Do you’ve got an thought in your head of how this present will finish?
I do. I’ve a scene in thoughts that is form of principally been unchanged since I first introduced the present to Ben [Stiller] and I instructed him and he was like, “Ooh, that is fairly good.” Loads has modified in regards to the plan. I will not faux that it has been this structurally good factor from day one. We have interrogated it and we have up to date it as we have gone alongside, however the skeleton of it and the top level, that is type of remained our North Star from the start.
How particular is your imaginative and prescient for the top? Have you learnt the place every character finally ends up, do you simply have form of a broad thought of what’s going to occur, or do you simply have the one final moments in your thoughts? As a result of TV is such a enjoyable medium in that it is so fluid and there is clearly the tales about Jesse Pinkman on “Breaking Unhealthy,” that character popping in such a giant and surprising means, and the entire present is completely completely different due to that. So clearly you permit your self room to alter issues on the fly, however how particular is your imaginative and prescient of the way you need this to wrap up?
Yeah, you may undoubtedly under-plan a present like this, however you too can over-plan it. And for those who’re too rigidly caught to your authentic conception of it, then you may actually impede your progress. I imply, my authentic model of the script was very completely different, and earlier than I introduced it to Ben, there was a model that was far more heightened. It was nearer to one thing like “Brazil” or nearly like a Monty Python factor the place it was darkish, however then there was this nearly magical realism. And had I been obsessively married to that, we by no means would’ve gotten the present that we obtained.
So you must type of take that lesson and use that transferring ahead and do not forget that there could also be a greater model of this that you do not know but and you must be open to that. And you must let your self fall in love with sure characters or different parts of the story that you simply did not anticipate to, and be capable to suppose in your toes and weave them into the narrative and be like, “Okay, I did not anticipate to like this man, however now we won’t make the present with out him. So what’s his position in the remainder of this factor?”
So with all of that stated — and that is the final query I will ask you in regards to the ending — what number of seasons do you suppose make sense for “Severance” as a complete?
We’ve got a quantity in thoughts. I believe that is all I can say.
Okay, truthful sufficient.
We’ve got a fairly good quantity in thoughts that — we’re not optimistic. It is like, “Perhaps we’ll do extra, however in all probability it is going to be this quantity.”
Gotcha. Okay. So inform me about working with Keanu Reeves on the “Lumon is Listening” video within the season 2 premiere. I am fairly positive it was Keanu. He is not credited in that first episode, but it surely positive sounded lots like him.
[slyly] Effectively, I actually do not know what you could possibly be speaking about. I am not really aware of that actor.
I see.
Is that the man from “The Lake Home?”
[laughs] It’s, in reality.
I do love “The Lake Home.”
Okay, in order that line of questioning is clearly going nowhere. [laughs]
