SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 2 of “Severance,” streaming now on Apple TV+.
Ben Stiller has been particularly active on social media lately. For the “Severance” director and executive producer, fan interactions are one of the positive things about being a public figure.
“I find it, actually, really inspiring to be interacting with the audience because we never had that, my generation growing up,” Stiller told Variety at the “Severance” Season 2 FYC event on Saturday in Los Angeles. “When somebody doesn’t like something, I’ll [still] go back and forth with them sometimes and I find that fun, too, because usually once you start talking to somebody or interacting, something positive can come out of it. It’s also kind of fun. And at the end of the day, I don’t really take it that seriously.”
Stiller’s social media interactions have come at a time when “Severance” truly hit the zeitgeist with fan theories. For this season in particular, that included the meaning of the mysterious Cold Harbor file and the outies secretly hijacking their innie’s bodies at work.
Tramell Tillman, a breakout star of the show for his performance as Mr. Milchick, found the work retreat episode, where Helly (Britt Lower) is exposed as Helena by Irving (John Turturro), the hardest to keep under wraps.
“I could not wait for people to experience that because when I was at home and I read the script for the first time, I nearly tossed my laptop down,” Tillman said. “I felt betrayed. I felt lied to! I said, ‘The whole time?’ So it was really rewarding when that episode aired and I got to see the reactions of the viewers and how they responded to that reveal.”
Following the season finale, many fans speculated whether the version of Helly who runs off with Mark (Adam Scott) in the hallway, leaving Gemma (Dichen Lachman) behind, is actually Helena. While Lower previously disproved that theory, show creator Dan Erickson sees those interpretations as an indicator of people’s genuine investment.
“I think that people really do love Gemma and they love Mark and Gemma, and the idea of Mark and Helly sort of making this choice that is so heartbreaking, I think some people have trouble with that. And I understand it — they should,” Erickson said. “I don’t see it as a moment of somebody stealing somebody else’s lover. I see it as a moment of somebody claiming their own autonomy and the importance of their own existence.”
Even when fans were able to catch onto twists, like the big Episode 4 reveal with Helena, Scott thinks people reading into it is ultimately for the better.
“It didn’t matter whether people thought that was true, didn’t think it was true, was completely convinced of it or was maybe on the fence,” Scott said. “It’s actually fun to kind of have that idea rummaging through your head and not exactly knowing one way or the other. It was something we were worried about, like, ‘Are people going to be able to guess?’ But then once some people did, it actually enhanced the experience of the show.”
