Severance isn’t the kind of TV show that invites fan engagement…it practically demands it.
Set in a world where individuals undergo a “severance procedure” to separate their home and work lives, Severance follows the “innie” employees on the severed floor of Lumon Industries. As the innies struggle through their 9-to-5 they confront all sorts of mysteries that an eager online audience is happy to follow along with. What is Lumon’s end game? Why is Kier Eagan deified? And most crucially: what’s with all the goats? No one knows the answers yet but they’re damn sure going to try to find them. The Severance subreddit is filled with dedicated sleuths…and one visionary who proposed that Helly R. should poop her pants at the end of every work day to punish her outtie.
While certainly appreciated, that level of fandom runs the risk of overwhelming the actual cast and crew making the show. It’s one thing to share your conspiracy corkboard with fellow conspiracists, but should you be lucky enough to meet someone involved with the making of Severance, what do you say? Hint: you probably don’t want to lead with that pants-pooping Reddit bit.
Den of Geek caught up with much of the cast of Severance in advance of season 2’s release on January 17 and asked about the ideal fan interaction. An example immediately sprang to Helly R. actress Britt Lower’s mind.
“I was on an elevator once and a group of people walked in. Everyone’s sort of keeping to themselves, as you do on a public elevator. And then someone just said ‘We’re all going to be different when we leave this elevator.’ I thought it was such a clever, subtle way of letting me know that they’d seen the show.”
That right there is first ballot Fandom Hall of Fame stuff. Anonymous Severance elevator individual, please take your place in the annals of fan history alongside Jack Nicholson courtside at Lakers games and Stephen Colbert reciting Lord of the Rings facts. Elevators, of course, loom large on Severance. They are the terrifying liminal spaces between the outtie world and the innie world, as the severance chip takes hold immediately upon entering or exiting one. A fan having the wherewithal to make that association and share it with Lower on the spot speaks to Severance fans’ highly-engaged nature.
“I think our fans are like that,” Lower says. “They’ve given the show a new life by engaging with it in the way that they do. It’s a conversation that the creators, the cast, and the crew of the show all appreciate.”
“They’re completing the show,” Irving B. actor John Turturro adds. “They’re completing it with all their theories, with all their reactions. That’s the kind of show that it is. It’s about discovery and asking questions.”
Thankfully, there’s plenty more discovery (and elevators) to come.
The first episode of Severance season 2 premieres Friday, January 17 on Apple TV+. New episodes debut on Fridays, culminating with the finale on March 21.
The post Britt Lower Reveals Her Favorite Severance Fan Interaction appeared first on Den of Geek.
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