Adam Scott (Mark) deep dives into GQ’s top 10 biggest Severance moments. Watch as the American actor rewatches notable scenes from Severance Season 1 and 2, including: ‘The Music Dance Experience,’ Innie Mark and Outie Mark talking to each other, and Mark’s final decision in the Severance Season 2 finale.Director: Anna O'DonohueDirector of Photography: Klara RychtarcikovaEditor: Daniel HurwitzTalent: Adam ScottProducer: Morgan FavertySenior Producer: Lizzy HalberstadtLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Poppy EvansCamera Operator: Timi Akindele-AdjaniGaffer: Sachin ParmarAudio Engineer: Jake Lee-SavagePost Production Supervisor: Jess DunnPost Production Coordinator: Rachel KimSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAdditional Editor: Billy Ward
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Who are you?
00:13Hello?
00:14That shot of Heli on the table is so beautiful.
00:19And I feel like I've seen it a lot,
00:21you know, kind of grabbed on social media and stuff
00:23because it is just this beautifully composed frame
00:26and it's really kind of visually striking
00:29and it's kind of embryonic too.
00:31I just always found it interesting.
00:34And the very first words spoken on the show are,
00:37who are you?
00:38Which I think is a pretty central question thematically
00:43for the whole series thus far.
00:50Hi GQ.
00:51I'm going to run you through the best moments of Severance
00:55according to GQ.
00:56This is GQ and I'm Adam Scott.
01:03Mark, you skipped the preamble.
01:08Shit.
01:13I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself.
01:15Mark on the other end of that little intercom system
01:19is fumbling and trying to figure out
01:23what the hell he's doing,
01:24just as lost or similarly lost and displaced as Heli is.
01:32Are you seeing this?
01:35I'm watching.
01:37Should I help?
01:40You should not.
01:47Mark.
01:51You're good people.
01:54You're good people.
01:59I remember reading the first episode for the first time
02:02and that being the final beat
02:05and just thinking like, oh shit, this is wild
02:10and this is interesting.
02:12And it's sort of a peek into just how nefarious
02:17this world could be and how clever this show could be.
02:21I mean, with Patricia, you're never quite sure
02:24what she's going to do, both with Cobell and Solveig,
02:30which is great because they're entirely
02:33different relationships on the inside and on the outside.
02:36But in both circumstances, both Inimark and Audimark
02:41are sort of unsettled and not knowing
02:45what the hell this person is going to do or say.
02:51Oh.
03:00They're not ready.
03:02Goats don't care about cameras and lights and hitting marks.
03:07They just want to eat your shoelaces
03:09and walk around and poop on the floor.
03:13They're adorable and very sweet animals.
03:16And now I can say that I've worked
03:18with goats quite a bit on camera.
03:21They're a steadfast co-star of mine.
03:23They are running around
03:26and you never know quite what they're going to do
03:28or what noises they're going to make
03:30while you're trying to get your dialogue out.
03:33I think for the actual dialogue,
03:35we would wait until the goats were out of range
03:38and then shoot whatever dialogue we had to do.
03:42It isn't time.
03:44Get the hell out of here.
03:46Although the man that's in there kind of feeding a goat,
03:50he did have to, I believe he had to say all his dialogue
03:53with an actual baby goat nursing.
04:03The maraca.
04:05Excellent choice.
04:06Should have gone for the castanets.
04:10I just don't know what to do with my life.
04:13I choose Defiant Jazz.
04:16The MDE was something that Mark had heard about
04:20but never experienced.
04:22And so the moment Milchik says
04:24that this is the treat we're in for,
04:26I think excitement starts sort of rumbling through the room.
04:30Ben Stiller, who's directing that episode, I believe,
04:33had not told us they had outfitted disco lights
04:36in the office.
04:37And so when that switched on,
04:40that's a very real reaction from all of us.
04:43Because we'd been working in this environment for months
04:47and just like a real office,
04:49it gets pretty trying after a while.
04:53It's a fun show to make,
04:54but that environment can get a little stale.
04:57So when disco lights suddenly come on,
05:00it is quite exciting.
05:02Tramiel's an incredible dancer.
05:03Oh my God.
05:04None of us knew what Tramiel had been working on
05:09and getting to see him do that
05:11and getting to see him do it a lot.
05:13I mean, we shot that for a couple of days.
05:15It was amazing.
05:33In case we don't come back.
05:36I don't know, in case we do.
05:39I think that up until that moment,
05:41Mark hadn't experienced those kinds of feelings at all.
05:45So it took him a while to recognize and name it
05:49and kind of, you know, find a way to express it.
05:55And it kind of takes Hellie to guide him there a bit.
06:00It's 100% takes Hellie to do it
06:02because I don't think Mark knows what to do in that moment,
06:05but knows that nothing is going to happen
06:07but knows that nothing will, you know,
06:10be the same after this.
06:20What?
06:21I said, are you all right?
06:23Yeah, I'm fine.
06:25Maybe you should talk to your sister.
06:27It's an important decision.
06:29My sister?
06:30Yes.
06:33Mark?
06:34Yeah?
06:35Are you sure you're okay?
06:37Yes, I'm sorry.
06:38I just, I got a little woozy
06:40and I'm going to stop by the bathroom.
06:45Uh-uh, I think it's the other way.
06:47When we were shooting that,
06:48it was a matter of figuring out what to focus on
06:51because any Mark being in the outside world,
06:55it's plausible that he would react to everything.
06:58He walks outside to talk to Rick in
07:01and we had to, you know, make a decision like,
07:04it's the first time he sees the sky.
07:07Is he going to take a moment and like take that in?
07:09And like, we had to pick and choose
07:12and it ended up being,
07:14we need to focus on the task at hand.
07:16And I think for all the characters,
07:18there's a certain amount of that.
07:19The mission is so important.
07:21You know, I'm so sorry.
07:23I just, I'm on uncle duty for my sister.
07:25So I'll be right back.
07:27Okay?
07:28Okay.
07:29Okay.
07:30Thanks, Ms. Cobell.
07:32That's the big moment
07:33when he accidentally calls Selvig Cobell
07:37that Patricia and Ben and I were talking that night
07:40we were shooting it.
07:40Like, if we've got them at this point,
07:43episode nine, if they're with us,
07:45this is going to be so fun.
07:47When I accidentally say Cobell,
07:49that's going to be so fun.
07:51There's so much kind of architecture
07:53to get us to that point that needs to work
07:55in order for that moment to work.
08:03Sorry if I'm distracting you from.
08:08From what?
08:12From looking for your wife.
08:20It's okay.
08:23Now we'll find her.
08:24And you've already helped so much.
08:28Filming scenes like that is always challenging
08:31because it's, you know,
08:33you want to create as much intimacy as possible.
08:36And it's a really important, complicated moment
08:40in the show.
08:41Ben treated it just perfectly.
08:44And with so much sensitivity,
08:47it was basically Ben, the intimacy coordinator,
08:49and then Brit and I.
08:51He cleared everyone out and operated the camera himself.
08:54Ben mentioned that he, did he fall on you?
08:56Yeah, he did fall on us.
08:59He did at one point.
09:01Those cameras are heavy
09:02and he's in there by himself for a few hours operating.
09:06And yeah, he fell on top of us.
09:07So it was like this doggy pile of three people in a tent.
09:10It was like something that would happen
09:11in a Ben Stiller movie.
09:13If he was playing a cameraman,
09:15of course he would fall on the two actors
09:17while they're doing a love scene.
09:19Mark is, you know, completely in love with Helly.
09:24And, or, you know, who he believes is Helly.
09:28Um, and doesn't know exactly what it is
09:35two people are supposed to do in a situation like this.
09:39But there is a certain amount of human instinct
09:42that sort of takes over.
09:50I'm like the head of the company, Mark.
09:55Right.
09:56Dumb, sorry.
09:58Yeah, you should be sorry.
10:00Really?
10:00I'm kidding.
10:01Okay.
10:02You're clearly not dumb.
10:03I don't know.
10:05You're the one who invented
10:06a revolutionary medical procedure.
10:08Hey, no, that was, that was not me.
10:10That was my father.
10:14You should meet him sometime.
10:15It's funny because that scene,
10:17we were talking about it as the heat scene
10:22throughout the season,
10:24knowing it was coming in episode six.
10:26Before it was even written,
10:27it was like the heat scene,
10:29thinking about the scene in heat
10:31where Al Pacino and Robert De Niro
10:33have that scene in the middle of the movie.
10:36We're thinking about Helena Egan and Audie Mark,
10:40you know, this big kind of event of them
10:44actually being face-to-face.
10:46I think it's interesting.
10:48And I think there is something going on there
10:52that's hard to define and may be unexpected.
10:57I'm not sure either of them expected it
10:59to take the shape that it did.
11:02You want to take me home to dad already?
11:05Yeah, I think it's finally time.
11:07Okay.
11:08Sure, let's do it.
11:10He'd be the first.
11:13So no pressure.
11:14Yeah, none whatsoever.
11:15The head of the company is following him
11:19when he's out trying to eat.
11:21At least for him, making these sort of veiled threats.
11:25And I know you've already been through so much
11:27with losing your wife and all.
11:31Hannah.
11:37Gemma.
11:38He starts to feel like they are closing in.
11:42So they need to hurry up and get this done.
11:45They need to make this happen.
11:46He needs to get her the hell out of there
11:50or it's going to be too late.
11:56Hey, I'm, well I guess you know who I am.
12:03I think you've spoken with Devin and Mrs. Goebel.
12:09So you know what it is that we're asking.
12:13Ani-Mark and Audi-Mark have been on a bit
12:16of a collision course through season two
12:20in order for Audi-Mark to get what he wants
12:24and the pace of reintegration
12:27and the danger of reintegration make it
12:31that that's not going to get him there.
12:34So this conversation has to take place.
12:37The important thing is that the conversation
12:39takes some unpredictable turns
12:42and that the conversation feel dynamic
12:47in one way or the other.
12:48And it is important that Audi-Mark
12:51overplay his hand a little bit
12:53and that Ani-Mark becomes a little more savvy
12:57because of the conversation.
12:59Telly actually.
13:01Telly.
13:05It's a person I'm in love with.
13:07Which you'd know if you'd ever taken an interest
13:09in my life.
13:11Before tonight when you need something.
13:12While we were shooting, I was recording on the camera
13:15so we could then take those and use those.
13:18But we did so many versions of each piece
13:23of the conversation.
13:25So Ben could have an array of options
13:30to play with in the edit.
13:32And because it was such a delicate thing
13:35and when you're not working with another actor
13:38that you're not reacting to something
13:43that's actually happening.
13:44So I really wanted to react in a variety of ways
13:48so he could cut together something
13:51that felt like a real flow of a conversation.
13:53What is it like transitioning
13:55between one sort of version of your character
13:57to another version of your character?
13:58Yeah, so it depends on the day
14:01that we're shooting the show.
14:03I mean, sometimes I would do like
14:06Ani in the morning and Audi in the afternoon
14:08just depending on what we're doing.
14:09Certainly like there's like a posture
14:12and some like voice is a difference
14:17in the people pleasing side of me
14:20has just me has a different register
14:25than if I'm just being real like at home with my family.
14:29If I'm talking to an authority figure, I speak differently.
14:34And I remember my mom like commenting on that once
14:36when I was a kid and it bothering me
14:39that she was like nailing me on this
14:41and being like, no, there's not, you know, but there is.
14:46And so for Ani Mark, that's sort of what I use, I guess.
14:51It's like code switching, you know?
14:53And I think, you know, we all do that.
14:56We should just rename the show Code Switching.
14:59["Code Switching"]
15:04No, no, no, no, Mark!
15:12That was another thing that was kind of decided early on
15:15that this is how the season was gonna end.
15:18And I love how the kind of the last sort of frame
15:23is this image of these two people that are, you know,
15:28they've made this pretty big game time decision.
15:31It's a painful moment, you know,
15:34and they are filled with hope and possibility and excitement.
15:40But that last moment where we kind of freeze on them,
15:46I think there's a lot of, what are we gonna do now?
15:51And then sometimes it was like,
15:52well, we don't have to end it there.
15:54It can be something else, but it just felt so kind of right.