Before the break room, the Defiant Jazz, or the oval desk of the Macrodata Refinement department ever existed, Severance was just an idea. More precisely, an idea born during working hours, amid a string of temporary jobs that seemed to drag on forever. That exhausting routine became the inspiration behind the story of Dan Erickson in Severance.
In an interview with The Wrap, the series creator recalls how a nagging thought turned into the central premise of one of the most talked-about shows in recent years. Alongside Adam Scott and Britt Lower, Erickson shares the origins of the project, the first table reads, and the emotions that were present even before the premiere.
The idea born out of boredom: “I wanted to skip work”
“I sort of caught myself having this fantasy… where I was like, man, I wish I could just skip over the next eight hours of my life.”
— Dan Erickson
Erickson says he wrote the Severance pilot during a time when he was working temp jobs. Back then, he often wished the workday would simply vanish — as if he could fast-forward to the end of the day.
That uncomfortable fantasy took shape. He began imagining a world where it would literally be possible to give up part of your own life. That’s how the idea of splitting the mind between work and personal life was born — during a lunch break — as a subtle critique of how corporate life drains lived time.
Ben Stiller and the spiral staircase
“I came down the spiral staircase and he was just standing there like Hannibal Lecter.”
— Dan Erickson
When the Severance script landed at Red Hour, Dan Erickson was invited to pitch the story directly to Ben Stiller. The scene described sounds like it came straight from the show. As Dan descended the narrow staircase at the production office, Ben stood silently in the center of the room — like a creative meeting disguised as a nerve test.
Despite the initial tension, the conversation quickly evolved. Ben showed interest in expanding the story’s universe. In that very first meeting, he suggested exploring the characters’ pasts and building out Lumon’s world — ideas that soon became core elements of the series.
Helly’s audition and the bathroom door
“There are still kick marks on the door of my bathroom from where I kicked it pretty hard.”
— Britt Lower
Britt Lower, who plays Helly, recalls with humor how she recorded her audition for Severance. Without a studio or a proper space, she chose her own bathroom as the set — and went all-in with the intensity of the scene. The result? Kicked-up doors and a video that convinced the creators she was the perfect choice for the role.
Interestingly, the scene she performed was the series’ opening moment, where Helly wakes up in the Lumon conference room without knowing who she is. According to Britt, the script barely changed since that first reading — a sign that the essence of the character was there from the beginning.
Elevators and transitions: how the cast prepared
“Doing it really fast like that kind of really helped pinpoint what those things were we were adding or taking away.”
— Adam Scott
One of Severance’s strongest visual elements is the transition between “innies” and “outies,” carried out inside Lumon’s elevators. The video reveals that actors filmed several versions of these scenes in a row — sometimes three full episodes of transitions in one go — to fine-tune every subtle change.
This repetition was not just technical, but emotional: it helped the cast identify what each version of the character gained or lost when crossing that invisible work-life boundary. For them, it became an internal lab where performance had to be precise down to the smallest gesture.
Irving and Burt: a bond beyond the screen
“If I’m going to have this relationship with someone, this closeness and this love, like I want it to be with Chris because like we really have that and it’ll be organic on screen.”
— Dan Erickson, quoting John Turturro
The cast recalls how Christopher Walken was cast thanks to a bond of trust. It was John Turturro who recommended his longtime friend for the role of Burt. According to Dan Erickson, the decision had nothing to do with fame. Turturro wanted to live out that relationship with someone he already had a real-life connection with.
That choice brought one of the show’s most touching relationships, marked by restraint and meaningful silence. For the creator, it was an emotional and spot-on decision: “And he was right,” he concludes — with that tone of someone who knows something rare just happened.
The creative vision behind Severance
“It feels like a grim dystopian story, but it’s not. The secret weapon of this show is kindness and heart.”
— Dan Erickson
Despite its dystopian aesthetic and dark themes, Dan Erickson in Severance reveals that the show was never just about portraying an oppressive system — but about how, even inside one, humanity can still emerge. For him, the real motivation behind the series was to show people awakening something in each other, even in a place designed to suppress that.
