Ben Stiller's reaction to Severance's planned ending

Do you have an idea in your head how this show will end?

I do it. I have a scene in mind that hasn't changed much since I first brought the show to Ben (Stiller), and I told him, and he said, “Oh, that's pretty good.” A lot has changed in the plan. I won't pretend it's been a structurally perfect thing from day one. We've questioned it and we've updated it, but its skeleton and its endpoint, it's been our North Star from the beginning.

How specific is your vision of the ending? Do you know where each character ends up, do you just have a broad idea of ​​what's going to happen, or do you only have the final moments? Because TV is such a fun medium because it's so fluid and obviously there are stories about it In Jesse Pinkman's Breaking Bad, this character comes up in such a big and unexpected way, and the whole show is completely different because of it.. So of course you leave yourself room to change things, but how specific is your vision of how you want to complete it?

Yes, you can certainly not over-plan a show like this, but you can also over-plan it. And if you stick too tightly to your original idea of ​​it, you can really hinder your progress. i think my original version of the script was very differentand before I brought it to Ben there was a version that was much more amplified. It was closer to something “Brazilian” or almost like a Monty Python thing where it was dark but then there was almost magical realism. And if I had been obsessively married to it, we would never have gotten the show.

So you have to take that lesson and use it as you move forward and remember that there might be a better version that you don't know yet and you have to keep an open mind. And you have to allow yourself to fall in love with certain characters or other elements of the story that you didn't expect and be able to think on your feet and weave them into the narrative and be like, “Okay, I did it. We don't expect to love this guy, but now we can't do a show without so what is his role in the rest of this?

So with all that said — and this is the last question I'll ask you about the ending — how many seasons do you think Severance makes sense in total?

We have a number in mind. I think that's all I can say.

Okay, fair enough.

We have a pretty good number – we are not positive. It's like, “Maybe we'll do more, but it'll probably be this number.”

Got it. Okay. So tell me about working with Keanu Reeves on the “Lumon is Listening” video for the season 2 premiere. I'm pretty sure it was Keanu. He's not mentioned in the first episode, but it sure sounded like him.

(slyly) I have absolutely no idea what you could be talking about. I am actually not familiar with this actor.

i see

Is that the guy from “The Lake House”?

(laughs) It actually is.

I really like “The Lake House”.

Okay, so this line of questioning isn't going anywhere. (laughs)