Apple TV+ 'Severance' cast & creator talk about video production in a volatile time

The cast and crew of Apple TV+ series "Severance" have previously revealed that it came out of writer/creator Dan Erickson's own "corporate misery." Now in a new interview, Erickson, the show's stars and director, talk about the pressure of being relevant as the world changes.

"There's no question we made this show during a volatile time," Erickson told Inverse. "What's amazing is how much more relevant it became, as the lines between work and home life broke down."

"We started shooting the day after the 2020 election," he continued. "[Then we] shot the opening scene, of Helly waking up on the table, on January 6th, with rioters inside the Capitol."

"There was always a pressure to tell a story that was relevant to a rapidly changing, increasingly uncertain world," says Erickson.

The drama follows characters who have agreed to be "severed," so that at work, they know and remember nothing of their personal lives. And then out of work, they know and remember nothing at all of what they've been doing all day.

"During the heart of the pandemic," says director Ben Stiller, "I saw our crew and everybody's attitudes towards work — questions of how hard and long we work, hours that take us away from families and priorities — shifted."

"A lot of good has come out of that questioning in what we've seen as the status quo," he continues. "How hard and long they're supposed to work. To what end?"

It wasn't just the creator and director seeing the shift, it was the stars of the show seeing it too.

"It added to the surreal nature of the whole thing," says star Adam Scott. "I realized, eight months in, that people I've been spending 12 hours a day with, I'd never seen the lower part of their face."

"It was bizarre because usually you're so bonded by that point," he said.

"Severance" is now streaming on Apple TV+.