Apple TV+’s Severance shortly turned a phenomenon by capturing fashionable anxieties round work-life stability and company management. Dan Erickson’s bleakly satirical imaginative and prescient faucets into fears about id, autonomy, and capitalist dystopia. Past its compelling foremost forged, the collection thrives due to delicate visitor performances that quietly contribute to its unnerving tone, prompting countless viewer theories and deepening the eerie lore of Lumon Industries.
In one of the vital shocking behind-the-scenes revelations about Severance, executive producer Ben Stiller personally reached out to former U.S. President Barack Obama to supply him a voice function within the collection. The thought was to have Obama present the voice for an authoritative Lumon determine, seemingly one of many company’s omnipresent tutorial messages or coaching movies—blurring the road between company propaganda and political speech. Whereas the cameo in the end by no means occurred, the mere proven fact that Stiller envisioned Obama’s voice inside Severance’s eerie world speaks volumes concerning the present’s dedication to disorienting, uncanny casting selections.
The visitor appearances on Severance aren’t typical stunt-casting strikes—they’re rigorously positioned plot items that develop the present’s unsettling universe. Keanu Reeves as a cryptic animated constructing and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson because the imposing Mr. Drummond exemplify how cameos ought to operate: enriching the thriller, nudging audiences in direction of new theories, and seamlessly mixing with the present’s environment.
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Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Mr. Drummond
There’s an unstated rule in Severance: the extra mundane a personality seems, the extra unsettling they seemingly are. Mr. Drummond, performed by Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, is a type of figures who appears to loom somewhat than merely exist. Launched within the Season 2 premiere, Drummond isn’t a boss or an enforcer—he’s one thing worse. He’s the sort of bureaucratic phantom who means that Lumon’s management doesn’t simply cease on the severed ground however extends outward, shaping the world aboveground in methods the characters (and viewers) haven’t but absolutely grasped.
A Quiet Menace in a Grey Go well with
Ólafsson has constructed a profession on taking part in males who radiate quiet menace, characters whose energy isn’t of their actions however in the potential for what they may do. American audiences would possibly acknowledge him because the grizzled bus driver from The Secret Lifetime of Walter Mitty (2013) or the menacing drug kingpin in Trapped (2015–2018), however he’s additionally appeared in all the things from True Detective to Incredible Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. His casting in Severance is an ideal instance of how the present rigorously curates its visitor stars for optimum atmospheric affect.
His sheer bodily presence suggests an unstated hazard, however Severance understands that true horror in company environments isn’t loud—it’s passive, omnipresent, and simply ambiguous sufficient to maintain you guessing. Drummond is unsettling not due to what he does, however due to what he represents: a system so deeply entrenched in management that even its middlemen really feel like immovable forces.
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Merritt Wever as Gretchen George
For a present concerning the compartmentalization of the self, Severance is obsessive about what can’t be contained—the rogue feelings and unfinished histories that slip by way of the cracks. Gretchen George, performed by Merritt Wever, is a type of fissures. She arrives in Season 2 as a seemingly peripheral determine, however her interactions carry a weight that means one thing bigger lurking beneath the floor. Not like lots of Severance’s characters, who both implement or endure underneath Lumon’s regime, Gretchen exists someplace within the center—a uncommon presence that looks like she’s glimpsed the total image and isn’t certain whether or not to intervene or let it collapse underneath its personal weight.
The Energy of Hesitation
Merritt Wever is likely one of the most reliably compelling actors of her era, identified for taking part in characters who don’t simply exist in a scene however appear to be actively processing it in real-time. Whether or not because the blunt but weak nurse in Nurse Jackie (2009–2015), the hardened detective in Unbelievable (2019), or the impulsive lover in HBO’s short-lived Run (2020), she excels at portraying folks in a state of managed uncertainty. That high quality makes her excellent for Severance, a present constructed on microexpressions, half-sentences, and the implication of information simply out of attain.
Wever doesn’t play Gretchen as an outright expositional gadget; she performs her as an individual who has seen an excessive amount of and doesn’t fairly know what to do with it. Her presence deepens the eerie, off-kilter nature of Severance, reinforcing the present’s central concern: that nobody, regardless of how well-intentioned, is ever absolutely exterior of Lumon’s attain.
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Sarah Sherman because the Voice of a Cease-Movement Water Tower
If Severance has taught us something, it’s that nothing inside its world could be taken at face worth—particularly not a sentient, stop-motion water tower with the voice of Sarah Sherman. In an episode already dripping with surrealism, this temporary however jarring second stands out. It’s a bizarrely comedic interlude that manages to really feel each deeply absurd and one way or the other essential to the present’s layered actuality. A kids’s present taking part in within the background? A subliminal message? A glitch within the severed thoughts’s notion of actuality? Regardless of the rationalization, Severance understands that the easiest way to unsettle its viewers isn’t simply by way of dystopian management—it’s by way of the uncanny, by way of humor that curdles simply earlier than it lands.
A Voice That Refuses to Behave
Sarah Sherman, greatest often called a forged member on Saturday Night time Reside, has constructed her comedic persona on pushing absurdity to its limits. Her stand-up and sketch work are stuffed with grotesque, surreal physique horror, a method that made her one in every of SNL’s most original fashionable performers since she joined in 2021. Her Severance cameo leans into this unhinged sensibility, along with her voice feeling utterly misplaced in the easiest way doable. It doesn’t belong—it’s too playful, too unpredictable for the inflexible world of Lumon. And but, that’s exactly what makes it so unsettling. It introduces the concept that someplace within the edges of this narrative, there’s one thing even stranger lurking. Severance isn’t simply concerning the horrors of company management; it’s concerning the slippage, the bizarre little breaks in actuality the place one thing else—one thing messier—tries to bleed by way of.
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Robby Benson as Dr. Mauer
Dr. Mauer seems in Severance like so lots of its most haunting figures—unassuming at first, but quietly suggestive of one thing a lot bigger and extra ominous. Performed by Robby Benson, his presence isn’t instantly alarming. He doesn’t have the plain menace of Milchick or the icy management of Ms. Cobel, however that’s what makes him stand out. He’s one of many many faceless operators in Lumon’s labyrinthine system, his existence one other thread within the huge and opaque company construction that governs these severed lives. He isn’t the architect of the horror, however somewhat one in every of its many functionaries—an eerie reminder that forms is the true villain.
The Sound of Belief, Subverted
The genius of Benson’s casting is in his voice. For audiences who grew up watching Magnificence and the Beast (1991), his voice is etched into cultural reminiscence as one thing protected, even romantic—he was the voice of the Beast in Disney’s beloved animated movie. Earlier than that, Benson was a teen heartthrob within the Nineteen Seventies and early ‘80s, starring in movies like Ode to Billy Joe (1976) and Ice Castles (1978).
Severance performs with these associations, turning them into one thing uncanny. That heat, that familiarity—it’s weaponized towards the viewers, forcing them to query why this man, whose voice as soon as symbolized fairy-tale consolation, now looks like one other cog in an inescapable system. Benson’s Dr. Mauer isn’t a monster within the conventional sense, however his presence suggests one thing much more terrifying: the concept that management doesn’t at all times should be enforced with violence. Generally, it’s quiet, methodical, and already inside your head.
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Keanu Reeves because the Voice of an Animated Lumon Constructing
Keanu Reeves’ voice rising from an animated Lumon constructing is the sort of selection that sounds ridiculous in concept however, in Severance, makes excellent sense. From the second we hear it, one thing concerning the present’s actuality tilts—there’s a right away consciousness that we’re being manipulated, that no matter this second represents isn’t as simple because it appears. Is it propaganda? A coaching video? A fever dream? Severance has at all times performed with the concept that Lumon’s management extends far past the severed ground, that its attain infects even essentially the most innocuous elements of the world. And what’s extra insidious than a company message delivered within the calm, measured voice of an motion film legend?
The Tender Energy of a Cult Chief’s Cadence
Keanu Reeves is, in fact, one of the vital recognizable actors of the previous three many years. Greatest identified for The Matrix (1999) and its sequels, in addition to the John Wick franchise, he has develop into synonymous with characters who problem the system—stoic, world-weary figures caught in a cycle of violence and management.
However Reeves has additionally made a reputation for himself in additional experimental, self-aware roles, akin to in All the time Be My Possibly (2019), the place he parodied his personal persona, or Toy Story 4 (2019), the place he voiced the over-the-top daredevil toy Duke Caboom. His casting in Severance features equally—it’s a task that performs with viewers expectations, utilizing his recognizable voice to make Lumon’s company messaging really feel seductively reassuring, whilst we all know higher. It’s one other instance of how Severance turns familiarity into one thing alien, displaying that even the issues we belief—whether or not childhood nostalgia, comedy, or action-hero knowledge—could be warped into one thing deeply uncanny.
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Gwendoline Christie as Lorne
Lorne’s presence in Severance feels each inevitable and inconceivable. Inevitable, as a result of in a present so rooted in energy constructions and the quiet menace of company management, somebody like her was certain to emerge. Unattainable, as a result of Gwendoline Christie has a sort of otherworldly high quality that makes her really feel like she doesn’t belong in any actuality, not to mention the fluorescent, suffocating world of Lumon Industries. When she seems in Episode 6, her presence disrupts the cautious stability of intimidation and deference that defines Severance’s ecosystem. She isn’t merely one other cog within the machine—she’s one thing past it, watching from a vantage level nobody else appears to have.
A Strolling Energy Transfer
Christie, greatest identified for her towering and formidable presence as Brienne of Tarth in Recreation of Thrones (2012–2019), and extra just lately because the delightfully gothic Principal Weems in Wednesday (2022), has an innate skill to make each character she performs really feel bigger than life. She embodies energy not simply bodily, however in the way in which she holds house, making Lorne instantly really feel like somebody working on a very totally different degree of management. In Severance, the place concern is usually enforced by way of passive-aggressive emails and sterile boardrooms, Christie’s Lorne provides a refreshing sort of authority—one which doesn’t should be spoken aloud to be understood. Her presence alone means that no matter recreation Lumon is taking part in, there are folks in its orbit who perceive the principles much better than anybody else.
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John Noble as Fields
Each company dystopia wants its prophet—a determine who speaks in riddles, warning of issues too grand or too horrifying to understand within the second. Fields, performed by John Noble, steps into that function with an unsettling ease. He isn’t the sort of authority that wields energy by way of intimidation or brute pressure. As an alternative, he’s the sort of man whose information itself is the menace. In Severance, the place which means is at all times intentionally obfuscated, Fields speaks in a manner that means he’s already seen the ending of this story and is solely ready for everybody else to catch up.
The Oracle of Company Horror
Noble is not any stranger to taking part in characters who exist on the razor’s fringe of genius and insanity. His portrayal of Walter Bishop in Fringe (2008–2013) stays one in every of tv’s nice performances, mixing heat, eccentricity, and profound existential terror. He additionally performed the hauntingly corrupt Denethor in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), one other man whose information of a doomed future solely hastens his personal demise.
In Severance, Noble’s Fields is one more iteration of this archetype—a person who understands an excessive amount of however has no clear path to stopping the inevitable. His voice alone, wealthy with theatrical gravitas, makes all the things he says really feel like scripture. In a present the place reality is buried underneath layers of company jargon, Fields delivers his strains like revelations, unsettling not simply the characters however the viewers itself.
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Sandra Bernhard as Cecily
Cecily is the sort of character Severance does greatest: the seemingly minor determine who, in just some moments of display time, opens up complete new dimensions of the world. Performed by Sandra Bernhard, Cecily isn’t a high-ranking government or a shadowy enforcer. She doesn’t should be. As an alternative, she’s one thing much more unsettling—somebody who exists exterior of Lumon’s construction however nonetheless looks like she’s a part of its equipment. Whether or not she’s an informant, a former insider, or one thing even stranger, her presence means that Lumon’s affect extends additional than anybody realizes, bleeding into locations nobody anticipated.
The Chaos Agent
Bernhard has constructed her profession on taking part in ladies who’re at all times one step forward of everybody else, exuding a sort of cocky, smirking power that makes it inconceivable to inform whether or not she’s about to ship a chunk of brutal honesty or burn all the things to the bottom. Greatest identified for her groundbreaking function on Roseanne (1991–1997) and her sharp, no-holds-barred stand-up profession, she has a presence that immediately shifts the power of any scene she’s in.
In Severance, the place each interplay is laced with pressure and subtext, Bernhard’s Cecily brings a component of unpredictability. She’s the primary particular person within the room to name out the absurdity of a state of affairs, however she additionally looks like she is aware of one thing nobody else does. Whether or not she’s a rogue participant in Lumon’s lengthy recreation or simply somebody who understands the system nicely sufficient to control it, Cecily’s presence forces the viewers to ask a vital Severance query: who’s actually in management right here?
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James LeGros as Hampton
Hampton is the sort of character Severance excels at: a person who appears to have at all times been there, present simply out of body till the second the present decides to make you discover him. Performed by James LeGros, Hampton slips into Severance’s world so naturally that it looks like he’s been lurking within the background this complete time, one other piece of the unseen equipment that retains Lumon working. However in contrast to the extra overtly sinister figures within the firm’s hierarchy, Hampton’s menace is informal—offhanded, virtually pleasant, like the kind of man who would inform you how the system works whereas concurrently guaranteeing you by no means escape it.
The Patron Saint of Indie Coolness, Turned Company Ghost
James LeGros is a quintessential “that man” actor—the sort of performer you acknowledge instantly however could wrestle to position. His profession has spanned all the things from cult indie movies like Residing in Oblivion (1995) to status tv (Justified, Ally McBeal), and he was even as soon as thought of as a doable substitute for Tom Cruise in Mission: Unattainable earlier than Hollywood politics intervened.
What makes him excellent for Severance is his skill to mix into the surroundings whereas nonetheless exerting a quiet, virtually unplaceable affect. His Hampton isn’t a villain within the conventional sense, however he carries the distinct aura of a person who understands the system all too nicely—and doesn’t see any downside with it. In a present about company dehumanization, Hampton is one in every of its most annoying figures exactly as a result of he doesn’t need to attempt. He simply exists, smiling because the partitions shut in.
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Jane Alexander as Celestine “Sissy” Cobel
There’s one thing notably unnerving concerning the Cobel household tree. If Patricia Arquette’s Ms. Cobel embodies the chilly, calculated face of Lumon’s management, then Jane Alexander’s Celestine “Sissy” Cobel is the ghost of no matter got here earlier than—a presence that feels each maternal and monstrous, comforting but quietly oppressive. Launched within the penultimate episode of Season 2, Sissy is not only one other cog within the Lumon machine; she is a relic of one thing older, one thing foundational to the way in which this world operates. When she speaks, it’s with the burden of historical past, as if she’s seen all of it earlier than and is aware of precisely how this story will finish.
A Titan of the Stage, Bringing Gravitas to Lumon’s Deepest Shadows
Jane Alexander’s profession spans over six many years, making her one of the vital formidable actors to step into Severance’s labyrinthine mythology. A four-time Oscar nominee (Kramer vs. Kramer, Testomony), a Tony Award winner, and a former chair of the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts, Alexander is an actor who lends fast authority to any function she takes on. Her Sissy Cobel is a personality who doesn’t simply wield energy—she is energy, in the way in which that solely sure older ladies in company and institutional constructions could be. She doesn’t must shout or threaten; she merely exists with the information that she is unimpeachable.
Her efficiency in Severance looks like a callback to her chilling function in Testomony (1983), the place she performed a mom navigating a slow-motion apocalypse. Right here, too, she is a lady standing on the precipice of disaster, however this time, it looks like she is guiding it somewhat than enduring it. The Cobel lineage stays one of many present’s most compelling mysteries, and Alexander’s presence means that no matter truths stay buried in Lumon’s historical past, they run deeper—and darker—than anybody has but realized.
