‘Severance’ is finally back—Britt Lower talks Helly R’s wardrobe and getting into (dual) character for Season 2

For many critics, Apple TV+’s pulse-racing dystopian corporate drama Severance was a promising sign that television was not yet dead. Slickly designed, tightly plotted and brimming with existential questions, the show struck the right chord between being wonderfully weird and unsettlingly familiar. Add to that breathtaking performances from the likes of Adam Scott and a directorial stint by Ben Stiller, and you get what has unquestionably been one of the most interesting shows to hit screens in recent years.

But good television takes time to make—hence the three-year wait time between the first season, which was released in early 2022, and the second, which starts this month. Britt Lower, whose portrayal of Helly R (and her outie, Helena Eagan) has earned her critical acclaim alongside multiple award nominations and wins, understands how fans feel.

“It feels like we’ve been doing this giant group puzzle-making exercise over the past three years, while we’ve been holding people on from season one’s cliffhanger ending,” she acknowledges with a laugh. “Every single person who works on Severance really cares about the show, and there has been a lot of thought and sweat put into building a bridge from that cliffhanger so that it’s sturdy. I’m really excited for people to see it and walk across the bridge with us.”

Ahead of the release of season two, Lower opens up about her process of getting into dual roles, the crucial part that fashion plays in the world-building of the show, and of course, what makes Helly R such a formidable character.

Tell me a little bit about the early years. How did the acting journey begin?
I grew up in a small farm-town in Illinois, 20 minutes south of a town called Normal, which, believe it or not, is a real name of a place. I was slightly off normal, though. (laughs) I was raised in a household with a pantry stocked full of art supplies. I learnt that art was for everybody and that you didn’t need anyone’s permission to make anything. That philosophy has served me well in a career path that’s pretty unpredictable. I went to college at Northwestern and studied both visual art and acting, where I also was the technical director of a theatre board. So I was managing the tools and the costumes and helping the designers build their sets, and I got a taste for that creative teamwork that I now enjoy so much on Severance. 

“I’ve learnt from playing Helly that sometimes being a good citizen means questioning authority, especially if the circumstances are unethical”

You play a sort of dual role in Severance, as do all the actors playing severed characters. But the duality between Helly R and her outie, Helena Eagan, is particularly loud. What is your process behind the way you understand and embody those characters?
I love that you said the duality is ‘loud’. I agree, and I think this show really deals with that notion of duality. It feels very human to be at odds with parts of ourselves. Helly, or Helena, is essentially trapped by the same company in both circumstances, but in different ways. I started the process of differentiating the two characters with what was the same—which is that these are both strong-willed parts of this person. They’re both fiercely loyal. They also share the same body, and that body is carrying the trauma and joy that both of them are experiencing on the inside and the outside.

I find the subtleties in the way you portray both Helly and Helena—knowing they are two facets of the same person—incredible. There is an obvious power balance between them. But at certain points, Helly almost feels more powerful because she is so much more uninhibited than Helena could ever be.
Helena has had all these years of conditioning and she’s had to wear a lot of masks both with her family and within the company. Helly has no mask at all. She’s unmediated and unapologetically honest. She doesn’t care what people think. Those attributes, I think, lend themselves to the opposing forces within the same person, which everyone can relate to. We all have an inner critic. We all have an inner child. It makes sense that in this person, her inner critic has suppressed her inner child and rebel. But that’s also why I try to bring a lot of empathy to my approach to playing Helena. I didn’t want to think of her as being the evil villain. It’s my job to see what’s human about her.

Severance’s depiction of corporate dystopia might be surreal, but, in reality, is maybe not that far from where we are today. Helly is one of the strongest voices of dissent and rebellion that we see on the show. How far do you relate to her in that aspect?
Unlike Helly, I thankfully find a great deal of meaning in my work. But as we make the show, we are all grappling collectively with the question of: who am I in relation to my work? In season one, Helly is the catalyst who disrupts the status quo in the office and starts to ask questions. She’s acting as the audience surrogate, wandering around this building asking, what in the world is going on here? Having been in Helly’s shoes for five years now, I’ve come to admire her. She never hesitates to question authority, especially when it infringes upon her autonomy, humanity or free will. Whereas I just generally like to be a good citizen. (laughs) But what I’m learning is sometimes being a good citizen means questioning authority, especially if the circumstances are unethical.

The costume design on Severance is impeccable and I’m fascinated by the cohesiveness of Helly’s wardrobe in particular. How do you feel her fashion informs her character and vice versa?
Sarah Edwards, our costume designer, is a genius. She and Ben Stiller worked so hard to build the wardrobe world of this show. With Helly, the interesting thing is that she hasn’t dressed herself in the morning, right? She wakes up in the office and she’s in an A-line skirt and heels and pantyhose, and she’s like, what’s going on? She’s also running through hallways a lot, especially in season one. So we had to find a good heel. Sarah found these Italian ballroom dancing shoes called Repetto, and I can run miles in them, which is just remarkable. With the costume design in general, everything is very precise. Everything is handmade. The knits are dyed to be specific colours. And in season two, you get to see more of how Helena dresses. Differentiating the ways in which the two of them dress was exciting and there are tons of Easter eggs to look out for.

Watch Severance Season 2 on Apple TV+ from  17 January 2025.