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

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

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

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Light the lights. We got nothing to hit but the heights. Starting here, starting now. Honey, everything's coming up. 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 2, Sweet Vitriol, written by Adam County and K. C. Perry and directed by Ben Stiller. And Patricia Arquette.

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 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 Zack Cherry. Of course. 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 8 of season 2. So go watch that before you listen to the podcast. Now, interestingly enough, Patricia, you probably can't give I don't have any spoilers because have you seen Severance?

I mean, I've seen episode 1 of season 2.

You're up to episode 1 of season 2? Yeah. What did you think?

I loved it.

I loved 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. It's a little bit like dragging a mouse who has its nails out digging into wood.

Towards a television to watch themselves? Yeah.

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 a Amora?

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. I might watch a bit. That's cool. I'll be like, wow, I'm so young, or I'll see us in Flirting with Disaster.

Wow, we're so young.

Look at we're babies. Ben, don't you wish you could say that you run across yourself in true romance?

I do. I was never that cool.

Flirting with Disaster is pretty damn cool.

I never got into the Tarantino verse, and I know that was a Tony Scott movie, but is it Tarantino?

Yeah, it's a Tarantino verse. 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 a great time.

Then We had a great time, and then, weirdly, didn't really see each other for a while until Escape at Danamora, like 25 years with my father or something. Yeah, that's crazy. But it was like we never stopped being a brother and sister is what I feel like.

Yeah. As soon as we were back together. The king was back together. It was like the Beatles getting back together. No, I'm just kidding. I wish.

So Danamora is like- Who are you? If you're a beetle. Escape at Danamora is like, escape it Dan Amora. Ringo.

We're all Ringo.

I'm sorry. Can I just say Ringo is the best?

Ringo rules.

Listen, I don't think Ringo is a joke. Don't get me wrong. No. I love Ringo. Ringo is great.

And also, talk about eternally youthful. Him and Paul McCartney, it's crazy. I mean, I've never really met Ringo Star. I wonder if he watches Severance. Have you met Ringo?

I don't know. I vaguely feel like maybe I did for one second. Oh my God.

Wow. So how come you don't remember anything that ever happened to you?

Just too much trauma. Severance? No. Too much Yeah, and Sever. Maybe I'm Sever.

What about Paul McCartney? Did you guys meet Paul McCartney?

I did. 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. That's cool. Yes, exactly. Whoa. Okay, my sister dated a Beatle.

That's amazing.

Oh, my God. That's pretty incredible. Who did you date back in the day?

Come on, give us some- You know what? I'm not a kiss and tell, sweetheart.

I need a clip from this podcast. We We got to get something out there.

We got to push something out on social.

Push it out on our socials. 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 show 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.

He's the old man in waiting for Guffman, the Waltons he was on.

Maybe that's why we feel like brother and sister a little because we have similar showbiz background.

And also that sense of humor. There's something about the time we grew up. It was a very strange time in the world. It was a really inappropriate time and funny.

You mean the '70s, generally? Yeah.

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. Did you ever watch any of those old Dick Cavit shows? Oh, I love those. Mike Douglas or David Susky.

They would have actual conversations that unfolded, not not worrying about laughs or- Everybody smoking and just being real.

I think 200 was on acid on one of them. Oh, really?

Sure. You're not on acid now, are you?

I don't know.

Patricia, you're so great as a person, first of all, I love you. You're a great actor, amazing actor. 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, you and Dan Erickson. What am I getting paid?

What's the first thing you had?

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. No, So you guys just gave me all these cryptic answers. And finally, I just thought, okay, 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 I really 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 create something really interesting with this person. That's been the whole thing on the show has been the actress jumped in, and we talked a lot about this, about having this room to experiment and figure it out, which we did over the course of the first season, right?

Yeah. Even just finding the look and the character and everything. I don't know why early on I was like, I 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. 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, oh, this is what upper management sounds like. And that's the sound of success in the workplace. 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 had that.

In season one, you had Mrs. Solvig as well. Was Mrs. Solvig a place to put everything she's not allowed to do in her regular life? It's just interesting.

Yeah. It was like trying on what is it like to be a normal person, experimenting with the freedom of that? What does it like to make friends in a 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. Or next door.

Next door neighbor.

Yeah, next door neighbor who's a little nosy, but you are a nice boy, so you're going to be nice to the mommy lady. 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 perplexed by her or just not wanting to deal with her, or when you come outside. First of all, when you make the bad cookies, the awful cookies, and then we reveal in your house all the cookie tray and the mess.

There's a real close circle with the cookie thing, which we will get to later.

Okay. The scene outside in the snow when you're taking the garbage out and you're like, Oh, looks like Jack Frost's dandruff. She's run out of dandruff shampoos. That was so ridiculous. That was an improv. You also improved open or closed, both. That's right. But then your thing, you say, let's go some lavender tea or something later, and you're like, I just want to see how the day develops. It's like such a lame out. But a lame out that should work with your nosy neighbor.

You don't need to come up with something better than that. We But 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 did.

It was It's interesting. It probably just ended up being too much or something. We have this whole scene in the car, which was- Which maybe we could use as a flashback or a fantasy of Mark.

Oh, Mark.

I would buy it.

Okay, you know what? It's time for us to take a drive down to Salt's Necks. So when we come back, we're going to keep talking to Patricia Arquette about episode 8. Is that cool, Patricia?

So cool, Ben.

Great. Okay, and you will remember that you were here. Who are you? You were here. Where am I? Who are you? That's very appropriate for the show. Exactly. All right. We'll be right back. Hey, Ben here. I know you love listening to podcasts, so I wanted to introduce you to a brand new show called Campus Files. It's a weekly series that digs into the archives of American colleges and universities to take us behind some of the most outrageous scandals in the history of academia. While often a beacon of integrity and excellence, the reality of college life can also to expose the darkest parts of American culture. From rigged admissions to sports scandals to Greek life drama, Campus Files shares the stories you won't hear on the campus tours. Listen to and follow Campus Files, an Odyssey original podcast available now on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. This message is brought to you by Apple Pay. We all know that our credit card numbers can be stolen, but you know it's harder to steal your face. With Apple Pay, your purchases are authenticated by you thanks to Face ID. Just double click, smile, and tap.

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Okay, so Sweet Vitriol, episode 8. 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 story, and the school that she'd grown up in, and how Lumen had impacted her and her relationship with her mom. So to see it more fleshed out and see the space and the coldness. And we went up to Newfoundland It was very... It's such a special, unique place. It's so difficult to get to and so difficult to live there that it's very locked in its own time. It had this difficult terrain to survive and then you can really see how Harmony is an extension of that.

Yeah, how it hardens people. How did you find that Newfoundland would be the perfect salt neck?

We were knowing that we needed to have some a vibe of the northeast-ish look that Keir has because we shoot in upstate New York, and we wanted to feel like it was a drivable location from Keir. Then Ryan Smith, our location manager, went out. But really, Jessica Lee-Ganier, 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, this modern-looking hotel. Thanks, Ben.

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 the scale of it is not like somewhere like Iceland or Greenland or something like that, where it's gigantic mountains. It's a 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, 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. Sounds delicious.

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. It's actually a coffee shop that we redid and painted. And we shot in, I think, two different little villages and Bonavista, too, for different locations. And we were all living in Airbnbs. I loved it. It was awesome. We had an amazing That was amazing. 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 Lagros, who plays Hampton came up. Great. 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 I 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 Lagros, who was helping move all these boxes. And I was like, oh, thank you so much. And here's cookies and things. 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. Salvage, 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, everyone's adding salts, like caramel, salts, like chocolates. So he meant it when he said they were good.

But I was like, these are the worst salty cookies ever unmade. So Mark was lying when he said they were good in the show. But James LeGros- But in 30 years, Mark will be wrong.

James LeGros was telling the truth.

I think they sound delicious.

They were delicious. When we talked and we were working, he's like, oh, I remember those cookies. Wow, that's great. Those were the greatest cookies.

Let's listen to a little scene when you guys first see each other.

Harmony Cobell. Well, flip my to 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 them to buy it for me.

I mean, there's a lot of history between you two. 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... I knew you guys were in LA in the '90s when we all were starting out, and it just felt like there would be a history there with you guys in some way that you could share. He's such a great actor, and I just love that you played off of that.

Look, James Legros is a heavy hitter. Sometimes you have those people and you're like, you don't have a lot of scenes to establish this depth between people. But there's something there and you could see them together, and they're of this time together. We could communicate in this way. He's so good.

Great.

It's amazing watching you guys when you're talking in the parking lot. The dialog 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 just tree the camera on them and let you guys interact. By the way, also in the droopy pot, going back to history, there's a guy sitting who's giving you the stink eye, who's my old friend Jerry Stahl, who I knew from Permanent Midnight. Yeah, you played him. That's right. Yes. And he wrote the book Permanent Midnight. We met in LA in 1997, '97. So I felt like we were 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. Her name is Claire Colter, and she just had a lovely quality about her.

I rewound her stuff today It was just...

Yeah.

You can top me off anytime. I like the new dude. Très chic.

You see that Hampton has a bit of a drug issue. He's huffing Ether. But he also seems to be the supplier or the dealer of Ether at the coffee shop. Am I right?

He is. Yeah, he's dealing.

That's interesting because- He's dealing to Jerry Stahl early.

Yeah, he sure is.

This town seems to have been hollowed out by Lumen, certainly, but also by Ether. It was an Ether factory that everybody was working at.

We were once chums. All colleagues loved each other up.

Colleagues?

Child fucking labor.

Keir and Imogen met at the Ethermill. You know that? Was she hacking up along at the time?

I love that we were able to dig into its own vibe for the episode that felt... It just was its own thing. You 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 we're basically child labor, and we're 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 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 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. But what I love about you is that you didn't really question that. You were like, okay, yeah, no, I I get that. I watch that and I'm really moved by.

There's a sound you make that is heart-shattering.

Yeah, you're making this moaning, crying sound, which sounded to me, weirdly, like a whale. Yeah. Like a whale in the ocean sound. It was a whale and a whaley animal.

Yeah. There's a whole conversation about the sound of keening, the crying, that weeping that women do, that loss. Are you losing a baby or you're losing a loved one? What is that sound? There is a spiritual a power in that sound, I think, and an otherworldly power in that sound. It is the mix of the adult and the baby within you. I think she had that for her mom. 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. 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 who will never get what she needed from her mom.

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 or known her before?

I had never. And I'd grown up in the '70s watching her on TV. Everybody. And she's just this huge presence, incredibly generous, warm lady. We're shooting in this old house up there. It didn't have any insulation. It was really the real deal, this old wallpaper crumbling off, and we're freezing. And boy, she was up for it.

Oh, yeah. The moment you see her, you know that she is related to Harmony Cobell 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, My hair is white like that. I wanted to do a cut like a Cobell cut, which was just 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 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 seek that from her a few different ways throughout the episode. And she doesn't give it up.

I didn't even get to say goodbye. Your studies were more important. Mr. Egan saw a cure in you. He really did. And the Winter tide 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 flips that on you at the end of the episode and calls her a coward. You see this breach. In that moment, we learn what the purpose is of why you come out here is to get this notebook that has the drawings and the first ideas of how to do Severance. We learn that you are the person who created it and was able to figure out how to do it. Not Jame Egan, who we believe created created it, but no, it was you.

Mine. My designs. Circuit blueprint, base code, overtime contingency, Glasgow block, I love it. J. Megan was the inventor. So I've heard. And that's the history of the world, right? Where that people are inventing things and other people are usurping them and taking credit for it. I think she's been so indoctrinated to this organization, this religion, corporation for so long that even that, through her aunts 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. She needs to give it to Lumen and to the Eagons and not take it 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 Milchick has been looked on as less than and how as a woman, I get the sense that 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 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. There is not supposed to be an individual.

Yeah. And you even see you present this to Cissy. 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, sad situation of these family relationships where people just cannot ever be seen by that person.

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 that was left, that at the end, he does help you. Basically, we see him standing in the road as you leave with these headlights of whatever this car is coming that Cissy has apparently called from Lumen, and we don't know what's going to happen to him. He has this great reading of, Come and tame these tempers.

That's great. Was that an adlib?

No, that was in the script, read to perfection by James, who I just love working with. I'd never got a chance to work with him also. Patricia, I know you won't remember this conversation, but it's been so great having you on the show. You're the best.

Thank you. Ii admire you so much.

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. Every day, I'm so appreciative that we get to work together.

Me too, guys. I love working with you. 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. We're all into the arts and crafts, too. Our wardrobe Department and our props and our set Interesting. So I feel like we're all making this thing altogether.

Totally. I am so into all the clips that fans make, the music cuts. They're incredible.

And the drawings and the paintings. Yes. I know. Amazing.

Everything in the Halloween costume. 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 it. Just so I have a collection of all of the... Oh, that's so cool. There's so much creativity just 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.

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.

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 is We do.

Everyone, we're taking a break. Taking a break. We'll be right back.

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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 I could catch up with where you guys are in the podcast. You sent me all the episodes, and that was exciting. At first, I was like, 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. It's like I'm a glutton. I can't be trusted with a pile of stuff.

Especially if you're seven weeks ahead of everyone else, it sucks.

Yeah, and you have to be careful. You can't have discussions. I know it makes 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 guys. 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?

Do you have any experience asking people questions in this atmosphere? To a fault.

To a fault, yes.

I want to hear your questions for sure. Yeah, me too. And by the way, let me just say I 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 once a week, and it's changed for everybody, but that's the generation I grew up, and you watch stuff once a week. But something like this, I feel when we send the whole link to everybody and hear all the episodes, something in my stomach 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 click on Apple TV and watch it for 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. Do you want to start hitting us on any questions? Yeah, please 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. Sometimes I look at it and I go like, There must be something wrong with these guys. I know it took a lot of time to put the show, but it seems like you layered six different shows into one show.

Yes, definitely something wrong. You're right. If you hit it on the nail on the head.

I mean- That is Ben Stiller. No, yes. Not something wrong, but- No, definitely something wrong.

Yeah. No, it's definitely like when it's there in front of you, you go, Okay, what can we do here? How can we be specific? Music, and it 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 re arranging the letters in Keir Egan to see what the anagram might be. There's a Scrabble word, regine, which means of the queen. I was like, Of the queen? That could be something. Then there's Ike Reagan. It was like, and Ike, does that mean anything?

Are you into the aspect of the show that is like... Because I've said this before, embarrassingly, I did not watch Lost. 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. For me, that mystery box box term, I guess, is a term for a show. It was not one that I was that familiar with before we started working on the show. Is that the thing that you're interested in in the show, or are you interested in other aspects of it, like the tone of the humor or 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 Illuman. It's this big, scary, somewhat menacing, mysterious organization, but they're also dumb. 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. We really, from the beginning, wanted to make sure that we showed the outlets in the walls all the time. 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 only one AV card.

There's just a DVD player in seventh grade.

Yeah. I think also part of the show is that the idea of corporate culture. For me, my experience of that is from movies and TV. Office space and the office and Parks and rent. But what's fascinating to me is I felt like Dan Erickson, he hit on both that idea of a show like The Office, that humor, but then this other weird overarching ideology thing that was taking a corporate culture or religion and infusing that, and then with this other twilight zone-y aspect to it. It was like all of these things to me were like, Oh, there's just something about this that is crystallizing something that we all are so familiar with now.

Yeah, it's so interesting. I wonder if it makes people take another look around their own workplaces in some ways.

It's fascinating, right? Because 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. I feel like that's, in my mind, a little bit of a metaphor for life, how you just deal... Human beings adapt, 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.

It's a matter of accepting your circumstances and then going from there and how you choose to do that.

Here's a really big question for you guys. 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 it in the next episode. I was absolutely crazed. 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 this is something. I was very involved on a week-to-week basis in the show. We had all The cast members on. 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 was a really sick thing they did to me because I said, Do you know what the ending is? They said, Yeah, we know what the ending is. And I was like, Really? You're not just figuring it out as you go along. They said, You know what we're going to do? We're going to write the ending down on a piece of paper, and we will give you a Manila envelope with the ending in it. You can choose is whether you want to open it or not, which is a very losty thing to do.

Yes, it is.

I thought about it for a while. I'm like, Fuck you guys. I don't want it because I know I'll open it. 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. I declined their offer, but it was a real offer. Wow.

That's incredible. I wonder if that changed. I wonder if it was the same ending that they ended up.

It was. They told exactly what they would have been in the envelope. Jack's eyes open 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. I think that's important. It's like we know we're going, but every little beat, to me, that's the creative process that we're figuring out as we go along, and we want that be flexible as we're going forward. And I think that's important, too, so people know, right? I can say that. 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 a question about the egg episode and how it relates to other foods you may have eaten on Curious to know what maybe 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 Séverine.

Love the show.

Thanks.

What atmosphere does Eric think we're making the show in?

I don't like eggs.

When 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 McDonald's circular pieces of bacon, they're 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. 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 ate the bacon. It had the consistency of 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 trichanosis and various pork-related parasites. It turns out you can do that. 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 That's 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 Fetted Moppet?

Okay, so that's a reference to episode one and two.

Do you want me to define shambolic rub and Fetted Moppet, or shall we just let ourselves use- I'd like to know. Okay. A shambolic rub literally means disorganized country bumpkin. A disorganized country bumpkin. A fedded Moppet is a smelly child. Those are your choices.

Well, all children are at least 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 gravitate towards Shambolic Rube myself.

Okay, then I'll go for fedded 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.

All right, let's listen to another.

Hi, and praise Keir. This is Leah H. I was just playing some Sudoku and thinking about my impending move to the town of Keir, but there's a problem. I own a 2019 Honda Accord, and I've noticed that all the cars in Keir seem to have been manufactured prior to 1986. I just have two questions. Why? Where can I trade in my Honda for a Keir approved vehicle? Thank you so much. Praise Keir, and love you guys.

Thank you, Leah H.

You've got people calling you and saying, Praise Keir now.

Actually started a religion.

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 a national renter car and they're all the same.

Those were the only cars we could get for the show. That's right. We couldn't. I did have a Rabbit. Cobell 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 have one. But it was considered to be a girls car, but I loved them. I have a Volkswagen thing that I converted to electric.

Oh, wow. Those are great.

Should we do one last one? One last one?

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 take a lot of comfort 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. Now it's out in the world and people are interacting with it, and that It's such a good feeling to have people responding in any way to it because it becomes a thing that's actually alive. Those questions are all-But pressure, I bet, right?

Because then you have to think of the next one.

I guess so, but Of course. But I am really enjoying now that we're just 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.

Yeah, you know me, Jimmy. Well, you're the best, man. Thanks for joining us.

Yeah, thanks, man.

Thank you for doing this. Thank you guys for making such a great show and for working so... I know how hard you work on it. And 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 Zack Cherry. Last week, he told us that everyone was going to go see the dentist. That didn't happen. Sorry, Zack. Better luck next time, I guess.

I'm very excited 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, Zack?

Amazing. Thanks so much, guys. Thanks for that feedback. 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 child at home, and I have a feeling she's going to want to stick around. I know, I know she's on the run and 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? 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 friend and mine, Ben Stiller, appeared as the uncredited role of Peach Expert. I saw that movie on my first birthday in 2019. What?

His first birthday in 2019? That's what he said. I don't even understand what's going on with it.

What's Nobody Knows Anything from 2003?

It was a movie that I was in.

As the Peach Expert?

Yeah. Apparently, Zack has IMDb.

He has access to that website.

Yeah. All right. Thanks, Zack. Just look, take it a little more seriously here, okay? Truly.

Come on.

All right.

And that's it for this episode, The Severance podcast with Ben and Adam, we'll 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. 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 production 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 Malowski, Gabriele Lewis, Jenner Weis-Burman, and Leah Reece Dennis. This show is produced by Zandra Ellen, Ben Goldberg, and Naomi Scott. This episode was mixed and mastered by Chris Baisal. We had additional engineering from Javi Krustas, and Davie Sumner.

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

And the team at Red Hour, John Lesher, Carolina Pesecob, John Pablo-Antonetti, Martin Valdiruten, Ashwin Ramesh, Maria Noto, John Baker, and Oliver Atger..

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

We had additional production help from Kristen Torres and Melissa Slaater. I'm Ben Stiller.

And I'm Adam Scott. Thank you for listening. See you next time.