Transcript of S1E7: Defiant Jazz (with Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard)

This episode of the Severance podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott is brought to you by Confluence by Atlassian, the connected workspace where teams can create, organize, and deliver work like never before. Set knowledge free with Confluence. I'm Ben Stiller.

I'm Adam Scott.

And this is the Severance podcast with Ben and Adam, where we break down every single episode of Severance.

Today, we're recapping Season 1, episode 7, Defiant Jazz, written by Helen Lee and directed by Ben Stiller.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Applaus, applause. The one and only Ben Stiller.

By the way, every time I say we break down every single episode of Severance, there's only nine episodes that people have seen. And I just want to acknowledge that.

On this show, we mount the insurmountable. That's right.

We climb the mountain of all episodes. Okay, we have two very, very special guests here to talk through episode seven with us. They're not technically involved in the making of Severance, but if you believe, like we do, that the fans of Severance are spiritually involved in the making of Severance, there could not be two more appropriate guests for this show than Severance Superfans Dax Sheppard and Kristen Bell. Oh, thank you.

All right. Yeah.

Well, thank you for having us. Oh, my God. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

This is as close as we're ever going to get to being on the show, so we're- Very excited.

You don't know that.

You don't know that. Also, by the way, you guys are both expert podcasters, in addition to being incredibly talented actors, too. Thank you. I'm a little bit like, I want to learn from you just by being in your presence, okay?

Well, that's flattering. I got to say, one of the highlights of our last seven years was talking to you, sincerely. Really? Well, both of you.

I have this thing, Dax. I'm curious for both of you when you do podcasts. Maybe this is just something in my brain But I will do a podcast and talk and have a great time as a guest and then not remember anything that I said. I'll remember bits and pieces. You've done so many of these. You both have done a lot. Do you remember everything?

I largely do. I'll say you are in the minority because most often guests leave and they replay everything they said, and then they text me. Adam's sitting right here and he just did it a week ago.

Right. Oh, to try. Yeah, I do that, too. I do that replay to my head, but luckily, since my memory is so bad, I can't remember the embarrassing things I said. I just say, Okay, it's going to be out there in the world.

Well, I also find that these podcasts are sometimes like a 90-minute, two-hour conversation. You say so much, and then people out in the world say stuff to me like, Oh, that's so cool that you used to go to the Del Mar Theater in Santa Cruz. I'm like, When would I have ever told anyone about- How long would I have to have been interviewed before I got to that detail? There's just so much that you end up saying.

But Dax is a steel trap. I mean, I've done far, far... I've dipped my toe in podcasting and done his a couple of times, but he's certainly the absolute expert. But he's the same way podcasting as he is at home, which is like, Will, I don't remember any name of any person I went to school with. It just doesn't... I have to see it written down in a yearbook or something. I mean, other than my handful of friends. And Dax will be able to still explain how the speed of sound works from his intro college class. He does not let go of any information.

I'm so glad I came. I do want to say Kristen's memory is a little more charming than that, if I can say, because we will be meeting someone, and this is an actual example. She remembers everyone's dog's name and not them. I'm a child. So Titans of Industry, she'll go, Oh, I know that person has a dog. They have no clue what they're the chairman of, but knows the dogs.

That is a charming memory. It is, right?

It is exactly. It is until you're living in it and you're at some event where you need to remember someone who could give you a job. But I do genuinely wake up Groundhogs Day every morning, which is nice for my mental health because I'm like, well, nothing's wrong. But then I find out throughout the day what's wrong in the world, what's wrong in my life. But I do not forget a dog under any circumstance.

People love their dogs, and to remember somebody's dog, actually, that's something that you connect with. I think people appreciate that, I'm sure, more than even remembering their actual name. If you remember the dog's name.

But conversely, if you don't own a dog, Kristin will never remember you. No. So there's also the flip side of that coin.

That's the other side, yeah.

Okay, and the Here's the great thing about Dax. I remember dogs. Dax will absolutely mangle everyone's names. He cannot tell the difference between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, not on screen or in person. And there's always- He would be so confusing for you. It's always a hybrid of two people. But I speak to so I can usually- That's bullshit.

Alan and Glenn do not believe you for one second when you say that.

Do you guys ever find yourselves being in entertainment? You see someone across the party and you know you're going to run into them and you Google them to remember their wife's name or their husband's name. Every single time. Yeah. Every single time. Nonstop. Okay, great.

I'm not alone. I want to steal Seth Meyers as a really funny story about this where he was on a vacation in Israel, and then he got invited to meet, I don't know, let's say, the Prime Minister or the Second Command. And so he googled this person to find out and thought, Oh, yeah, we should meet them. And then took this awkward meeting, then asked where the bathroom was. And as he was told, he walked by the guy's desk and he could see up on his computer was the Wikipedia for Seth Meyers. So I was like, I think so many of us are just having meetings with people. We shouldn't be having meetings. If you have to Google the person, why is anyone even meeting?

That's what Wikipedia was created for, for people having meetings with each other. Can I just say also, I know you guys are friends and we don't really know each other, but it was so cool to hear that you guys are fans of the show because it's always fun and exciting to hear people who you know and are fans of, are fans of something you work on. I just think that's so great and so cool. It was just exciting to know that you guys were watching the show.

We do more than watch the show. The show has been disruptive to our lifestyle. We've lost many a night's sleep over these cliffhangers, which-We then assault Adam with.

We send all these voice memos to Adam and Naomi at night when we're pissed, and we're like, God, I hope he plays them for Ben. We want Ben to know, too. So it's mutual.

Well, I covet those voice memos, and we have them, and maybe we'll just play them all at the end of the episode.

You should definitely play them.

You absolutely should.

They're very Hostle. Yeah. They're a side of America's sweethearts you don't really want to see.

Yeah. It's really, it will take you aback. So what about the show landed with you guys? Let's just start there.

There's so many things to be proud of. It's a really, really huge accomplishment, and I'm not being hyperbolic. The tone is so fucking bulletproof. It's almost impossible. And I think if we could really geek out, When you're evaluating how much you like a director, I think the key ingredient is, do they have a singular voice they can inject into the funny scene and the sad scene? Is it unified? Is it unwavering? Does it create rules that never breaks? The amount of discipline on display in the show is so impressive. The esthetic is so wonderfully, boring and brilliant and subtle.

And somehow unique, to be able to strip something down so much and use... There's four pieces of furniture you see throughout the show, but does it still have it feel a little unique? It could only exist there.

And then the cast is so wonderful because there's people we know and there's people we don't know, and everyone is equally brilliant. You want to see the ugliest side of Chris and I? It is in bed watching TV, which we do all the time because we've been doing it for 25 years. So we'll notice, why are they shooting this scene from a bird's-eye view? This is nonsense. Of two people talking on a couch. This is an actual example. We're watching a show and they're shooting it from high and behind. The coverage, friend.

The coverage.

They go to Frenches that are on the ceiling looking at the floor. Finally, we play this game where we're on a set, so I have my walkie talkie on mine.

I have mine. What we're doing for the listener is grabbing our lapel. Sarah, can you go to two? On two.

Yeah, I'm with the director. He wants to know if we're going to be able to look up at any point. Yes.

Where is the ceiling? No. Why? So we went to lunch, remember? And we're back. And we lost the ceiling.

You lost the ceiling? Yeah.

Somehow at lunch... Well, it was there before lunch, and then we're back, and it's not-So we're locked in to shooting the floor for the rest of it.

Unfortunately, Yes. Okay, I'm going to try to tell them that. You can go back to four.

Thank you.

Oh, my God. Yes.

Going to two is the most fun part of our relationship.

If it weren't for going to two, we would be divorced.

We'd probably be divorced.

It's so true. Can I just I'll throw in a couple of little reference points for audiences who are not in show business. Frenches are French overs, right? Over the shoulder shots that are behind the actors. Going to two is the two on the radio, the other channel, for When you need to say something other than main information.

Yeah, you're surrounded on a set with PAs that have earpieces in and microphones on their collar of their shirt, and you'll be mid-conversation with them. You think they're listening to you, and they immediately just go, yes, going to two. And you realize they weren't listening to And then someone from Wardrobe that has a question about maybe an actor is wearing their personal hat in a scene. That's another thing we'll do. We're watching in some piece of wardrobe looks. That has to be a personal item. So we'll go, Gary, go to four. Yeah. Is that a personal hat we're seeing? Because we haven't cleared. There's a logo on it.

Yeah, I tried this morning, but Derek. Is it Derek or Darryl? Yeah, the day player. The day player. And he said he couldn't take it off. There was something about his hair. And because we'll wait for it yesterday.

We're going to be in Grace If we will, we'll shoot the fuck. Okay.

You know what one of my pet peeves is with wardrobe? Where if it's abundantly clear that the wardrobe is brand new, that you still see the fold creases. It was just taken off the back on the actor in front of the camera.

But that's a great bit to go to two with because you ask Janice from Wardrobe why the steamer wasn't available, and you talk about how the trucks weren't allowed to be parked on the street because transport didn't get here early enough. The Jenny's down.

How long is the Jenny going to be down? We got to steam this shirt.

What about the backup, Jenny?

Okay, all that's to say, that was way too long of a preamble, but there's no going to two on Severance, which is almost impossible. We even do it, you guys, on the Holy of All Holies, Game of Thrones. But this is more selfish. We're watching it and you'll see this huge wide and there's 65 people on it. There's a couple of the main stars, and they're buried deep in the background. We see a scene like that and we're like, Oh, fuck. They had to be there for six days in the background.

In Northern Ireland or wherever they were. We've learned from being on set, if the camera can see you, you have to be there for the priority of the scene. If that scene is going to take a week to shoot, you have to push your body behind someone in the background and be like, Well, I just... No, but I was here. I was here.

That's one of the first lessons of show, is if you can see the camera, the camera can see you.

That's So find a spot.

Where the camera cannot see you.

Where you get to go home at some point.

Yeah. Most great actors want to talk about their character. I'm constantly like, Don't you think my character would have run out right before action to grab something? Because this seems like a scene we're going to shoot for three days.

I feel like as a director, I'm very sensitive to that. When I hear an actor go that route, I can tell right off the bat.

You would not like working with us. No, you would hate it.

We're not.

We like to be home for dinner.

In the beginning of your career, you want to be in the scene more, and Oh, yeah. As time goes by, you're like, no more.

Is there anything else I could be doing? Or is there anything you're going up to directors asking for a direction? Is there anything you need me to do? Right.

Well, and I don't think he'd mind me telling this story. In fact, I know he wanted it, but I directed Tom Arnold in a movie, and we were between takes, and he was clearly so miserable. And I said to him, How long have you hated acting? And he goes, Oh, for a long time, buddy. Like, what the crazy paradox with actors is all they want is to get jobs, and then once they have them, they do not want to be doing the job.

I've had that experience, too. An actor just wants to get it done and get out of there. Adam Scott.

Oh, yeah. No, that's me. God, I wish.

But anyways, the acting is phenomenal. The writing is so next level. It blows my mind that Dan only had a single writing credit on Lip Sync Battle. That's so impressive. Truly, you think you're dealing with someone who's cracked a trilogy or something. It's really impressive.

You're doing so much with so little because it's not like a chatty bantery show. There's often just stretches of silence, and I'm still riveted. You can always judge something good about whether or not you think you have to pee during it or you look at your phone. We just do not. We are riveted when they're walking through endless white hallways because the tension and the tone that's built and every single character is watchable. Because there are a lot of shows we watch where you'll go to a they're just not as interesting, but you've developed everyone in such a way that it's just a ball to watch.

That's nice to hear. When you're working on something, when you're in it, you just have no perspective, when you're working on it, other than you're just trying to do it. We did work in a bubble for so long in the first season. I think this whole thing in streaming now that you do the whole thing without any feedback can be good and bad. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because you're just doing... We completed the whole thing, the whole season. I remember thinking by the end of it, Okay, we did this. Oh, my God, is anybody going to like it? Is anybody going to watch it? It could just be awful, too. You just don't know.

Sometimes when I watch a show, the very first season of a show, and it turns out to be a big hit, like Friends or West Wing, I try to pinpoint, and it's usually four or five episodes in, the moment when they started airing and were a huge hit. You can try to pinpoint the confidence and the swaggerer of the actors. The shift. Yeah, when they're just like, We're going to be here for a while. I don't know if it's actually there or not, but I'm always thinking of that Because on Parks and Rec, it was like this, too, where you shoot an episode and it's like, what, five weeks and then it airs? It's just wild. It's so wildly different than the modern streaming process.

What does that feel like? Because I've never really had it. Because anything ever done on television has been like this, or if I'm not in it, directing it, or was canceled and never went that far, so never had that feeling of being on something that's a hit, that's successful, and you're doing it in real-time.

Right. Ben Stiller show, did you guys make the entire thing and then just deliver it?

Yeah, we made the entire 13 episodes, then they air 12 of them, and that was it. The whole thing was done within eight months.

They shelved the finale?

It wasn't even in the finale. That's very interesting. I know. It was an amalgam of sketches.

I could bore you by going through every one of my favorite sketches from that. It's such a great show. But I have a really arrogant question to ask you, Ben. I've done some armchair analysis of your recent work. Again, this runs the risk of offending you, but I told Adam this. I feel like with Tropic Thunder, you were like, Let me show you I can make a fucking humongous movie. Let me show you I can have the action and the explosions and that these comedies can also have this layer. Let me demonstrate I have that skill set. That was accomplished. And I feel like Dana Dana Moro, which, by the way, apologies, we just watched for the first time last month, and we fucking loved it. But to me, Danamora was like, Now, let me show you I can do a very gritty drama. And that was accomplished, I think, with Flying Colors. I feel like Severance, again, I have no business having this opinion. I feel like you've proven you can do everything, and now there's this confidence to when it wants to be funny, it can be funny. When it wants to be dark, it can be dark.

It feels like everything's been proven, and there's a confidence to this where I feel like the funny side of you gets to come out and all the other sides. It feels really just even in that way.

Thank you for even taking the time to watch that stuff. And honestly, I appreciate that. I think it's what you're talking about is basically, this tone and this story allows for that in a great way. And maybe there is... Look, honestly, I think we've all been working for a long time. After a while, there's a certain amount of like, Okay, here we are in life. Life's going by. We're getting older. Fuck it. I just want to do stuff that I really enjoy and that I want to see. And yeah, I care about how it's going to be received, but at the end of the day, I just want to express myself and go for it a little bit if I have the opportunity to do that in a way that is not worrying about... Like I was I was saying before, we made it in this bubble. At the very end, I thought for a second, Oh, wait, I hope this is good. I hope people... But we had a great time making it within the bubble of doing it. I think it's just what Dan created, it was a confluence of events of allowing for a tone that could have all those things in it.

I personally think when something's in one genre, it's very constricting because you're not allowed to do certain things. What's great about having humor or comedy in something like this is people aren't tuning in expecting to laugh, so you don't have the pressure, as we all know in comedy, that's a lot of to be funny. Because even Tropic Thunder, that was a comedy. I I remember having a first screening and thinking, okay, I think we made this really cool actiony thing that has some satire and all that. But it's like a thing. The first audiences were like, well, they said it's a comedy. They wanted the laughs to be there. That's the first thing that they're looking for.

In the format they were super used to.

Yeah, but it's just in the framework, even not... It's like maybe how it's marketed or how people put it out there, right? This is a comedy. There's something that's very freeing about having a genre that is not as defined because then you can just have it be whatever and allow people to find what they find in it. That's been great to work on. I think that starts with what Dan wrote in his pilot, which got me so excited, and then we went from there on it.

Yeah, because the stupid moment, I think it's in seven with the doors have been installed. Our man is... What's our man's name? Milchick? Milchick. Milchick is checking them, right? But boy, he's checking the fuck out of it. Those doors are clanging. That's so long. The speed is impossible. I'm I'm imagining being at Video Village. It's not lost on you that this is hysterical, and what's going on, and why are we going to see it closed so many times?

Well, those doors were effects, right?

No, they were real. We sped them up. But it's so funny because I was literally watching this last night, seven, preparing for this with Christine, and she's like, Boy, he's really checking those doors.

I'm like, You know behind the monitors, this is funny.

I mean, it was just Something like something, yeah. That's stuff, again, there's no test screening or anything like that. There's just a freedom to go like, Oh, this seems funny or interesting or whatever. You just go with it and try to go with your instincts.

It's the moment the dad is using a tie-down strap on something, he's packed some luggage, and he gives it 25 pulls before he goes, Yeah, that ain't going nowhere. That's what it felt like with the doors.

But it also tells you so much about Milchick too. That's what I loved about that little sequence is that this is that guy, and we get these further dimensions of Tramell's character.

There's also an interesting little part of the story there, which is that what those guys are doing is they're pulling away the border around the entrance to reveal these doors. They weren't installing those doors. Those doors were there before. When you really think about it, they're not putting in doors overnight, but they're pulling off the covers. That's just an interesting layer of like, whoa, I wonder what those doors were doing before.

I didn't catch that.

Okay, let's pause here and take a quick break, and when we come back, we'll get into episode 7. At Lumen, things are not always what they seem. Mark, Dylan, Haley, and Irving in MDR make a great team. But what else lies beyond the four white walls of their department? There seem to be more questions than answers as the secret fruits of lumen are slowly revealed.

There's definitely a lot more going on than you see. It's a little bit creepy.

I agree. There are more Qs than As in this place.

Yeah, for sure.

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Okay, so the first scene is between Mark and who we know as Ragabi, played by Karen Aldrich, the great Karen Aldrich. So they're at the college campus, or is it the college campus in the show?

Yeah, they're at Gans, which is where you used to teach. Oh, they're at Gans, right. Mark used to teach there, and she basically leads you to this secret little lab that she set up down in the bowels beneath. This is really weird. This was during the pandemic, we shot at Pfizer Pharmaceutical in New Jersey while they were developing the vaccine. Right.

Did you try to get an early dose from anyone?

We just started jabbing ourselves with any hyperdemeanors we could find.

Anything we could. Breathing deep in every hallway.

That's right. It was really weird. Then also they had shot other stuff there. Actually on the floor, I found an old little mini sides from the show Manifest, and I got really upset that Manifest had shot where we were shooting.

Ben does not like to hear that any other show or movie has shot at any location we're at.

I get it. They love to start telling you when you're there and you're like, No, I hate it.

Whenever we go on a location scout with my group, the person who's... When they start saying, Oh, yeah, and we had this shoot there, and everybody looks at me because they know that that person has just basically made this place a place that we don't want to shoot.

But the building in Jersey, the old Bell Labs building that is Lumen, was never on film until-That's the crazy thing.

That's the crazy thing. What a jewel. I mean, there's a few things you guys have, a few assets that you got to wonder what the show is without and that's one of them. It really grounds the... Just that wide of that... It's like the Pentagon. The wide of that buys you so much into your belief of what Lumen is as a monolith.

It was actually the first location that we found, and that was really informed a lot of the design of the inside because it still had all of that mid-century architecture on the inside of it. And yeah, so then she takes you down there.

Yeah, and then she's talking to me, and Doug Grainer shows up and the shit hits the fan, and he's talking to me, and she comes up behind him and hits him over the head with a baseball bat. So this was really brutal, really brutal piece of violence, and the first one of the show, right? Yeah. How did you approach that?

I mean, we knew that we didn't want to ever have the show go into people with guns and like, cloak and daggery stuff. And that was something we were really sensitive to. So we were trying to figure out some way that she could take him out that would feel messy and shocking. That's where the baseball bat came up. And yeah, it was weird because we had never had anything like that happen on the show before. It just felt like, Okay, how do we do this and make it feel believable? But you just do it, a scene like that, right? You just do it, what would really happen?

All I was thinking, I got really distracted by thinking of blocking the scene when you guys first showed up. How is it going to be a reveal? We saw her on the left side of this. It's not a set, it's a practical location. But now there's this exchange, how are we going to get her behind him? The notion that this practical location you were at had a way for her to walk around that loop around.

That's amazing. You guys are so observant. I know.

I'm not kidding. That's crazy. I don't remember if she actually did or if that was just a separate- She came from behind him.

It looked practical.

It seemed to be a wanner.

Yeah, you're right. It wasn't, actually. We wanted to believe that there was a way to get back there. But when we got to that location, we saw, Oh, there's this interesting thematic thing where there's a hallway on one side, and then there's the room on the other. Mark's point of view could be looking at this almost severed image. Then the surprise of her coming up behind him. We tried to make sure that the way we cut it was that we don't see her for long enough that you could believe that she came around behind him.

She did mention that she severed him as well. I think that's an important detail because she said she reintegrated Pee Dee, but she also mentions in that scene that she was the one who severed him, which just gives you a lot more intel on how high up she was and why you go like, Oh, she must have a reason to use this baseball bat.

Yeah. And she knows a lot about Mark and the procedure. And it's the first time you can tell the way she's poking and prodding Mark that he hasn't really given much thought to his any. He hasn't really considered this person very much. And she's poking him saying, what about this is a person down there?

Well, that's the fun philosophical question, I think. Well, there's many, but the one that I am most intrigued about by the show is this notion that we wouldn't ever relegate someone else to eight hours in a room with no memory. But I would do it to myself because I don't pity myself. I don't have any empathy for myself. I'm a piece of shit and I deserve to suffer, and I'm going to suffer at work anyway. It's just interesting. I think it begs this question of we are meaner to ourselves than we'd be to other people in a way.

Yeah, and do things to ourselves, more self-destructive things or things that are cutting off. There's so many, I think, metaphors or analogies that you could think of for what severance is in terms of how people dead in pain or just want to avoid pain.

I imagine myself someone You're saying you're being really mean to Dax some eight hours of the day. I go, Who gives a fuck? I deserve someone to be mean to... If you told me I was being mean to a stranger for eight hours a day, it would affect me. But I actually imagine being Adam in that scene, and I don't think I'd really give a shit if a version of me was unhappy.

It's interesting. We see how you're equivocating to in that scene, and you're like, I'm not a bad person. Mark is just morally very complicated, I think, the whole first season.

That's right. The fact that she is the one that actually did the severing is super interesting because it tells us that she's on some redemption path of some sort.

Yeah, well, that she got so much information that she changed her perspective. That's right.

It also suggests that the stakes of Lumen are much higher than just someone being severed for eight hours of the day. If she's willing to brain a dude, there must be something hugely nefarious happening beyond just the severing of people.

Yeah. I thought Karen, she's such a good, interesting actress, and Michael Kumpsey who plays Grainer, just the way they played that scene, I thought he was so creepy in that scene because he's so smiling and nice, and the way he talks to your Audi, it's just so creepy.

He has a very '80s video drone, scanners. There's something- He would fit right in with those movies, for sure.

The cronin. And he's the sweetest, gentleest guy, too. It's so wild.

Yeah. We said this before, he has such a great face and understands how to use it and just knows how much power he has and just being still.

Yeah. And Karen Aldrich is, like you said, fantastic.

Also, that was Karen's... As you guys know, too, people come in for a day on a show, and you don't have any rhythm, anything making you comfortable. It's just like you in and you got to do a scene. That was her first day on the show, and she had to do that scene.

I was going to call that exact thing out. That would normally be a scene that you got eight episodes to work up to as a character, and she had to repel in and have her crescendo character moment on day one.

And not make it too... Because again, when you have that challenge of like, Oh, I got to make this something. This is my first scene, you can often overdo it and you become arch or I need to be villainous or something, but she wasn't. She was serious and driven, and you wanted to take her seriously, and you wanted to know more. She was very there, but also I felt like kept a lot to her breast to where I was like, I need this girl on screen again. I want to know more.

Totally. Really super specific and different because you're right. You could just do like, CBS guest spot, drop in, exposition, and just be uninteresting. But she really managed to give it a lot of texture.

It's great.

She I love her. I love Karen. She's fantastic.

Okay, so we come back to MDR, and they've got the new doors, and everybody's stressed out about that. This is when Milchick shows up because Helyar has hit 25%, and she's going to get a music dance experience, which is one of the big perks. What I like about the scene is that it's the weirdness of what's going on, but we're also trying to tell the story within it. It was a chance for the actors just to Every actor in that scene is doing such specific stuff. I mean, every single person... I can just go... I'm sure you guys have feelings about it.

We have a lot. In fact, there's a behind-the-scenes debate between Kristen and I that this scene created. This is where you get lucky or you don't, right? The actor who plays Milchick, you didn't ask him to dance in the original audition. Then you get to set on this day and you realize, Oh, my God, we have a fucking professional. I could watch him dance for two hours. I said to Chris, and we watched that scene, I go, Okay, my man, let me just tell you, his ass is so good. He has the best ass I've ever seen in pants. He moves suspiciously well, Kristen. I'm like, he has some showbiz in his background. He's got some Broadway or something. We went and did a deep dive on that actor because we watched him dance, and I was like, there's something going on here. This guy's too fucking good and fun to watch.

He's trained.

He got his body.

He's incredible.

No, it's crazy. You're right. He does have a great butt, and he's got a great... I mean, the guy is just so talented. It was a revelation to me. I knew he was good as an actor, and I knew he moved well within the scenes. But this is episode seven. When we got to this, it was like, Okay, let's figure out what we could do here. We had a choreographer who came, but basically, Tramell just went off and said, I got some ideas, I have some thoughts. Then they just showed me this dance that he came up with. It just makes me so happy watching it. It's just incredible.

It's a big gift he gave you, right? It's like you have all these tools at your disposal. You got the lights, you can do some inserts of the record player. That's cool. You can go to the list. You have all these ways you're going to make this interesting. And this motherfucker shows up and just starts letting loose and you go, Oh, I don't need any of that. I'll have that stuff, but I don't need it because this is now all about this guy dancing.

It's so weird and specific. And it also, I think, triggered everybody else in the scene to have their own version of what they would do in this situation. It really just brought out the best in everybody, I think. Because I love, Adam, how Mark is, first of all, so curious and excited about the music dance experience, literally like a kid, almost like, Oh, wow, wanting to see the table and what's there and what are the different instruments. You're like a kid.

Well, it's a huge deal. We're all in the midst of this whole this allusionment with Lumen and all of this drama and putting the pieces of this... Well, we haven't started putting the plan together yet, but we're all in this little disarray as far as Mark's feelings about Lumen. But still, something like this comes in and it's like, oh, man, the MDE is about to happen. It's like a celebrity walked in the room or something.

You have almost the first playful smile you have in the show at work Why do you decide that's how Mark feels about that?

Well, I think at that point, there had been just a couple little instances of stimuli that come in from different directions, and just assuming that that stimuli is hard to come by down there, this machine rolls in with 45s and musical instruments. And I figured it was something Mark had heard about but hadn't experienced yet. So couldn't wait to get his hands on just the feelings of the MDE. One thing I love about the sequences is that it's completely rooted in character because Milchick is just trying to cover his ass and provide distraction. And we should say the MDE is a creation of Mark Friedmann, one of our writers and co-showrunner of Season 1. And it's a really great path for Milchick as well as... And then it turns into this just show-stopping moment in the show. And it's just like Ben said, it really provides this great pathway for all the characters to come out of their shells a little bit Dylan included.

But it also highlights the... You see so many specific character traits when you see them have the stimulus. But if you zoom out, it also highlights the monotony and the loneliness and the suffering that a cart, an IKEA rolling cart with a record player on it and a Maraca is what is going to get these people to smile.

It's like a monster truck show.

Yeah, it really highlights the suffering that they experience on a daily basis that you don't lose track of at all, but you because you've seen it before, I like that it was highlighted here that like, yeah, they're just in those white hallways. There is nothing. There are no labels on the soap in the bathroom. There's everything is just so barren.

Yeah. Also, the other thing I was excited about when we shot it, I remember thinking about as we were going through the season was like, oh, knew we were going to do this thing with the lights. We were going to change the color of the lights. I remember thinking, oh, I hope people... First of all, I hope people buy that and think that it doesn't seem too over the top or break the reality. But it was so exciting to me to think at some point And seven episodes in, we're going to see that the lights can change colors and they can do a Saturday Night Fever in reverse or whatever, ceiling.

You saved that, and we didn't know that the lights were going to change until we were shooting the scene.

I think I tried to hold it back, yeah. Yeah. I remember also when we had a test for it, when you guys weren't there with the crew, we did a test, and then we had a little dance party because we were timing it out to the song, and it was really fun because it would get very oppressive on that set because the ceiling is so low. Our set, that's literally like the MDR room is in the middle of all the hallways. It's like you really are like, it's very claustrophobic. I know Toturo used to go crazy because he's the tallest. Dax, you would not like it there because it's very low ceiling. I I'm assuming you're tall.

That's how you're getting out of inviting me there? That's fine.

I'm short. We love to have you. You're too tall. Dax doesn't need to be on the show.

Yeah, I'm very short. But Toturo is a tallest cast member, and I know it used to get to him.

That's funny you'd bring up the lights because that was going to be a really nerdy specific question for you, Ben, which is you want the lights for obvious reasons. It'll make the scene more interesting. Then, though, you've got to play through the logic. So you go, Okay, Lumen installed these lights to be multi-colored. And then you have to maybe create some reason in your mind where you don't feel like you're jumping the rules, right? I can imagine that would be the decision that you'd really mull over a lot more than people might guess.

Yes, We're constantly thinking about things like that all the time. To me, it makes total sense in terms of the world of Lumen, that they would do this because it's something that they are able to do to save as a reward that just as the audience would be surprised that the employees would be surprised, too. We're always thinking about what would Lumen do, how would Lumen approach this. But it was really fun. Then I have to say, Adam, your bad white man dance as he's approaching you. It makes me think. I always think of Billy Crystal. There's the white guy overbite. White man overbite? Yeah. First you do one stilted move, and then the second one is you get into it and you're like, okay, I can do this. And it makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.

I remember when I started doing that one, stepping into it, because we were trying to get to me putting my hands in my pockets to discover the key card. And so I started doing a thing like this. This is great for a podcast demonstrating the dance moves.

He's putting his arms up in a robotic motion.

And you loved it so much. You're like, Don't forget that. Do that. You loved the walking in place thing. So I was sure not to forget it. Yeah, that was so fun. It was so fun. I mean, it was an entire day, obviously, and it was a blast, especially watching Tramell dance.

Yeah, it was two days. It was two days, and one day was the dance, and then the second day was Dylan's blow up. When Milchick gets behind him and starts doing this almost like this devil over his shoulder. It's just crazy. It was really great to see Zack be able to really own that scene. A guy who's just... He's such a good actor who's never really played scenes like this before because he gets cast a lot as the funny guy who's a brilliant comedic actor, but he has so much inside of it. That scene after he's attacked Milchick, where he's just got so much of that residual energy, it's so believable and so raw.

This episode could be called Dylan's episode because we've also just learned he's a dad, which is really not what I was expecting. He's so blue all the time and an adolescent in his humor. To find out that he has a child that loves him is a mind-blowing detail all of a sudden. Then that has awoken in him, this person who's going to get violent at work. Yeah.

And it's interesting because up to this point on the show, there are all these examples of weaponizing different office supplies around the MDR. But this discovery that he's a father turns... It just shifts Dylan so much. There's something primal that shifts in him, and then he ends up biting Milchick, tackling him, obviously, but then he bites him. How is that figured out? How did you guys land on that, Ben?

It's the social experiment aspect of the whole thing. What if you learn this knowledge that you have a family on the outside? It's just he can't control it. It's just bubbling up inside of him, and he's stuck. I think it's the claustrophobia of being stuck in this place that he can't get out of knowing that he has loved ones. It was just like, what can we have him do. I think it was probably in the script that Mark had that he bid him. The part I always enjoyed, too, is Milchick's... He's very upset and says the music dance experience is officially canceled.

Oh, my God. I remember him doing that and just thinking, Tramell is a superstar. Just on point.

Incredible. It's a moment of hopefulness, though, too, because when you're watching the show and you're... I mean, that's why it's a great show. You're playing out this fantasy of this was happening to you the whole time you're watching it, or we are. And you're wondering, what is the thing that can't be severed? That's like the human hopeful thing You'd like to believe that love for something couldn't be severed. That's the hopeful message that is revealed in a very bizarre way. We want to believe there is a part of me you couldn't ever sever. And I like to think as a parent, that would be the thing.

Now it's not severed anymore because he's immediately in love with this kid. Yes. He receives that love for an instant and everything changes.

Yeah. I think that's what's interesting for the actors throughout the show is that they're always able to be asking those questions about what is coming through, what isn't coming through for every scene.

Yeah. The show's about so much, but it's about identity. It's like all these things we think are intrinsic to us, but really how much of us is this memory we have of the things we've done. We'd like to believe there's some intrinsic quality to us that couldn't be severed. I don't know, that's always on the table with the show.

Yeah. There is a moment for each of the four characters in MDR where everything changes once they get a taste of or a feeling for an experience, love of some sort. Each one of them, it causes them to have a shift and have a need to get the hell out of there.

Yeah, we get two doses of it because Irving also shows a side of himself we would have never thought was in him through love as well.

Yeah, which at first was down there with them. So everything's A-OK, and then it's taken away.

You know what it made me think of? I know we're jumping ahead, but I remember listening to this great New York Times podcast, Rabbit Hole, and it tracked people. Do you hear that? It had their YouTube history, and it could show where they started and where they ended. And a lot of these people started with pretty benign people they were following. And then there's this trajectory, and it involves Jordan Peterson and Sam Harrison. And these people ultimately end up getting very fundamentally Well, most of them white nationals. Radicalized. Yeah, radicalized, and it leads to there. But they're interviewing one woman about leaving QAnon, and they were talking about for her, when one belief butts up against another belief, that's just a little bit more powerful. So For her, it was she was an atheist. She started in Occupy Wall Street. So QAnon felt right. It felt right until all of a sudden there was biblical scripture being put out by QAnon. Her atheism was stronger than the Like Huananism, and it broke it. For Irving, it's like it finally budded up against one thing truer and more powerful than his belief in cure.

Yeah.

Okay, Okay, we are going to take a quick break, and we'll be back to talk about the Melon Party.

Before Dax, you were talking about how Irving's feelings of love overtake anything else in him. I think for this moment, when he comes to see the O&D retirement party for Bert, is when he really, I think, we've been seeing him slowly become more and more affected and getting to this point. But when he sees that Bert is just going to be basically sent off into the sunset, it really triggers something for him. In terms of Chris Walkin and Toturo, you talked about that relationship being something that really gives you some respite from the the starkness of the show. I love this scene because it's so much about the pain of a person you wouldn't think was necessarily someone who could fall in love at this point in his life in this environment and unlike weekly couple, but really, it's a very human thing.

No one would ever predict we would hear Irving say, You smug, motherfucker. You're like, Oh, Irving knows that word? I didn't think he did.

I also believed this relationship I said this to you the first time we watched it between Irving and Bert, more than I have believed many a relationship I have ever seen on television.

The only comparable chemistry to theirs is you and Adam Brodie's.

Yeah, that's right.

Two high water marks for chemistry.

In the great Netflix show, Nobody Wants This.

That's right. But the Chris Walk and Tutturo relationship is based in their actual relationship in life in terms their friendship, and they enjoy working together, and Chris was Toturo's idea to play Bert.

I was going to say that the show is so brilliantly written. We don't need to applaud it anymore. But I'll say that I guarantee if you were to just read any of the scenes with them in there, none of what you're feeling is in text. Those scenes aren't particularly mind-blowing in what the exchanges are.

It's what they're doing around the words. It's all acting. It's incredible.

Those guys are unbelievable. When you're just around them, even if they're not working in a scene, just them as guys, you can just feel the affection they have for each other.

Yeah, well, Irving saying, You smug motherfucker. To me, that's such a also classic Ron Tutturo line for some reason. I just think I'm into Barton Fink and Miller's Crossing.

Some people can swear at an Olympic level, and he's always been one of them. Yeah.

Let's take a look at that scene. You're all just going to stand here and let him die? I mean, what? Are we being punished for defying the guidance of the founder? Bert's Audi is retiring. It'll happen to you, too, someday. You smug motherfucker. You're not severed. You walk out of here with your memories. You carry I'll be coming home with you every night. No one can rip them away from you. Snuff them out like they never existed. Like you never existed. That's enough. You will go back to MDR. Mr. Milchick, please. It'll be so wonderful to have him here. Don't say I need them more. You can stay for Bert's party and support his transition, but only if you behave in a manner that brings no shame upon yourself, the founder or his progeny. I don't know what's gotten into you people today.

It's crazy how good it is just the audio.

But you know what that made me think? Just listening to the audio, and John is a fan of his... There's a little bit of Bert Lancaster in there. I don't know if you've ever seen Sweet Smell of Success, which is one of my favorite movies, but he's just got his cadence a little bit. It's just something in there that reminds me of that.

Can I just say one thing about the scene prior to that explosion by Irving? We see the video that Bert's Audi has made, correct? Just before Irving's explosion? Yeah.

This is strange, but a lot of things about this job are. You all know that better than me, I'm guessing. Of course, I don't really know any of you, but the man standing there with you now does. He's worked with you for nearly seven years, and I hope they've been good years. I don't know what they've been like or what exactly I or he has been doing with you, but I do know how I feel every day when I come from being with you. I come home feeling tired but fulfilled. I feel satisfied.

I must like you very much.

And though today is my last day with you, I'm certain you will remain with me in spirit in some deep, yet completely inaccessible corner of my mind.

Here's another moment where you're just writing this line. There's so much comedy. He's on the verge of saying, I don't know any of you guys one too many times. It's the perfect amount of him pointing out he has no idea who he's talking to. He's talking to imaginary people.

I love that you picked that out because it's one of my favorite Chris Walken moments in the show, for a couple of reasons. One, because it's so fun. His timing is just brilliant in the way he reads that. Even though I don't know any of you at all.

It keeps vacillating between really sincere and then pointing out the obvious that I have no fucking clue who I'm talking to.

When we shot that, it was also just one of these experiences I'm sure you have with actors who you're a fan of and maybe idolize, look up to. Christopher Walk and came in the morning we did that, and he just had that monolog down. First take, boom, had it. We did it maybe four times, but you had it from the first one. I literally had this moment where I was like, This is the best in the world to have Christopher Walkin reading these lines. He's such a pro. At this point in his career, the guy comes in totally prepared and nails it. I was so happy. I was just like, this is the reason we do this, to have experiences like this.

It just keeps negating himself. I don't know the exact words, but he's like, you've been so nice, and it's been such, although I don't know any of you. Well, he kills it in the end because he says, I have no recollection of actually ever meeting you or no idea of your names or any of your physical characteristics or even how many of you are.

Anyway.

That is the cherry on top or even how many of you there are.

It's useless, but here we are.

But then he says at the very end, he says, And Bert, I see you.

Congratulations to himself. But he also points to the wrong way on the monitor.

Yes, I loved that. That's great. He points to Militia.

It's reminiscent of his watch up the ass scene in a sense. No. Because it's this weird mix of sincerity.

Yes. One of the great film analogs.

It's also the first time it's introduced in the show that when someone leaves the job for any reason, they're effectively dead for For all intents and purposes down here, they are dead and buried.

Yeah. It's like the ultimate Munchausen, where it's like they've convinced them to celebrate this, but they won't experience it.

They're gone.

All right, so let's check in with Kabel Selvig up at the house. She's been at Devon's house as Mrs. Selvig in her hand that rocks the cradle mode, where she shows up as the lactation consultant, which I just love everything Patricia does in this little sequence, how insane she is.

I would be mad at myself if I didn't say in public, We're just coming off of Danamora. The fucking delta between those two performances is so huge. She is such a queen. God fucking bless Patricia Arquette.

My God. Also, one of my favorite moments of the whole show is when she's doing the lactation example, and I do like this It's a soft breeze, and then she's doing it so sincerely and seriously, and then this smile comes over her face and she takes the rubber baby and flings it to the side. It's sensible to me looking like she's broken its neck. No, you try. There's this huge smile on her face, but she's whipping the baby with such a level of violence.

Now is a great time to introduce that in addition to going to two when we watch things, Kristin is an incredible mimic. Yeah, I have a sense that it's exactly like her. World class mimic. There's always a character in a show that she latches onto. I hear Patricia Arquette's dialog twice every single time. She says a line, then Kristen next to me in bed says it. It's a tick.

Yeah, it's a tick. It's really.

Oh, Mark, you're in efficiency and free-range chicken roaming is ultimately your responsibility. I mean, her- That's so great.

She's mine, guys. She's...

That's so great.

Her O-Marks are I live for them.

When she sees them outside... By the way, the scene between the two of you outside in the snow where she says, Hey, let's have some lavender tea later. And you're like, I'm just going to see how the tape develops.

And she says, Jack Frost needs a new dandruff shampoo.

I was trying to remember where that joke came from.

It's so ridiculous.

It was either an improv or a pitch in the moment, I think.

I think I remember you coming up with it then and then Patricia- Maybe.

But she came up in the episode where she says, open or close when you're leaving, and she says both. That was her improv. She's just brilliant. That's an amazing impression. Oh my God.

It's only one of a thousand she can do.

No, but we go around our house saying, Mark, Mark, everywhere. Oh, Mark. Oh, Mark.

And this story she's telling when we come into this scene with she and Jen is so insane.

Oh, yeah. When she's talking about aiming her boob like an angry fire hose.

It's insane unless it's happened to you. I found it very on the nose. I've expressed in a public bathroom into the toilet paper. Really? Yeah. But yes, absolutely. You have to... Well, it's like, you guys, it's a faucet. There's a reality and a practicality to it. It is a faucet. And if you don't let it out, your skin will pop.

Can I pitch something to everybody. To lighten the load on Patty's plate, which has got to be immense, let's have Kristen do all of her ADR.

That's a good idea.

I love that.

I'm sure Patricia would love it.

That's my favorite place is that ADR booth. I don't know.

I feel like Cobell might have some relatives or something. I don't know.

Time travel element?

Watch this. Oh, that would be great.

All right. Anyway, and then she also has in that scene where she's basically Devon's telling her about meeting the state senator, and then Patricia's like, Oh, wow.

What does she say?

She's so crazy.

Should we play the scene? It's a great one.

Why? We have Kristen right here.

What a snoot. That was it.

What a snoot. Wait, can you read the Clark Gable line? Oh, yeah.

Well, I don't think I'd remember even Clark Gable if I'd just given birth.

You guys already- That's wild.

I'm having to hold back my lap for you.

This is like the dancing. This is like Milchek's dancing. You had no idea this was coming your way.

Severed.

Why do you think Mark did it?

Oh my God. It's so good. It's like the combination of your impression, and it's one of my favorite scenes that Patricia does. It's just perfect.

Clark Gable is such a weird...

It's such a weird.

What a reference.

Jack Frost's Dandreff and Clark Gable?

Where are we pulling these things?

What's your zeitgeist?

It's so weird.

Jack Frost Dander, though, to me, is this is the first time we've seen her. She's losing control. I don't think she makes the Jack Frost Dander joke any other time, but she's losing control.

For sure. That is correct.

That's a desperate joke she's making. Yeah.

Okay, so back at Mark's house, Mark is pretty drunk. Again, I just want to say, Adam, you never have tried to make Audi Mark someone that the audience is endeared to. You just play him as a real human being, and I feel like that's so important. I mean that in a good way. The audience cares about you because they see a real person, but Mark is not in a good place here. Actually, this is probably one of the toughest scenes, I think, to feel for your character because when Alexa shows up to get her phone, right? Yeah. You're a real...

He's being gross.

You're awful to her.

It's very uncomfortable. That scene is very uncomfortable. You're very comfortable.

You do drunk really, really well.

You do.

It's so hard to do drunk.

Yeah.

Sometimes people get real happy when they're feeling the exact opposite. The drink provides that for I remember in acting school, there was a teacher that told me, to play drunk, all you have to do is pretend you're balancing a bowl of water on your head. And that's not what I do, but I always think of it.

That also sounds harder to me to do, to imagine them being drunk, which I've been 10 million times.

Oh, I like that practical trip. I was doing it right now.

I don't even use that. Imagine this thing you've never, ever done to access the thing you did last night. Exactly. That's fucking nuts. If I can call out that at me.

Anyway, It's really hard to watch, really, and you do this awful thing where you pull out a picture of Gemma and you tear it up in front of her. Even in rewatching that, I was taken by... We also put that picture right in front of the audience, and I remember just having to trust it. It would be out of focus and people wouldn't be able to see. Then you immediately feel awful about what you did and come back in and start to tape it back together.

Yeah. You chose I'll be seeing you by Billy holiday for this sequence for him taping the pieces back together.

That's because you own a piece of that library, right?

Exactly. That's how I make all of my musical choices. Sure. It's just whatever is going to bring in the green for all Ben. My grandfather produced that track, but Yeah, Adam, you just are so good in that scene where you're putting that picture together. I love how the scene looks to Jessica Lee Gagne or a cinematographer, did a great job, which is very stark. When we're making the show, we don't to have anybody to show it to when we're in that bubble of making the show. The only people I showed it to was my kids and Christine. I remember showing them the rough cut of that episode as we were in process and them going like, Whoa, and then having that reaction. I It was the first time I saw anybody react to that twist. I felt, Okay, well, maybe this is going to be something people respond to. But it's also like, when you make a choice like that, I always think, are people going to go along with this, too?

Right. We did. We absolutely did.

We were shook.

You're also coming off of one of the most uncomfortable scenes because the smile on your face when you think that ripping up this picture in front of her is going to land and just her your grounded reality of ultimately sad pity and a little bit of disgust is so hard to watch because you have a smile on your face when you're ripping it. And it's like, oh, my God, he's ripping a picture of his dad, wife, and this new girl. Oh, my God, this is so uncomfortable. And then you guys really take your sweet-ass time when you tape that picture together, waiting, waiting, waiting. So you almost don't know what to feel, which I loved because there's There's always a tip of the hat you can get from the director of like, I know the music is swelling now. You're about to feel this. And when you're taping that picture, there's just this pause of watching it and going like, is something going to happen or am I just going to watch it? There's a nothingness, which I think actually it packed when we first watched it, a huge punch because you didn't know that you were going to see the picture.

Directorially, it wasn't teed up. We're about to reveal the long-asked question, who was Gemma at all?

Exactly. It's not like you showed it three times in an insert with Adam's finger over it. It was blurry. It was just there. If you had ended the episode on Adam taping it together, looking at it and crying, I still would have thought that was a decent ending. But the fact that you gave us that twist, I think makes it worth it.

Well, it has a really implicit motor to it, which is, of course, he's going to tape a picture back together of his dead wife. You have a red herring or something. You're certain you already understand what this is about, so your radar is not up for that moment.

Yes, that's what it was.

But we did miss a moment to go to two. That could have been the only moment we would have gone to two on Severance.

Was it the taping of the picture?

Mike, can you go to two?

Yeah, on two.

The mag just ran out, so they're bringing a new mag in. I didn't think this was going to go on for 12 minutes of shot. I don't think anyone in camera knew.

Can you let me talk to props real quick? Because last day said we had one roll of scotch left. One roll of scotch tape, and if he uses this roll- What's the reset?

I need to know what the reset is because they're bringing a new mag in right now.

It's 1: 45 in the morning, so the Dwayne read is closed. But listen, what we have is double-sided. Can we make that work?

I'll ask Ben, but there's no way Ben's going for double-sided on this.

Can I pitch you? Can I get you here for one more pitch? We got a ton of gaffe tape, all different colors.

Is there a way- He might buy that. Okay. We'll just put the mag on, and then I'll talk to Ben about the gaffe tape.

Thank you so much.

I'm pretty sure it was 145 in the morning, by the way.

I'm hiring a new AD team.

We're on nothing gets by us.

Nothing. Oh, my God. But also the voiceover is this listing of stuff about his wife, almost like from the point of view of... It's like something Ms. Casey would read off about his wife. Oh, yeah.

What does he say she...

Should we play that clip?

She would sneeze twice.

Yeah, she would sneeze twice.

Should we play that clip? Yeah, let's play that. Let'si'll play that.

My wife was allergic to nutmeg. In every lovely summer's day. When she sneezed, she always sneezed twice.

In everything that's light and gay.

My wife liked other people's dogs.

I'll always think of you that day.

My wife thought cardigan It's ridiculous. I'll find you... I loved all these things about her. With the morning sun.

Equally.

Also the resonance of equally when you've severed something because you're trying to get rid of the bad because everything in life is both, right? Yeah. It's happiness and sadness. It's all the things, and you like them equally.

Yeah. All right. Well, I I think that's it. I think this is it.

I don't know if it's airable, to be honest.

Oh, we should play these voice messages you guys sent.

Oh, we really can hear them? Seriously? Oh, yeah.

I would love to see that. Oh, great.

Oh, my God.

I believe this is the first one, I think.

All right, you son of a bitch. You wanted the compliments? Where here comes the fucking complaints. Belle and I just sat here on the edge of our seat waiting to find out what happens when you guys come to- You fucking prick. You piece of shit prick. And that goes for Ben, too. Losers. Oh, buddy. Are we fucking pissed that this episode just ended? So you wanted the fucking cake, and now you got to take the rat poison, too, you piece of shit.

Okay, here's another one.

Oh, my goodness.

Quick update. You'd probably find funny. My wife She just ran through a plate glass window off the second story of our home and was rushed to the hospital. You probably want to know if she's still alive. I will tell you next week.

Okay.

That's my favorite one. That really brings home the pain of the- That's right. Cliffhanger, yeah.

There's another one.

If you're listening to this message and you're not on set, fuck you.

That was like a hurry up and make the second season type.

You got to play your response, though, where you had us over a barrel. That's a really good one. All right.

Dax, just in response to your unbelievably ridiculous and insulting audio message. Not only am I not filming right now, I'm sitting in a Jacuzzi relaxing so, so far, so far away from even being close to filming. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, again, eat shit.

Adam's go-to is always eat shit, which you really now love.

There's a great one when you digest.

Having us over a barrel. Ben, do you Do you want to give us your phone number? Would you like to be included in these?

Do you want to be in on this? I so want in on this. I want in on this relationship.

We send a lot of voice memos from bed at night, especially, and it usually comes from us watching someone on TV that we know and we'll be like, Wait, let's tell them.

Yeah, we're like, Oh, my God, we know these people. We can tell them we love this.

I want it. Yes, you're getting my number.

This is so good.

This might be-Okay, this is Adam's response.

I'm here in New York working on the show, and it'll be ready when it's ready, okay? I heard your message on February 25th. I listened to it. And then I brought it in. I played it for Ben. We listened to it together. You know what we decided to do? We decided to slow the fuck down. That's right. We're going to take it real easy. So you're just going to have to wait a little bit longer. You fucking assholes. Eat shit. Secondly, how dare you How dare you conduct a perfect interview with David Letterman? God damn you. To hell.

I'm going to listen to it several more times.

Fuck off. Where did you? All right. I think that when season 2 starts airing, we have to continue this tradition.

Without question. Oh, it's going to happen from us. It's just whether or not you're going to want to play still.

Oh, I will. I will. Cannot thank you guys enough for coming all the way over here. It makes such a difference that you're here. It's so fantastic. So thank you.

Oh, But honestly, we're flattered to have been invited. Sincerely.

You guys are awesome. This was so much fun. So fun.

We like liking things, and we really like seven.

The detail that you guys are thinking of, it's just so smart and just lovely. So thank you.

Yeah. Now I'm going to be saying go to two to people, and they won't know what I mean. I know. That's such a good day.

That's why you can only marry someone else who's been on set for 20 years. Yes. Yes. What else would you talk about?

Yes.

That brings us to the end of episode 7 of the Severance podcast with Ben and Adam, Defiant Jazz.

Next up is episode 8, What's For dinner?

Stream all episodes of season 1 on Apple TV Plus right now.

Season 2 premieres on January 17th. Eat shit.

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 Finkl, Henry Malowski, Jenna Weis-Burman, and Leah Reece Dennis. The show is produced by Zandra Ellen and Naomi Scott. This episode was mixed and mastered by Chris Baisal. We have additional engineering from Javi Cruises and Davie Sumner.

Show clips are courtesy of Fifth Season. Music by Theodore Shapiro. Special thanks to the team at Odyssey, Maura Curren, Eric Dunnily, Michael LeVay, Melissa Wester, Matt Casey, Kate Rose, Kurt Courtney, and Hilary Shuff.

And the team at Red Hour, John Lesher, Caroline Anna Pesakow, Jean Pablo Antonetti, Martin Valderudin, Ashwin Ramesh, Maria Noto, John Baker, and Oliver Agger.

And at Great Scott, Kevin Cotter, Josh Martin, and Christie Smith at Rise Management.

We also had a Additional production help from Gabrielle Lewis, Ben Goldberg, Stephen Key, Kristen Torres, Emmanuel Hapsis, Maria Alexa Cavenagh, and Melissa Slaater.

I'm Adam Scott.

I'm Ben Stiller.

We will see you next time.

Hey, Adam. Yeah. Is your experience at work a bit dysfunctional lately?

I don't know. I think it's...

Okay, I'll take that as a yes. Your team could undergo a highly controversial surgical procedure that would mercifully sever any and all memories of that work experience from your home lives. Or you could try Confluence by Atlassian.

Oh, my God. Well, if it's a choice between those two things, I think I would 100% choose Confluence by Atlassian.

Confluence is the connected workspace where teams can collaborate create like never before, where teams have easy access to the relevant pages and resources their projects call for while discovering important contexts they didn't even know they needed. A space where AI streamlines the things that normally eat up their time, letting teams generate, organize, and deliver work faster. In fact, with Confluence, teams can see a 5. 2% average boost in productivity in one year.

That would equal out, if we're playing with, let's just say 100%, 5. 2 of those percentage points, that's the improvement.

I mean, I'm not great at math, but that sounds very close.

Well, I'm doing the math in my head right now as we speak, and I think that's great.

Why not keep your team unsevered? In Confluence, the connected workspace where teams can do it all? Set knowledge free with Confluence. Learn more at atlassian. Com/confluence. That's atlassian. Com/confluencie.