Severance star Patricia Arquette is 'not scared of being a villain'

In Severance, even villains have bosses. While Patricia Arquette's icy Harmony Cobel initially seems like the obvious big bad of the Apple TV+ series, viewers soon learn that she's just a middle manager, reporting to Lumon Industries' mysterious, unseen board of directors.

"It's not that easy, I think, in that kind of a structure when the buck stops with you, and you have this team under you," Arquette tells EW. "She's trying to kind of earn back her place in that corporation and prove her value to them."

"I also felt like Cobel doesn't understand the tone of this company she works for," she adds. "She's playing like she does, but she really doesn't. Because it's shifting sands. One minute you think, okay, this is the structure and these are the rules, and then suddenly you're out of balance and you're in trouble and you don't even know what you did. It's part of the rat trap."

In a way, it was a case of life imitating art: Arquette says she was never quite sure what to make of Severance and its surreal mixture of sci-fi, workplace comedy, and psychological thriller. But she placed her trust in director Ben Stiller, who she'd worked with on the 2018 miniseries Escape at Dannemora, and series creator Dan Erickson, who "had this whole rich backstory" mapped out, the actress says.

"It wasn't all on the page. Is it science fiction? Is it a dark comedy? Is it silly comedy? What is the tone, exactly?" Arquette explains. "So I really had to believe in Ben's vision, because he always knew what it was."

EW recently called up Arquette to discuss her experience filming Severance, playing Harmony and her motherly alter ego Mrs. Selvig (who lives next door to Adam Scott's Mark), and getting lost on the labyrinthine set.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you get involved with Severance?

PATRICIA ARQUETTE: Ben called me and said that there was this project he was going to do, and he sent over the first episode [script]. I was totally intrigued by this world, and where the hell it was going, so then we had a further conversation, in which some things were answered — and then there were 9 million other questions that came out of it. But at a certain point, you've gotta go, "I don't know where it's going, but I want to go on this trip with you guys." I think it really helped that I had so much faith in Ben as a director, having done Dannemora with him.

The tonal balance of the show is something I've been really curious about. How did you work with Ben to pull that off?

I wasn't clear on how broad we were going with it. At a certain point, because I kept talking about the tone and trying to figure out how to play certain scenes, he showed me 15 minutes of [footage] to help me understand the tone that he was working with. But you just really have to trust the director. We would do things according to the way that Ben [wanted], and then we would do a couple takes that were kind of whatever you wanted to say. That one moment in the trailer where [Mark] says, "Should I leave the door open or closed?" and I say "Both," that's an ad-lib that he ended up using.

Tell me more about what the experience of filming was like.

The layers that went into this world, I can't even really explain to you. You'd open a cupboard [on the set] and it would be Lumon, Lumon, Lumon. The women, we'd all have to wear certain undergarments, like girdles and pantyhose, old-fashioned things that were part of the corporate structure. It was all these tiny little layers, which were really interesting and strange to live in. And we would get lost on the set all the time. They were always changing doorway openings, adding walls, and taking walls out. We'd be in there like a rat in a maze, like, "I'm on set, I can't find you guys!"

It was also super weird to work on it because it was during COVID, and we kept getting locked down. It was like [filming in] the Lumon suppressed world, and then going home, and being all alone in a suppressed world. And it was just never-ending. It kind of drove me insane.

How much did you discuss your character's backstory with Dan and Ben?

Quite a bit. We kind of worked on that together. And I don't know how much I should even talk about any of that, because I have no idea if there's going to be a second season or how much they're going to go into that. But we spent some time talking about the philosophy of her childhood and what the corporation meant to her, because she really grew up in this corporation. I think I can say that much. So it's not just a corporation; it's almost like a religion or something. And she's trying to bring greatness and glory to this corporation whether they want it or not.

I think it would be easy for this character to become a cartoonish corporate-boss type. How did you strike the right balance to keep her grounded and believable, and not go too over the top?

I don't know if I did. I mean, you take those chances in hopes that your director edits out whatever's bad. I do think there was an arch quality to her, so I wasn't gonna fight against that. And as a woman, I think it's interesting to explore what a woman in power in this corporate structure looks like, [when she's] conforming to this corporate structure and what she thinks that needs to be. But then when she's Selvig, she's exploring more human feelings a little bit — attachment and humor and warmth, or whatever she thinks that is. She didn't really grow up with any of that. The differences of those two aspects are interesting to me. And I'm not scared of being a villain. I like playing villains.

I wanted to ask about the Mrs. Selvig side of the character. What's that process like, playing a character who's playing a character?

It's like [she's thinking], "What's disarming to people? Somebody who doesn't quite have it together. A middle-aged woman, who's a little extra friendly." This is all a concept she came up with, but then within that concept, she finds there's interesting things. You know, subconsciously most people have mommy stuff — they like their mom or they don't like their mom, and she knows if [her employees] liked or didn't like their mom. To bring in mommy-ish, auntie-ish vibes brings out certain qualities in that person that you're manipulating. So some of that is all manipulation, to allow her to insinuate herself into [Mark's] life more.

Is there anything about Harmony you'd like to explore more in a second season, if it happens?

I'm totally down for seeing where this goes. I remember working with David Lynch once, and he was like, "People think there's a beginning, middle, and end of the story, but that's not necessarily true." In this world [of Severance], I think you could go anywhere, and that's part of what's really scary as an actor, jumping into something where you have no clue where it's going. But if you're working with people that you care for, and trust and believe in their vision, then it's kind of exhilarating.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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