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fanfoolishness · 11 days ago

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Here’s a lovely article summing up some of the conversations that happened at last week’s PaleyFest Severance event in Los Angeles, which I attended. However! I also took copious notes because I figured a news article wouldn’t post everything. Here’s what I got, largely paraphrased because I couldn’t write fast enough to get verbatim quotes. Buckle up, this is going to be long!

Watching the finale on the big screen? Utterly insane. Every shot was gorgeous. We had screams almost every time a new character showed up for the first time; uproarious laughter at almost everything Milchick did; shrieking when Lorne kicked Drummond’s ass; howling when Mark Scout accidentally kills Drummond because of the severance transition or when he and the nurse had a screaming match. I know it must have been so gratifying to the cast and team to hear us all losing our minds, especially since they never got to do any premieres between covid and LA fires.

Ben Schwartz (Jean-Ralphio Saperstein from Parks & Rec) was the moderator for the discussion after the episode. We had in attendance Adam Scott, Ben Stiller, Dan Erickson, Patricia Arquette, Tramell Tillman, Britt Lower, Dichen Lachman, Sarah Bock, Zach Cherry, Jen Tullock, Michael Chernow, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and Gwendoline Christie. How insane!

Ben introduced each person, but when he got to Tramell Tillman no one came out. “Uh, bathroom?” Ben asked. The other Ben (Stiller) shrugged and said maybe, then mentioned that Tramell had a hard time coming out of being Milchick at the end of S1 and they found him working in a shoe store. (What the hell?) So he warned us Tramell might not be joining us.

Of course, like 10 seconds later Tramell Tillman snuck out into the audience accompanied by like. A 60-person marching band playing the Kier hymn. Because OF COURSE HE DID. He twirled with his baton and white gloves in and out of the aisles while all 3300 of us gave a standing ovation and cheered and shouted our heads off.

Ben Schwartz had a massive stack of prepared questions. He’d toss a paper aside once he was done with it. Of course, being a huge nerd sitting in the back I’d brought binoculars and could see what they looked like. Each page had a massive Lumon logo on the back.

Q: How does it feel to have the episode out in the world without having to keep it secret?

Dan: I don’t know who I am without secrets.

Patricia: I don’t know, I almost preferred the secrets. I liked you all being confused and afraid.

Dan mentioned that Drummond’s accidental death in the elevator had been pitched as a joke when they were all exhausted at the end of the night, and everyone was like “that’s what we’re doing.” Ben Schwartz: “hell yeah!”

Ben Stiller loved hearing and seeing our reactions in the theater. Watching it with us was so special — “to hear real laughs! It’s so exciting for us!”

Q: What was a small writing choice that wound up having a big influence on the show?

Dan: Milchick appeared in the pilot and we weren’t sure about him. We knew he would be like Cobel’s right-hand man, but weren’t sure if he was going to have much of a role after that…

Tramell Tillman got up and stalked halfway off the stage, then came back and sat down, giggling.

Dan (continued): But then he read the line for “You and Petey were one of my favorite office friendships,” maybe in the audition? And it was so good we knew we had to do more.

Dan started talking about the boring basement job he had at the door factory that inspired the idea for severance, but then got a wary look, casting his gaze over the massive theater and its box seats. “I’m worried my old bosses could be here… they might cap me like Lincoln.”

Ben Schwartz’s eyebrows flew up. “Like, Lincoln? Abraham Lincoln? That is too soon, man!”

Q: Are there things on the show you’re planning but haven’t done yet? Like seeds? Don’t tell me what they are, just if they are.

Dan: YESSSSSS. Multiple.

Q: Adam, how did you prepare for… you know… the defiant jazz dance party? You go from Milchick dancing as smooth as silk, my man is going for it, and then… you. What is the thought process?

Ben Schwartz said he was blown away by Adam’s acting in the scene with the Marks conversing with each other. “You had me. How did you prepare?”

Adam made tapes with his phone at home at first. He was dreading the scenes somewhat because there was a fear it might not work. He was most excited for the part in the conversation where oMark “kinda fucks up, gets a little condescending — he gets her name wrong, pushes too hard.”

Ben Schwartz pounced on Britt with a super complex question that could be summed up as what is her process for getting into each character — Helly, Helena, Helena as Helly, Helly in the OTC? Britt got a look like a deer in the headlights and said Zach was gonna answer for her.

Zach: Shrugs. Says for Britt it’s all about vibes. Pulls a pack of trail mix out of his pocket and starts eating it. Then reads off the ingredients and nutritional information. WHY I don’t know but it was cracking my shit up! Britt and Zach then said they had their own podcast starting up about food.

Britt pointed out that Helena hates eggs. However, Helly says the egg bar is actually good. Helly likes eggs. Pro-egg Helly!

They talked about the “cool shit” in Britt’s performance of Helena pretending to be Helly, and Britt and Ben Stiller talked about how impressive the fans were in finding all of the little flourishes she had put in — the computer button being hard for her to find, the shift in her face in the tent with Irving (fuck I loved that so much, so good).

Q: Sarah, you were 15 when you shot season 2. What was it like to be in a position of authority over these characters - and actors - who were much older than you?

Sarah: it was scary! John Turterro was soooo tall.

Sarah was asked what Ms. Huang might be like in regular high school. Sarah suspected she would still be in band so that she could play her theremin, but she wasn’t sure if she would have friends — “she might need to work on her social skills.” However, she would definitely have a better time than being at Lumon.

They talked about Dichen’s beautiful Gemma standalone episode and if it was hard having to play 5 innies (Cold Harbor, fear of flying, Christmas, dentist, Ms. Casey). Dichen said it was fairly easy since the crew in hair and makeup and wardrobe did so much wonderful work for each character and she couldn’t really take so much credit for it herself.

Britt, Adam and Dichen talked about filming the final scene. Adam said it was heartbreaking because they were all exhausted and Dichen was really pounding at the door for hours. Britt talked about the love “triangle” but said “If you know me, I love talking about shapes” and compared it to more of a tetrehedron or hexagonal shape. She also wondered if it might be love at first sight for Gemma and Helly! (Hell yes, I love that energy!)

Dichen does think that Gemma was able to make sense of it and understand what happened. She knows she’s severed, she knows her Mark would never not listen to her like that, she’s able to put it together and at the end she’s screaming in desperation to try and break through that barrier, but sadly fails.

Jen and Michael talked about how Ricken and Devon should totally have a multi camera sitcom of their antics.

Jen was asked why does Devon trust Cobel? Jen’s response was that she is tired of getting angry emails in her inbox about the subject! Per Jen, Devon doesn’t trust Cobel “farther than she can flick her.” But with everything happening to Mark, Mark being in danger, and Gemma being alive, this is Devon’s “flip a car moment” -- she knows it’s this plan or no plan and so she’s going fully ahead.

How did Devon and Ricken meet? At a key party! j/k, they said it’s private. Jen said their relationship was clearly lived in and that Devon and Ricken are well past the point where they fart in front of each other.

Q: Michael, we’ve seen a lot of Ricken with others. What is he like when he’s alone without anyone to impress?

Michael: Michael suspects he’s anxious and worried, and does care a lot about what other people think. He’s kind of lonely, and there’s a real void he’s trying to fill. He really enjoyed Mark and Ricken getting along in episode 7.

Zach’s turn for a solo question. He holds up his bag of trail mix and the audience goes wild.

They spoke of how Zach is a comedian and was very excited at getting to do the romance work with Gretchen, as this is something he hasn’t been asked to do before. Ben Schwartz said he loves getting to see comedians kick ass at dramatic roles. The proposal was beautiful, but they then veered into wondering what the sexual differences between iDylan and oDylan might be, LOL.

Zach said that filming both writing and receiving of the letter was an exciting challenge, but enjoyed acting the receiving of the letter most of all.

Everyone agreed that Drummond was scary! Darri was asked for his thoughts on his character. He said Drummond was clearly not the nicest person, and the real him was the monster in the hallway, attacking Mark. He despises many people, thinking they’re beneath him. Darri said that he really loves this cast and it wasn’t fun to be such an asshole to Tramell. (Well, it was a little fun.)

For the fight scene, Adam really did get hurt when his head slammed into the wall. He was supposed to get his arm up as part of the choreography, but it got stuck and his head hit the wall hard. Ben Stiller was immediately worried and had him checked out, but once it became apparent Adam would be okay, Ben said “Well, it looked great!”

Gwendoline LOVED the fight scene. She wasn’t going to do more combat after Game of Thrones, but when Ben Stiller had this fight scene, she had to do it. “And I found I still have a blood lust.”

Tramell was asked about Milchick in last season vs. this season. He’s moved up, he’s in charge now. Tramell said as anyone who’s been in middle management knows, that just means now you get more shit from both above and below. Milchick’s a very ambitious man and in service of Lumon. But we’re seeing more humanity in him. When he received those paintings -- “Nightmare fuel!” said Tramell.

Q: Of all the Milchicks we’ve seen -- manager, employee, telling himself to grow, dancing and having fun -- which is closest to the real Milchick?

Tramell, with a knowing, ominous smile: “I don’t think we’ve seen it yet.”

The audience: “WHOOOOOOOA.”

Q: Patricia, how much of Cobel’s backstory did you know before? Did you know she was a genius?

Patricia (loftily): Well, yes.

Q: What do you think was Cobel’s final straw to turn on Lumon --

Patricia (in Cobel’s measured voice): Did I?

Q: What are Cobel’s fun days like? What does she do on her days off?

Patricia said Cobel plays with her dolls and makes her cookies, which aren’t the best. Ben Stiller points out she also de-ices her stoop.

Q: Gwendoline -- what the fuck is with the goats?

Gwendoline: “Everyone’s a goat! No, I can’t say.” She found a huge liberation in not being given anything at all. She also discussed how much she loved the show prior to being cast in it. She would pause the frames and try to zoom in on Adam Scott’s hairline to see if she could spot a wig. She would draw the shades and tell her dogs to be quiet while she watched it.

Once she actually got to set: “I was pathetic. I was a fool. A gibbering wreck. I was over-excited at the vending machine.” She swooned over Britt, had jelly legs around Adam Scott. “The show is so original and has so much depth of heart, it’s a dream.”

They closed out the evening by Ben Stiller and Adam Scott thanking the audience for being there with them, as it was so rewarding to see how the fans really got to respond to the episode.

Sorry for the long-windedness, but I wanted to make sure I got as much as I could for posterity 🙂