It appears director Ben Stiller took some liberties to keep everyone in the dark regarding what was happening in Apple TV Plus' Severance, and that includes the actors who portrayed everyone's favorite innies.
If fans thought Apple TV Plus' Severance was among the most mysterious shows ever produced, it's possible the actors who participated in the show's filming felt the same way. Stiller admitted that while filming the show's first season, he made the creative choice to film the episodes out of order so that not even the actors themselves knew what was happening in between episodes.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, Stiller admitted that to pull this off, they had to film different scenes from multiple episodes and even had to know which character they were portraying. "They had to sometimes, on one day, do parts of episodes from like three or four different episodes and have to be jumping around and [know] where they were and if they were an innie or an outie. It was really, really very challenging [for them]." Britt Lower, who played Hellie/Helena, admitted the measures she had to take to keep up. "I drew little pictures of Helly's action scenes, so I could go, Oh, I've smashed through a window here, and then I ran down a hallway."
While that definitely presented a challenge for the actors, it makes sense why Stiller chose to do that. Severance basically had two separate worlds with their characters. One with the characters' work lives and one with their personal lives. By filming out of order, it also keeps the mystery between the characters too. The question is, will they continue doing that for the next season now that not only have the innies experienced life on the outside, but now people on the outside have been hinted that something fishy is going on with Lumon Industries? Now that the worlds have collided, it may be hard to keep up that method of directing.
However, considering that there is so much mystery that Severance has yet to cover in season 2, that could give them room to keep the method going. Because some of the show's largest twists weren't revealed until the very end, like Helena being the daughter of Lumon's CEO and Mark's deceased wife apparently not only being alive and well but working for Lumon the whole time, the show could harp on that and then some when the second season commences. Plus, who's to say those won't be the only twists they develop? The show also truly has yet to delve into what the innies' jobs were or what Lumon industries wants from them.
It's that sort of intrigue that should keep viewers invested in Severance. The show has a very Lost-like quality to it in which there's so much mystery to unpack, but the one difference is that it feels like there is a direction here. Unlike during Lost's days on network television, the Severance writers and directors should have plenty of time to decide where they are going with their plot. If Severance wants to avoid having an unsatisfactory ending like Lost, they better make sure they don't get too swept up in the mystery, because that will leave too many loose ends when the show concludes.
Severance can currently be watched on Apple TV Plus.
Source: BuzzFeed