How the "Incredibly Real" Severance Set Transported Adam Scott to Corporate America
If you're looking for a soothing show like Parks and Recreation, Adam Scott's latest project Severance isn't for you.
The Apple TV+ series is Black Mirror-esque, inspiring feelings of claustrophobia and discomfort—so it's essentially the complete opposite of the beloved sitcom.
The Ben Stiller-directed series follows Lumon Industries employee Mark Scout (Scott), who elects to undergo the Severance procedure. It's a controversial operation that surgically divides memories between an employee's work life and personal life. The Lumon employees call these separate versions of themselves their "Innies" and "Outies."
Everyone has their reasons for going under the knife, but for Mark, he chose to be Severed to escape the sadness of losing his wife. In forgetting this part of his life, Scott explained in an exclusive interview with E! News that Mark's innie turns into a "fresh and innocent" person, while the outie remains a jaded 40-something.
Obviously, portraying these different personalities within one person was a "challenge" for the star, but a welcome one at that. "It was always just sort of a math problem to be working out every day," he explained. "Either subtracting or adding between the two and what's going on and how that might manifest itself physically."
He was guided in this process by Stiller, who noted that the intricate set was a helpful tool in establishing boundaries between the two worlds. "It was important to create a space that felt complete, because there's a certain amount of claustrophobia that is just part of the show in terms of they're stuck on the seventh floor," the director explained, adding that even "all the hallways connected."
Stiller revealed that the prop master sourced old computers and had them reconstructed, so the actors could actually do the so-called "refining" work for Lumon Industries. He said this helped because the "actors could sort of settle in there and feel like they were really, really we're working in a real place."
But it wasn't just the computers that they recreated. Adam added that the series creator Dan Erickson took things a step further by writing about the "history and the culture of the Lumon Corporation," so the actors could have a deeper understanding of this business. "In the main office area, there is a painting of Kieran Egan, the matriarch of the family that runs the corporation," he detailed. "And underneath it there's this little shelf with this little book in it and you pull it out and it's not just a prop—there's actual writings in there that Dan had written."
If that doesn't make you feel like you've been transported to this creepy world, then this will: "The vending machine has actual Lumon snacks and everything has been thought of," Scott shared. "It goes far, far deeper than most sets you're on where you do a little investigating and you realize it's just fake or some prop. But everything felt incredibly real."
So, for Scott and the rest of the stars, the set started to feel like their reality. He noted that they spent almost nine months filming Severance, saying, "After a couple of weeks, it just feels like that's your office and this is your workplace... It just sort of physically manifested itself into this thing, and we were these kind of corporate co-workers, both in real life and on the show. That was really interesting."
Even though Stiller wasn't in front of the camera, he said that he was challenged too. "I feel like I learned so much during this," he reflected. "I mean, the tone of the show is kind of a combination of different things. So, that was one of the things going in was figuring out what the reality and the feeling of the of the show should be because there's humor in it."
And while the humor seems like it would come naturally to Stiller—after all, he's to credit for movies like Meet the Fockers and Dodgeball—he said the real difficulty was balancing the comical aspect with the seriousness, explaining, "I think there's also this sort of weird, dark uneasiness to that's going on and it was fun actually exploring that."
Stiller and Scott, who are known for their comedic roles, noted that this was the type of show they wanted when searching for their next project. As Stiller put it, "Every time you go out and do something, the hope is you're going to learn something. And I think if you're working in spaces you've been in a lot, and you don't feel like you're challenging yourself, you're not gonna really find as much."
Severance premieres on Apple TV+ Friday, Feb. 18.
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