But now, it’s weird it feels like it’s almost happening very quickly."
But Stiller is grateful the project has finally seen the light of day.
“I definitely have that feeling that we put our all into it,” he says.
Adam Scott and Britt Lower in ‘Severance’.Apple TV+
I like the possibility of people having different feelings about it."
“All those things were part of where the feeling of a scene might go.
And that was really fun to explore.”
Zach Cherry, John Turturro, and Adam Scott in ‘Severance’.Apple TV +
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Can you tell me about how you first encountered this project?
BEN STILLER:It was a long time ago five-plus years ago.
Is anybody trying to make this?"
Ben Stiller.Bruce Glikas/WireImage
Cut to five years later, here we are.
What in particular struck you about the script and made you respond to it so strongly?
And none of them even knew that.
The cast of ‘Severance’.Wilson Webb/Apple TV +
So it had this surreal undertone.
Right from the beginning, I was just taken by that, because it felt familiar yet different.
And I started imagining what that world looked like, and that was really exciting to think about.
Tell me about the road it took from there why did it take so long to actually make it?
Well, it takes a long time to get things that are a little bit different made.
So they put together a writers' room, and Dan started working on the scripts.
That took a little while, and I think I was working onEscape at Dannemoraat the time.
So that [also] took a little while.
You mentioned that it took time to figure out the right tone.
How did you arrive at the proper tonal balance?
The fun of it was trying to figure that out and play with that.
That [process] was just, again, sort of figuring it out as we went along.
So I’d ask him, and the actors would ask questions about why they’re doing certain things.
It was a constant dialogue.
Even if that choice was made because, aesthetically, it was the more interesting choice.
We wanted to always confirm there was a motivation for it on some level.
How did you arrive at that look for the set?
And that sort of keyed everything in.
We started thinking, “If they built the building then, what was on that spot before?
Did Lumon always own that land?”
I did probably 80 percent of the editing of the show in my office in my house.
And that didn’t come out by accident.
We’re spending so much of our lives working and sometimes to the point of it not being safe.
So [that discussion] was kind of impossible to escape in making the show.
Severanceis streaming now on Apple TV+.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
