‘Severance’ EP Ben Stiller, Apple’s Eddy Cue On Creative Relationship Behind Hit Show, But Mum On Season Finale — SXSW
“I do remember when we first sold the show to Apple TV+ and I said ‘what’s Apple TV+’, because you guys didn’t exist yet, you were just starting out, and it almost didn’t seem real,” said Ben Stiller, director and executive producer of hugely popular, surreal workplace drama Severance. “We said okay, let’s pitch to them. And it’s become this amazing creative relationship.”
“It been amazing for me and Apple, and an incredible honor to work with you on this. We couldn’t be prouder,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, a massive and growing division of the tech giant with Apple Apple TV+ a crown jewel. Apple picks its projects very carefully and said gleefully that “people can’t get enough” Severance as the series barrels towards its Season 2 finale later this month.
The two lobbed questions at each other at a SXSW panel called Moving Culture Through Innovation and Creativity.
Watch on Deadline
Cue acknowledged his situation allows him binge to the end, but he prefers to wait until episodes drop weekly. Could Stiller spill anything about the March 21 season finale,” he asked?
They did show two brief clips of the next episode flashed on screen. “So things are being figured out,” Stiller said. “I don’t know what you can get from [those] scenes, but … things are going to happen.”
“I mean, what can I tell you? The season is going to end soon and hopefully people will be along for the ride.”
Adam Scott stars as Mark Scout (aka “Mark S.”), a former history professor and a severed worker for Lumon Industries in the Macrodata Refinement (MDR) division. Lumon employees have “outie” versions of themselves when they leave work and “innies” at Lumon — versions that are meant to have no recollection of each other, which provides the show’s main tension, along with what is it that Lumon actually does.
“It’s funny because people talk about, oh, wow, you know, Apple is a huge corporation, and Lumen is a huge corporation. And, you know, so, I always felt like, yeah, this is actually the perfect show to be on Apple, because there’s something in the esthetic, there’s something in the ideas of what’s going on,” Stiller joked.
“But I’ve never once ever gotten any, you know, like notes or anything from Apple about anything we do … By the way. How is Apple doing? Because sometimes I worry. You guys doing okay?”
“It’s a competitive world,” said Cue, but we’re doing all right. We’re like you, trying to try to be our best and create new things that people really love.”
“Okay, okay, good. Because sometimes when we, you know, we go over budget a little, they’ll say to me, like, ‘Come on, guys’ and then I start to worry for you guys.”
“I appreciate that,” said Cue.
“You guys are in the black?” Stiller insisted?
“If you keep doing this as well as you’re doing, I think we’re gonna be okay.”
Severance, created by Dan Erikson, also stars Britt Lower, John Turturro, Zach Cherry, Tramell Tillmann, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette and Dichen Lachman.