S2E8: Sweet Vitriol (with Patricia Arquette and Jimmy Kimmel)

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Roses! Hey, I'm Ben Stiller. I'm Adam Scott.
And I'm Patricia Arquette. And this is the Severance Podcast with Ben and Adam and...
Patricia Arquette. Yes, where we break down every episode of Severance.
And today we're talking about the eighth episode of season two, Sweet Vitriol, written by Adam County and Casey Perry and directed by Ben Stiller. And Patricia Arquette.
Just kidding. Not really, though.
And this is an exciting episode of our podcast because you're here, Patricia. Have you been on a podcast before? I probably have, but I don't want to.
Wait a second. Do you remember? I'm trying to block it out.
All right. This is what we deal with, folks.
Are you going to block this out eventually? Like five minutes after I leave. And also, our other guest on the podcast after Patricia is the great Jimmy Kimmel.
Yeah, he's going to help us answer some of your hotline questions. And he'll remember being here and enjoy it.
Good. He's going to enjoy it, whether he enjoys it or not.
And also, we have Zach Cherry. Of course.
Oh, I love him. Yes, to predict what's going to happen in next week's episode.
But before we dive in, here's your spoiler warning and ours that we are talking about everything from episode eight of season two. So go watch that before you listen to the podcast.
Now, interestingly enough, Patricia, you probably can't give any spoilers because you, have you seen Severance? I mean, I've seen episode one of season two. You're up to episode one of season two.
Yeah. What did you think? I loved it.
I loved it. Do you like to wait till it's going out into the world before you see anything? I do.
And in general, I don't like seeing anything. I mean, it's kind of a little bit like dragging a mouse who has its nails out digging into wood.
Towards a television to watch themselves. A little mouse.
Yeah, that's me. Mice hate seeing themselves on TV shows.

I know.

It's so big.

You're so big up there and daunting.

Did you ever see Escape at Dannemora?

I did, yeah.

Okay, good.

I saw it once.

I mean, I'll run into myself on TV sometimes.

I'll be changing channels and I'll see like,

oh my God, that's me in true romance.

And I might watch a bit.

That's cool.

And be like, wow, I'm so young.

Or I'll see us in Flirting the Disaster. Wow, we're so young.
I love Spoonie. Look it, we're babies.
Ben, don't you wish you could say that you run across yourself in True Romance? I do. I do.
I was never that cool. Flirting with Disaster is pretty damn cool.
I never got into the Tarantinoverse. And I know that was a Tony Scott movie.
It's a Tar Tarantinoverse. It's a Tarantinoverse.
As you guys both know, Flirting with Disaster is one of my very, very favorite movies. I've told you so many times.
We had so much fun. We had a great time.
And then like weirdly didn't really see each other for a while until Escape at Dannemora. Like 25 years went by or something.
Yeah, that's crazy. And then, but it was like we never stopped being like a brother and sister is what I feel like.
Yeah, yeah. As soon as we like, we're back together, the gang was back together.
Yeah. You know, it was like the Beatles getting back together.
No, I'm just kidding. It is.
I wish. Yeah.
So Dan Amora is like- Who are you? Escape it. Escape it Dan Amora is like Sergeant Pepper.
We're all Ringo. I'm sorry.
Can I just say Ringo is the best? Ringo rules. Yeah.
Listen, I don't think Ringo's a joke. Don't get me wrong.
No, no. I love Ringo.
Ringo's great. Literally one of the, and also talk about eternally youthful, him and Paul McCartney, it's crazy.
I mean, I've never really met Ringo Starr. I wonder if he watches Severance.
Have you met Ringo? I i don't know i vaguely feel like maybe i did for one second wow so how come you don't remember anything that ever happened to you just too much no it's trauma yeah and sever maybe i'm severed what about paul mccartney did you guys meet paul mccartney i did and also i have an ngo paul mccartney was one of the first people to donate to it, which was really cool.

My sister actually dated him for a while.

Whoa.

Yes, exactly.

Whoa.

Okay.

My sister dated a Beatle.

That's amazing.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

That's pretty incredible.

Who did you date back in the day?

Come on.

You know what?

I'm not a kiss and tell, sweetheart.

I need a clip from this podcast.

We need to get something out there. We got to push something out on social.
Make something up here. I have to find a dead person to talk about.
But you were around show business as a child. You grew up in this crazy showbiz hippie world with brothers and sisters who were all in it.
And your dad, Louis Arquette, was really just a very accomplished character actor, really funny. He's in Waiting for Goffman.
Oh, my God. He's the old man in Waiting for Goffman.
The Waltons he was on. Maybe that's why we feel like brother and sister a little because we have similar showbiz background.
Yeah. And also that kind of sense of humor.
And there's something about the time we grew up. It was a very strange time in the world.
Like, it was a really inappropriate time and funny. You mean the 70s generally? Yeah, like there was a lot of satire on television, political satire and public.
For sure. People talked about stuff on TV in talk show situations that they would now never talk about.
Right. Never.
Real stuff. People just talk about real things.
It's fascinating. Have you ever watched any of those old Dick Cavett shows? Oh, I love those.
Mike Douglas or David Susskind. They would have actual conversations that unfolded, not worrying about laughs.
Yeah, and everybody's smoking and just being real. Yeah, I think Jim Henrik was on acid acid on one of them.
Oh, really? I'm sure. Yeah.
You're not on acid now, are you? I don't know. Okay, I sometimes wonder.
I'm not. Patricia, you're so great as a person, first of all.
I love you. And you're a great actor, amazing actor.
And just in regards to severance, what was it when you read the script

and you saw Harmony Cobell? What went through your head? Well, Ben, you know damn well,

you only gave me the pilot. And you know damn well, I'm barely in the pilot.
So I was like,

what the hell is he giving me this for? I'm like, Ben, who is this lady? What is this company doing?

What is going on here? Wait, where's this going? What's my art? And so you'd give me a few little cryptic answers what am i getting paid was the first thing you had let's let's pay me yesterday why don't you that's patricia's first question money in the bank put the money in the bank before i even pick up the phone um so you guys just gave me all these cryptic answers and finally i just, this is a really interesting genre. I haven't really done sci-fi, which I like.
And this lady is inscrutable and interesting. And this is weird.
And I totally trust Ben. So I'm going to go to this blind date and just jump in.
I love that you were willing to do that, too, because I got excited when I read it because I could see you in it.

And I didn't know exactly what you do with it, but I just knew that you could you could create something really interesting with this person. And that's been the whole thing on the show has been like, you know, kind of the actors kind of jumped in.
And we've talked a lot about this, about having this room to kind of experiment and figure it out, which we kind of did over the course of the first season. Right.
Yeah, and even just finding the look and the character and everything.

I don't know why early on I was like, you know, I kind of see her with gray or white hair. And you were like, what? What do you mean? And I was like, let's just try it.
You know, let's just do a camera test, a makeup test, and we'll just have one of those wigs and look at it. And I think we were all like, oh, yeah, there's something about that.
It's cool. It's like silver hair.
There was a lot of strict structure in the lumen world. And for a long time, I didn't really understand what the tone was.
And then you cut it together and showed me. What about her voice? Well, that to me was like something she had picked up from other people, like subconsciously had decided like, oh, this is what upper management sounds like.
And that's the sound of like success in the workplace. Like this is what I'm supposed to be.
And this is what I'm supposed to sound like. And how do I get up this ladder? I have to look like this, sound like this, be like this.
So she kind of had that. In season one, you had Mrs.
Selvig as well.

Was Mrs. Selvig like a place to kind of put everything she's not allowed to do in her regular life?

Like, it's just interesting.

Yeah, it was sort of like trying on what is it like to be a normal person, you know, like experimenting with the freedom of that.

What is it like to make friends in a kind of normal way? I mean, there was a part of it first, it was this affectation of, I'm going to disarm you with your mommy issues by being the fumbling, bumbling, auntie, whatever, next door. Next door neighbor.
Yeah. Next door neighbor is a little nosy, but you are a nice boy.
So you're going to be nice to the mommy lady. And I'll insinuate myself into your life so I can sneak around more and find out.
But then it also became like, are we chums? We are having fun. And oh, is this what it's like to have fun with somebody in the world and go do things outside of work? And wow, what does this feel like? I love Mrs.
Selvig and your relationship with her in the first season. It makes me laugh so much every time you have an interaction where you're sort of perplexed by her or just not wanting to deal with her.
Yeah. Or when you come outside.
First of all, when you make the bad cookies, the awful cookies. Yeah.
And then we sort of reveal in your house all the cookie tray and the mess. Oh, it's a mess.
There's a real closed circle with the cookie thing, which we will get to later. Okay, okay, yeah.
The scene outside in the snow when you're taking the garbage out and you're like, ooh, looks like Jack Frost is a dandruff sheath from our dandruff shampoo. So ridiculous.
That was an improv. You also improv open or closed both.

That's right, yeah.

But then your thing of like you say,

like let's go have some lavender tea or something later

and you're like, I just want to kind of see

how the day develops.

It's like such a lame out.

But a lame out that should work with your nosy neighbor.

Like you don't need to come up with something better than that.

Right, right.

We also, we shot a scene in season one

where we were driving together

I'm sorry. with your nosy neighbor.
You don't need to come up with something better than that. Right, right.
We also, we shot a scene in season one where we were driving together. You hit your ride with me on the way back from the funeral.
We shot a scene where we're driving and you try holding hands with me. Remember? Shooting that? Oh, yeah, I do.
It was interesting. It probably just ended up being like too much or something.
Right, right, yeah. We had this in the car, which was really interesting.
Which maybe we could use as a flashback or a fantasy of Marx. Oh, Mark.
I would buy it. Okay, you know what? It's time for us to take a drive down to Saltz Neck.
So when we come back, we're going to keep talking to Patricia Arquette about episode eight. Is that cool, Patricia? So cool, Ben.
So cool. Okay.
And you will remember that you were here. Who are you? That's very appropriate for the show.
Exactly. All right.
We'll be right back. Okay.
So Sweet Vitriol, episode eight. This is a very different episode for Severance.
It's the Harmony Cobell show, essentially. We get to follow her as she returns to her old home in Salt's Neck.
Patricia, what was your first reaction when you read this particular script? I liked it. I mean, we had been talking for quite a while, quite a long while, about her origin sort of and the school that she'd grown up in and how Lumen had impacted her and her relationship with her mom.
And so to kind of see it more fleshed out and see the space and the coldness. And we went up to Newfoundland and it was very it's such a special, unique place.
You know, it's so difficult to get to and so difficult to live there that it's very locked in its own time. And it had this sort of difficult terrain to survive in.
And then you can really see how Harmony is an extension of that. Yeah, how it like hardens people.
How did you find that Newfoundland would be the perfect salt neck? Yeah, we were knowing that we needed to have some sort of a vibe of the Northeast-ish look that Kier sort of has because we shoot in upstate New York and we wanted to feel like it was a drivable location from Kier. and then Ryan Smith, our location manager, went out.
But really, Jessica Lee Gagné, our cinematographer

and director of Episode 7, had worked in Newfoundland 10 years ago on an island called Fogo Island, which is off the coast of Newfoundland. There's actually an incredible hotel there, which we didn't stay at, like this modern-looking hotel.
Thanks, man. I appreciate it.
It was crazy. I mean, first of all, it's a beautiful place.
We shot in a town called Bonavista. And yeah, you land in Gander and then you have to drive about three hours to get there.
And the thing about the terrain in Newfoundland is it's rugged and beautiful, but it's not – the scale of it is not like somewhere like Iceland or Greenland or something like that where it's gigantic mountains. Right.
You know, it's a little bit smaller, but it's still as beautiful in its own way. It has a vastness to it.
It's not a lot of things are filmed there. Yeah.
And it's tough. The people who are living there are having to deal with long, cold winters.
They have a certain way that they sound. Like with the ice frozen this whole time from the late 1700s, early 1800s, this broke from Ireland, they'll eat things like a bowl of fried codfish tongues.
I had that for breakfast every morning. And was the town essentially in the episode, is it as you found it? Or like the coffee shop, for instance, was that an existing structure? It's an existing structure.
Yeah. It's actually a coffee shop that we redid and painted.
And we shot in, I think, two different little villages and Buena Vista too for different locations. And, you know, we were all living in Airbnbs.
And it was, I loved it. It was awesome.
We had an amazing time. We were there for about, I don't know, five weeks.
And Jessica put together a crew from Montreal of people she had worked with. So it was a much smaller unit.
And we found these great places to shoot. And James LeGroix, who plays Hampton and so great and had you known James from before so I mean growing up in LA I was a big fan like everybody of drugstore cowboy and he was amazing in that movie and then I was dating this guy at the time John Philbin was his name he was an actor and had to move.
I was living in my mom's garage at the time and I was moving out. And so he had a friend come over to help me move all these boxes.
So I made him and his friend for helping me like some cookies, right? And I put in the cookies, these walnuts. So I gave them some cookies when they were done.
And his friend was James LeGroix,

who was helping move all these boxes. And I was like, oh, thank you so much.
And here's some cookies and thanks. And he was like, these are the best cookies I've ever had in my life.
And then I was like, oh, thank you very much. Very different from Mrs.
Salve, I have to say. Exactly.
We're back to the cookies. But I tasted the cookies when he left.
And I was like, These are salty, because I didn't realize the walnuts were salted.

Now, smash forward 30 years. Back to the cookies.
But I tasted the cookies when he left. And I was like, these are salty.
Because I didn't realize the walnuts were salted.

Now, smash forward 30 years, everyone's adding salt to caramel, salt to chocolates.

So he meant it when he said they were good.

But I was like, these are the worst salty cookies ever on me.

So Mark was lying when he said they were good in the show.

Yeah.

But James LeGro.

But in 30 years, Mark will be wrong.

James LeGro was telling the truth. years, Mark will be wrong.
James LeGroix was telling the truth.

I think they sound delicious.

They were delicious.

And when we talked

and we were working,

he's like,

oh, I remember those cookies.

Wow.

That's great.

Those were the greatest cookies.

Wow.

Let's listen to a little scene

when you guys first see each other.

Harmony Cobell will flip my toboggan you want coffee? no tables are for paying customers. Fine, then buy me a coffee.
Harmony is hardcore. She wakes up in her car, brushes her teeth in the parking lot, and then doesn't even want coffee.
I want coffee, but I want him to buy it for me. I mean, there's a lot of history between you two.
Yeah. A lot of history that's just unspoken.
And that was, I think, the reason that we thought James would be great. Even if it was just this cookie moment you guys had 30 years ago, I felt like, you know, I knew you guys that were in L.A.
in the 90s when we all were starting out. And kind of it just felt like there would be a history there with you guys in some way that you could share.
And he's such a great actor. And I just love that you kind of played off of that.
Look, James LeGrow is a heavy hitter. So sometimes, you know, you have those people and you're like, you don't have a lot of scenes to like establish this depth between people.
Yeah. But there's something there and you could see them together and they're of this time together and we could communicate in this way.

And, you know, he's so good.

So great.

It's amazing watching you guys

when you're talking in the parking lot.

The dialogue is so minimal,

but there is so much there

and you completely get you two.

You completely get it just watching your faces.

Yeah, between your eyes and James's eyes,

you know, you just train the camera on them

and let you guys interact.

By the way, also in the drippy

pot, going back to history,

there's a guy sitting who's kind of

giving you the stink eye, who's my

old friend Jerry Stahl, who I knew from

Permanent Midnight. Yeah, you played him.

And he wrote the book Permanent Midnight.

We met in L.A. in

19-whatever, 97. So

there was, you know, I felt like we were kind of dipping into our histories there together.

And who was that woman in the trippy pot?

She was a local actress.

Really?

I think she came from St. John's, who's amazing.

Great.

And her name is Claire Coulter, and she just had a lovely quality about her.

I rewound her stuff today.

I was just...

Yeah.

You can top me off any time.

Thank you. had a lovely quality about her and was just...
I rewound her stuff today. I was just...
Yeah. You can top me off any time.
I like the new dude. Trey Sheik.
You see that Hampton has a bit of a drug issue. He's huffing ether, but he also seems to be the supplier, the dealer of ether at the coffee shop.
Am I right? He is. He's dealing.
That's interesting. He's dealing to Jerry Stahl early.
Yeah, he sure is. This town seems to have been kind of hollowed out by Lumen, certainly, but also by ether.
It was an ether factory that everybody was working at. And Imogen.
Matt at the ether mill. You know that? Was she hacking up a lung at the time? I love that we were able sort of to dig into its own vibe for the episode that felt, you know, it just was its own thing.
And you and James have this connection that then gets to play out later when you're in your mom's room.

And we'll talk about that in a second. But that moment between the two of you where we realized you both worked at the factory, at the ether factory, and were basically child labor and were huffing ether as children.
And working long hours as children, too. And I loved in that scene, it wasn't really specified that the two of you would kiss, but it's the first time we see Harmony Cobell.
I mean, we've seen you when you go into your mother's room and you lay on the bed and you hold the breathing tube and you put it in your mouth and you have this, I think, incredibly beautiful moment where you're just feeling and connecting with something. I feel like crying right now, just connecting with you.
I remember, like, on its face, it was a little bit of a weird scene. It's like, okay, she's going to go into the room, find the breathing tube, and then she's going to put the breathing tube in her mouth and break down crying.
Yeah, yeah. But what I love about you is that you didn't really question that.
You were like, okay, yeah, no, I get that. And it's, I'm just, I watch that and I'm really more like it.
And there's a sound you make that is kind of like heart shattering yeah you're making this sort of moaning crying sound which sounded to me like weirdly like a whale yeah yeah well like a whale in the ocean sound it was a whale and a whale the animal yeah there's a you know whole conversation about the sound of ke the crying, that weeping that women do, that kind of like loss where you're losing a baby or you're losing a loved one. What is that kind of sound? And there is a spiritual kind of a power in that sound, I think, and an otherworldly power in that sound.
And it is the mix of the adult and the baby within you. And I think she had that for her mom.
And I took care of my mom when she was sick and dying. I took care of my sister.
I've taken care of a lot of dying people in my own life. And while I'm very different than Harmony, there's also that crossover where you can take that human element within your own experience and understand this strange lady, you know, who will never get what

she needed from her mom. Yeah.
And we meet your aunt when you come up to the house, who's sissy. Jane Alexander, amazing.
Incredible. Wonderful Jane Alexander.
Had you worked with her before and known her before? I had never. And I'd grown up like in the seventies watching her on TV, like, you know, everybody.
And she's just this huge presence, incredibly generous, warm lady. And we're shooting in this old house up there.
It didn't have any insulation. It was really the real deal, this old wallpaper kind of crumbling off and we're freezing.
And boy, she was up for it. Oh, yeah.
And the moment you see her, you know that she is related to harmony cobell yeah because of that hair it was her idea speaking of hair on the show and we've talked to the other actors on the show about their ideas for the look she had the idea of seeing your hair on the show where she said i my hair is white like that i want to do a cut like a cobell cut um which was just like kind of created the character in that moment. Because subconsciously, as much as I hate my aunt, I am also structuring myself in my success to be like my aunt, to be like somebody who that she would approve of.
And again, this is somebody that I'm always going to for approval and who will never, ever give it to me. Oh, yeah.
You see Harmony kind of seek that from her a few different ways throughout the episode. Yeah.
And she doesn't give it up. I didn't even get to say goodbye.
Your studies were more important. Mr.
Egan saw a tear in you. He really did.
and the Wintertide Fellowship, even at the factory, no apprentice was more industrious than you. Such a disappointment you've proven to be.
And the resentment you have because you feel like she's responsible really for your mother's death when she kind of flips that on you at the end of the episode. Yeah.
And calls her a coward. And, you know, you see this breach.
And in that moment, we learn what the purpose is of why you come out here is to get this notebook that has the, you know, the drawings and the first ideas of how to do severance. And we learn that you are the person who created it and was able to figure out how to do it.
Yeah. Not Jay Megan, who we, you know, we believe created it, but no, it was you.
Mine! My designs! Circuit blueprint, base code, overtime contingency, Glasgow block, all of it.

Jamie Egan was the inventor. So I've heard.
And that's kind of the history of the world, right? Where that people are inventing things and other people are usurping them and taking credit for it. And I mean, I think she's been so indoctrinated to this organization, this slash religion, slash corporation for so long that even that through her aunt's view would be like that in itself would be amazing.
Part of the mindfuck of the whole thing is that you want to be humble. and so she needs to give it to Lumen and to the Eagans and not take it as her own.
And yet it is from her. Yeah.
I mean, she's taken advantage of. I think we get a sense of that over the course of the season with how Milchik has been looked on as less than.
And how as a woman, I get the sense that, you know, that was part of why you didn't get the credit and whatever glass ceiling at Lumen is there. Well, a lot of times these organizations too, whether they're religions or military or corporations, they do set up this thing where it's like unseemly for you to question things, where it's tacky or it's bad or it's not a group think or it's not of the corporation or you're not somehow behaving the way that you're supposed to if you question these things.
Like there is not supposed to be an individual. Yeah.
And you even see you present this to Sissy. It was all me.
And she looks at the notebook and you can see on Jane's face, she's learning this for the first time. And she is absolutely astounded by it.
But then immediately turns again and tries to burn the thing. It's wild.
And you see Harmony abandoned yet again. Yeah, well, it's like whatever that archetypal, even Greek, kind of sad situation of these family relationships where people just cannot ever be seen by that person.
Yeah, it is sad. But I do feel another aspect of the episode is that's somewhat redemptive, is that a connection that has come back between you and Hampton, you know, that was left, that at the end he does help you.
And basically we see him standing in the road as you leave with these headlights of whatever this car is coming that Sissy has apparently called from Lumen. And we don't know what's going to happen to him.
And he has this great reading of come and tame these tempers. That's great.
That's great. Was that an ad-lib? No, that was in the script, but read to perfection by James, who I just loved working with.
I'd never gotten a chance to work with him also. And Patricia, I know you won't remember this conversation, but it's been so great having you on the show.
Thank you. You're the best.
Thank you. I admire you so much.
Yeah. So great to have you.
And I know the fans of the show just love you so much and the work you do on the show. Yeah.
Like every day. I'm so appreciative that we get to work together.
Me too, guys. I love working with you.
And also, I really love these fans. They're super smart and cool and fun.
Isn't it great? So engaged. Yeah.
Yeah, and also they make really cute arts and crafts. And, you know, we're all into the arts and crafts too, like our wardrobe department and our props and our set dressing.
So I feel like we're all making this thing all together. Yeah, totally.
I am so into all of the clips that fans make, the music cuts. Yeah.
they're incredible. And the drawings and the paintings are amazing.

Everything in the Halloween costumes.

I mean, it's just so fun.

Every time I see one on Instagram, I take a screenshot of it, just so I have a collection of all of these.

Oh, that's so cool.

There's so much creativity just kind of being spurned.

What's Instagram?

It's an app.

Do you want to explain it, Patricia? I don't know. Who am I? Where are you? Who are you? All right.
All right. Bye, boys.
Thanks, Patricia. Until we meet again.
All right. Let's take a break.
And when we come back, Jimmy Kimmel will be here to answer some of your hotline questions. I'm going to.
Sorry, guys. we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back.

That's so much better

than either of ours.

We do that, Patricia. I'm doing it too.
No, she's doing it from now on. I can do it like the boys.
No, now she's going to do a thing where everything we do. Everyone, we're taking a break.
Taking a break. We'll be right back.
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All right, we're back, and we're very happy to welcome to our Severance podcast one of Severance's biggest fans, Jimmy Kimmel, the man. Very good.
Yeah. Thank you, Jimmy.
Thanks for joining us. Hey, I'm very glad to be here and honored to be part of this, but I just want to start with, I guess I could call an excuse.
I don't know how to put this, but I love the show so much that I refuse to just gorge it so I could catch up with where you guys are in the podcast. And you sent me all the episodes and that was exciting.
And at first I was like, oh, oh, this is good. But I do like watching them one week at a time.
I like the conversations I have with other people during the week. I don't love binging.
I like, it's like I'm a pit, I'm a glutton. I can't be trusted with a pile of stuff.
Especially if you're like seven weeks ahead of everyone else, it kind of sucks. Yeah, and you have to be careful.
You can't have discussions. And I know it makes me a bad podcast guest, but you just done such a good job with the show that I refused to jump ahead.
So I didn't. And I'm going to be behind on the facts, but I do have a lot of questions for you.
I know that this is your show, but I also am aware that the audience does not care about me at all. They're listening to hear about the show, right? So.
Do you have any experience asking people questions in this kind of atmosphere? To a fault. To a fault.
Yes. I want to hear your questions for sure.
And by the way, by the way, let me just say, I totally agree with you about watching things. About people not caring about me.
Yeah, that was a, yes. No, but the idea of watching something, you know, once a week, and it's changed for everybody, but that's the generation I grew up in, you watch stuff once a week.
But something like this, I feel when we send the whole link to everybody and like, hey, here are all the episodes, something in my stomach sort of like tightens up because I don't know, there's just something different about it. I get excited when we've done all this work over the last few years to like click on Apple TV and like watch it for real just to see it like, oh, it's actually a real thing out there.
And it just feels different to me somehow. But I'm definitely interested.
Like, do you want to like start hitting us with any questions? Yeah, please do. Please.
I do. I do.
I'm going to tell you some of the things I love about the show. The attention to detail is just absolutely insane.
I sometimes just look, I look at it and I go like, there must be something wrong with these guys. Like, I mean, how much time, I know it took a lot of time to put the show, but it seems like you layered like six different shows into one show.
Yes, definitely something wrong. You're right.
You hit it on the nail on the head. I mean.
That is Ben Stiller. No, you know, yes.
Not something wrong, but, you know. No, definitely something wrong.
Yeah. No, it's definitely like when it's there in front of you, you go, okay, you know, what can we do here? How can we be specific? And it sort of evolved that way.
I have to say second season now watching how the audience watches the show. I feel like it's good that we're paying attention to detail because people are

scouring it to the point where I get stressed out about it because they're thinking about it a lot. Yeah.
I think with Lost, which is, I think probably a lot of people compare this show to Lost. I haven't been this absorbed in a show since Lost.
Adam, I think I told you, I started like rearranging the letters in Kier Egan to see what the anagram might be.

And there's a scrabble word reginae which means of the queen and i was like of the queen that could be something and then there's like a there's ike reagan you know it was like reagan and ike is that does that mean anything right are you into the aspect of the show that is like, because I've said this before, embarrassingly, I did not watch Lost. So when all of these comparisons come up, I'm incredibly flattered that the show gets compared to this show that people have such a huge connection with and opinions about how it played out and all that.
But it was like a cultural phenomenon, but I never watched it. So for me, that mystery box term, I guess is a term for a show.
Like it was not one that I was that familiar with before we started working on the show. Are you, is that the thing that you're interested in in the show or are you interested in other aspects of it? Like, like the tone of the humor or the, you know, the weirdness of situations.
I'm interested in every aspect of the show. I love the characters.
I'm rooting for Mark, rooting for all the innies that we see regularly and we know. But one thing that I really love about the show and about the company, Lumen, it's this big, kind of scary, somewhat menacing, mysterious organization, but they're also kind of dumb.
Like they do things wrong. It's exactly right.
That's one of the things that we think about all the time is that when it's a big corporation is things that are just clunky and just don't quite work right. You know, like we really, from the beginning, wanted to make sure that we showed the outlets and the walls all the time, you know, that there's stuff like places where you got to plug stuff in.
Milchick has to wheel in the AV cart. And there's probably like only one AV cart.
There's just a DVD player, like in seventh grade. Yeah.
I think, you know, also part of the show is that sort of like the idea of corporate culture. For me, my experience of that is from movies and TV, you know, like Office Space and The Office and Parks and Rec.
But what's fascinating to me is I felt like Dan Erickson, he'd like hit on both that idea of like a show like The Office, that kind of humor, but then this other weird overarching ideology thing that was like taking a corporate culture or religion, you know, and like infusing that. And then with this other Twilight Zone-y kind of aspect to it.
So it was like all of these things to me were like, oh, there's just something about this that is sort of like crystallizing something that we all are so familiar with now. Yeah.
Yeah. It's so interesting.
I think, I wonder if it makes people take another look around their own workplaces in some ways. It's fascinating, right? Because like what I like about how the show has developed is that the innies have found a life for themselves down there and have figured out how to cope.
And I feel like that's sort of a – in my mind, a little bit of a metaphor for life, how you just like you deal – human beings adapt, right? and you adapt to whatever reality you're in and you then figure how to get the things that you need as a human being in whatever environment you're in. Right.
It's a matter of accepting your circumstances and then going from there and how you choose to do that. Yeah.
Here's a really big question for you guys. And it's possible that Adam doesn't know the answer and that Ben does but i don't know i saw the pilot for lost two months before it came out and i was just crazed for the next episode i mean i was absolutely crazed and it was funny because i think abc didn't really like the show and i went nuts over it and they were like huh maybe we maybe this is something and so i was very involved on a week-to-week basis in the show we had all the cast members on all those work i became friends with these guys to the point where they said to me and this was really when i look back on it it's a really sick thing they did to me because i said do you know what the ending is and they said yeah we know what the ending is and i was like really you know you're not just figuring it out as you go along and they said you know what we're gonna do we're gonna write the ending down on a piece of paper and we will give you a manila envelope with the ending in it and you can choose whether you want to open it or not which is a very losty thing to do.
Yes, it is. And I thought about it for a while and I'm like, fuck you guys, I don't want it.
Because I know I'll open it. I know, you know, I know I'll smoke a joint or something like that.
Yeah. And then I'll have this secret I have to keep for who knows how long.
And I declined their offer, but it was a real offer. Wow.
Wow. That's incredible.
I wonder if that changed. I wonder if it was the same ending that they ended up with.
It was. And they told me exactly what they would have been in the envelope.
You know, Jack's eyes open, you know, as it ended. But- Spoiler for me.
15 years later. Do you know the ending? Yes.
You do. Okay.
But here's what I'll say.

Exactly how we're getting there is not always completely set.

And I think that's important.

It's like we know we're going, but like every little beat, to me, that's the creative process that we're figuring out as we go along.

And we want that to be flexible as we're going forward.

And I think that's important too, so people know, right? I

can say that. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay, Jimmy. So in the spirit of your days as a DJ, let's go to callers from the hotline.
Yeah, sure. Shall we play the first one? Hi, this is Eric.
And I have question about the egg episode and how it relates to other foods you may have eaten on set. Curious to know what may be disgusting, revolting foods you've eaten on a set, and if there are any plans to force actors to eat disgusting things in future episodes of Severance.
Love the show. Thanks.
What kind of atmosphere does Eric think we're making the show in? I don't like eggs. I was on the radio.
I felt that my television career was heating up. And so I announced to the guys I worked with, one of the guys was a vegetarian, but he didn't mind a little bacon on his food.
He got an egg McMuffin and he, you know, those McDonald's like circular pieces of bacon. They're like prefabricated bacon.
He pulled it off and I picked it up and I said, if I'm still working here and I nailed it to the wall. And I said, if I'm still working here in one year, I'm going to eat this bacon.
And so it hung on the wall for a year. And of course I was still there at the end of the year.
Oh no. And I felt I had to eat it because I said I would.
And I did. I ate the bacon.
It had the consistency of like a giant fingernail. Did it make you sick? It did not make me sick.
I started feeling sick just because people were calling in and telling me about trichinosis and various pork-related parasites. Yeah.
It turns out you can do that. You can put McDonald's.
It's one of the great things about McDonald's food. You can put it on a shelf for a year.
You can nail it to things. I feel like you were probably in your 20s or early 30s, right? I was in my mid-30s, yeah.
Jesus. All right, let's listen to another one.
Hi, this is Steve from Dallas, Texas. Would you rather be a shambolic rube or a fetid moppet? Okay.
So that's a reference to episode one and two. And do you want me to define shambolic rube and fetid moppet or shall we just let ourselves? I'd like to know.
Okay. A shambolic rube literally means disorganized country bumpkin.
A disorganized country bumpkin. A fetid moppet is a smelly child.
So those are your choices. Well, all children are at least kind of smelly, right? I mean, I know mine are.
If you don't bathe them, yes. I think I'd rather be a shambolic rube.
I'm not far off from that in the first place. I kind of gravitate toward shambolic rube myself.
Okay, then I'll go for fetid moppet, because I would get to be a child. Yeah, well then we could do the episodes remotely.
So I don't smell up the place? Yeah. All right, let's listen to another.
Hi, and praise Kier.

This is Leah H.

I was just playing some Sudoku

and thinking about my impending move

to the town of Kier,

but there's a problem.

I own a 2019 Honda Accord,

and I've noticed that all the cars in Kier

seem to have been manufactured

prior to, to like 1986.

So I just have two questions.

Why?

And where can I trade in my Honda for a Kier approved vehicle?

Thank you so much.

Praise Kier.

And love you guys.

Thank you, Leah H.

You've got people calling you and saying praise Kier now.

Actually started a religion. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a good question.
I don't know. I mean, that's what the cars are like in the show.
It's not like when you go to a national renter car and they're all kind of the same. Those were the only cars we could get for the for the show that's right we couldn't yeah i did have a rabbit cobel drives a rabbit my first car was a 1983 slate gray metallic volkswagen rabbit with a moonroof i love that it's a hot car man when i was in high school only girls drove rabbits also my parents weren't going to buy me one so that was the other reason they didn't they didn't have one.
But it was considered to be a girl's car, but I loved them. I have a Volkswagen thing that I converted to electric.
Yeah. Oh, wow.
Those are great. Yeah.
Should we do one last one? Yeah. Okay, let's do it.
Bro, what is going on? That's a very good question. Oh, man.
Well put. I wish we knew.
I wish we knew. Bro, sorry.
You do know. I think I take a lot of comfort in the fact that you know.
Yeah, it's great to be at this point with a show where we've had these two seasons that we've made. And every time we've gone off and made a season, we've lived in this bubble with it for years.
And now it's out in the world and people are interacting with it. And like, that is like, it's such a good feeling to have people responding in any way to it, because it's like, becomes a thing that's actually like alive, you know? So those questions are all pressure, I bet.
i bet right i mean because then you have to think of the next one i guess so but i it of course but i am really enjoying now that we're just like in it and yeah okay the next one will be the next one but that's i think what's happening there is i think what you're saying maybe is that it is impossible for the audience to put more pressure on ben stiller than ben stiller puts on himself yeah i think that's perfectly put oh yeah you you know me jimmy well you're the best man thanks for joining us yeah thanks man thank you for doing this for making such a great show and for working so i know how hard you work on it and uh i think i I think one of the great things about the podcast is you can hear how much people appreciate it. And we definitely do.
Thanks, man. Thanks, man.
All right. See you soon.
Okay, Ben, we can't end our episode without hearing from Zach Cherry. Last week, he told us that everyone was going to go see the dentist.
That didn't happen. Sorry, Zach.
Better luck next time, I guess. I'm very excited to see what his clairvoyant, preternatural sense is going to tell him for next week.
Yeah, me too. Okay.
Hi, everyone. Here we are, all back together again.
Ben? I'll leave some space for you. Hey, Adam, anything you want to say to me? What's up, Zach? Amazing.
Thanks so much, guys. Thanks for that feedback.
So anyway, let's get started on this week's prediction for the next episode of Severance. Next time on Severance.
Cobell returned home to her childhood home and i have a feeling

she's gonna want to stick around i know i know she's on the run and uh someone is following her

but her high school reunion is coming up and she wants to have that one last dance with the boy who

got away some guy who we haven't met yet that's right who was your person who got away

But I think that's the only thing I person who got away make sure to call in and let ben and adam know in detail about someone you had a crush on in high school my first crush of course was the main character of the 2003 film nobody knows anything in which your which your friend and mine, Ben Stiller, appeared as the uncredited role of Peach Expert. Ouch.
I saw that movie on my first birthday in 2019. What? Wait, his first birthday in 2019? That's what he said.
I don't even understand what's going on with him. What's Nobody Knows Anything from 2003? It was a movie that I was in.
As the peach expert. Yeah.
Apparently, Zach has IMDB. He has access to that website.
Yeah. All right.
Thanks, Zach. Just look.
Take it a little more seriously here, truly come on alright and that's it for this episode the Severance Podcast with Ben and Adam will be back next week to talk about season 2 episode 9 otherwise known as the penultimate episode that's right and you can stream every episode of Severance on Apple TV Plus with new episodes coming out every Friday for two more weeks. And then make sure you're listening to our podcast, which drops right after the episode airs.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott is a presentation of Odyssey, Pineapple Street Studios, Red Hour Productions, and Great Scott Productions. If you like the show, be sure to rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, the Odyssey app, or your other podcast platform of choice.
Our executive producers are Barry Finkel, Henry Malofsky, Gabrielle Lewis, Jenner Weiss-Berman, and Leah Reese Dennis. This show is produced by Zandra Ellen, Ben Goldberg, and Naomi Scott.
This episode was mixed and mastered by Chris Basil. We had additional engineering from Javi Krustas and Davey Sumner.
Show clips are courtesy of Fifth Season. Music by Theodore Shapiro.
Special thanks to the team at Odyssey, Maura Curran, Eric Donnelly, Michael LeVay, Melissa Wester, Matt Casey, Kate Rose, Kurt Courtney, and Hillary Schuff. And the team at Red Hour, John Lesher, Carolina Pesikov, John Pablo Antonetti, Martin Valderutin, Ashwin Ramesh, Maria Noto, John Baker, and Oliver Acker.
And at Great Scott, Kevin Cotter, Josh Martin, and Christy Smith at Rise Management.

We had additional production help from Kristen Torres and Melissa Slaughter.

I'm Ben Stiller.

And I'm Adam Scott.

Thank you for listening.