon, they have been capturing on soundstages tremendous far-off from us. So we had a extremely fascinating expertise as a result of loads of our stuff was on location out in Westchester within the Hudson Valley. Michael and I after which Adam [Scott], when he was with us — after which down the road perhaps a few different individuals I can’t inform you about — would come out and in. We form of joked that we had gone to house, like zooming into the identical get together from house. It was nice. I truly knew Dan years in the past. We each labored for a streaming platform known as Tremendous Deluxe, which doesn’t exist anymore. It was a Turner firm. I used to be making a collection there that I wrote and began with my pal, Hannah, and Dan labored there on the manufacturing aspect. I bear in mind him saying, “Oh, I've this pilot.” He gave a really transient elevator pitch for it, after which we fell out of contact and didn’t see one another for a few years. After I got here in to learn with Ben [Stiller] and Adam, they have been like, “You realize Dan?” And I stated, “Oh, my God, in fact. That is that present.” It was such a cool, full-circle second.
I haven’t been in a position to shake this present since I began it. You’re proper, Severance marries so many various genres, which places me on the sting of my seat as a result of I actually don’t know if I’m going to snort or be gasping within the subsequent scene.
Jen Tullock: I really feel the identical. I learn the earliest variations of the scripts earlier than we began capturing, however then once we paused due to COVID and the scripts stored altering, I truly let myself hold a lot of the stuff outdoors of my character a thriller as a result of once I come into a brand new job, I wish to know as little as attainable past what my character is aware of. I’m watching the episodes weekly. Dan Erickson requested just a little bit earlier than they have been launched if I wished to see some and I used to be like, “No, I need to wait. I need to watch it with everybody else.” There are issues which might be taking place within Lumon which might be nonetheless a shock to me, so I’m with you each week.
The primary episode danced across the causes behind Mark’s determination to get the severance process. We see Devon’s concern about it. Clearly, she’s not on board with it. Will we dive deeper into the motivations that led him to make that call?
Jen Tullock: Sure. I feel once we meet Devon in that first episode, we form of lay the groundwork for why it's she’s involved and what the backstory might or will not be for that call. Because the season progresses, you’ll study extra about how she is concerned, the backstory, how she has a private stake, and precisely what it's Mark’s going via past simply loving her brother. Additionally, I feel it’s a extremely fascinating tandem storyline to go together with an even bigger thriller of the season of what’s taking place in Lumon. You do have this grounded human relationship between these two siblings that I really like a lot as a result of in the course of all the different good goings-on within the present, you may have these pockets of some empathy. I actually do really feel in some ways in which Devon is form of the viewers’s eyes once we’re on the surface as a result of she’s saying what all of us need to say, which is like, what's going on right here? And may you inform me why? I’m excited so that you can see via the remainder of the season and the way she is concerned in all of that.
Will we get to see what Mark was like earlier than the process? That might give us some perception into extra of Mark and Devon’s relationship.
Jen Tullock: I can’t say a lot, however I'll say that you just’ll get some blanks stuffed in about their previous as brother and sister, and particularly about Mark’s. Extra will come to mild. I'll say you undoubtedly begin to study piece by piece extra of what led Mark to this determination.
Each Devon and Mark are grieving anyone, and there’s an anniversary approaching. I feel this present has an fascinating tackle how we course of grief and what drives individuals to make selections within the wake of loss.
Jen Tullock: I had at all times stated from the start that Devon to me represents the emotional sobriety of selecting to expertise your ache. She represents the emotional sobriety throughout the present of getting not severed. She and Rickon are the one two individuals we actually get to know that haven’t undergone this process. To look at them be in the identical emotional orbit as Mark and probably share among the identical grief as Mark whereas having to sit down in it each time they’re awake, versus each time their consciousness disappears behind the door of Lumon. I feel it’s fascinating when you may have two individuals like siblings which have such a detailed bond and an emotional intimacy. Time is a thief in our lives as it's, however whenever you add the variable of half of Mark’s time being raptured by this place, and never with the ability to share that point with Devon, not solely is she coming from a spot the place she’s deeply involved for her brother and his psychological well being, however swiftly, she solely has entry to half of it. As somebody who's a caretaker — and she or he’s very a lot a caretaker — Devon is at all times clocking everybody’s habits, particularly the boys in her life. She is consistently caring for them in her life. I feel due to that, there’s undoubtedly an inner wrestle that she has once we meet her, and particularly extra via this season so far as not figuring out what’s taking place with Mark.
When Mark cuts that chunk of outing the place he doesn’t bear in mind what this loss was, it’s virtually like that weight goes again on Devon in a way as a result of she’s carrying all of it. That may very well be including stress between them. Devon might see it as Mark refusing to just accept actuality.
Jen Tullock: The metaphor too of Devon being pregnant I cherished as a result of the thought of her being an individual that’s carrying a baby, whereas additionally carrying the emotional weight of her brother’s grief and the emotional weight of her husband inhabiting loads of house in his profession, it was such a tangible extension of how she strikes via the world. I additionally thought it was such a superb option to have her bodily carrying the load of one other individual whereas we meet her within the context that we do as a result of it undoubtedly speaks to who she is.
I really feel like we haven’t even touched the floor but in relation to solutions about Lumon. Will Devon on the surface proceed to query the motives and what's going on? Or does she need to hold herself at arm’s size?
Jen Tullock: She undoubtedly enters a means of deeper and extra intense curiosity. I feel, as with something involving concern with a member of the family, it reaches a fever pitch at a sure level.