"The call heard 'round the world."
That's how Severance actor Jen Tullock , who plays Devon - the loving sister of our severed hero Mark ( Adam Scott ) - describes her character's decision at the end of Season Two to call the enemy for help.
The decision to call Harmony Cobel ( Patricia Arquette ), after she had deceived Mark and Devon through Season 1 with her alter ego Mrs. Selvig, confused some fans of the hit show. But for Tullock, it was a choice grounded in her character's "abject desperation" and the sense that she had very little else to lose.
"It was a math problem, for sure, because it made total sense to me that she would do it," she told Gold Derby, before recalling a comment she had previously made on a panel when asked the same question by a fan. "If my real life brother was in danger and the only way to save him was to call JD Vance, I'd say, get him on the phone. I'm not going to like it, but I'm going to make the call."
Read the rest of Gold Derby's conversation with Tullock - about how her character has changed and where she's excited to see Devon go - below.
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Gold Derby: I'd love to go back to your very first moments with this project. How did it come to you?
Jen Tullock: My lord, it was so long ago. It was in 2019 and I had auditioned, I think, with Rachel Tenner , our casting director, and then I went in and read with Ben It seems that your message is formatted to contain some hidden characters or is empty. Please provide a clear text for translation. If you intended to send a specific text, ensure there are no hidden characters or formatting issues. If the text is indeed empty, the response will be '<failed>'. Stiller ] and Adam It seems that your message is formatted to include line breaks but there is no actual text provided for translation. Based on the instruction, I should return '<failed>' in such cases. Therefore, here is the output: Scott ] next time. I was really nervous. I had just gotten a terrible haircut at the time that I describe as Willie Aames from Eight Is Enough , and I was certain they would never want to see me again. Then, very luckily, they changed their minds. So I got the job in 2019 and then we all gathered in New York for our table read at the beginning of 2020. I remember that there were pumps of hand sanitizer on the table. Then about two days later, they were like, "Go home, everyone." Coming back in late 2020 to finally start shooting again was wonderful and also scary, and I do think it bonded us in a way that we otherwise wouldn't have experienced.
And then Season 2 was held up by the strike, right?
We keep joking that only a tsunami could stop us. Now, the strikes happened when we were about halfway through shooting the second season. So at that point, we were all kind of like, "Well, par for the course."
Is there any sense among the cast that maybe, for the world's sake, there shouldn't be a Season 3 of?
Severance
?
I think you have a point there. For the safety of the universe at large, perhaps we should just sit this one out.
The fans would take that trade, honestly - a catastrophe for more
Severance
.
It has been extraordinary, the engagement with fans. It's been really special.
Do you have a sense of what Ben and everyone was looking for when casting Devon? Was it just that familial connection with Mark?
Yeah, I think originally, I'm not actually sure what [creator Dan Erickson ] had planned out for her multi-season arc from the beginning, beyond just providing context for Mark and his home life and giving us a human manifestation of his grief. I feel very grateful that we've been able to expand her story a little bit, especially this last season, and involve her in the action. It was really cool to get to jump in and actually be a part of the Lumon world. I remember reading the pilot and thinking, "Oh, this is so great. She's so funny and warm and affable." Going into Season 2 and getting to see her mad and dealing with postpartum and not taking very naturally to motherhood—so much that she decides to run off for 48 hours with her brother to try to find Gemma—was cool to explore.
With Season 2, Devon finds herself in such an interesting place in pretty much every aspect of her life. How would you describe where she is?
We get to watch her world blow open a little bit. In Season 1, the whole thrust of her narrative arc is that she is the grounded one. She is warmth. She is home. She is stability for Mark and for Ricken, and ultimately, for her own child. She's a very privileged person. I love her so much, and her heart is beautiful. But she has a very cushy life. And I think we've all known someone who, up until a certain point in their lives, had mostly green lights, and then when they don't anymore, that can look like an identity crisis. For her, the stability in her marriage is now starting to falter, rather because of Ricken's decision to work with Lumon. She's not experiencing motherhood the way she hoped she would. In Season 1, the baby wouldn't latch, which is why she's wanting to work with Mrs. Selvig/Cobel. I said to Dan, "Would you be OK if we tease this out a little further to the point where she's like in full-blown postpartum, but she can't express that because her husband can't handle that, and Mark certainly can't handle that, because he's throwing that, because he's going through so much? What if she actually is having a full-blown crisis about not feeling like a mom at all?" I tried to imbue her with that in Season 1, but it was obviously a lot louder in Season 2. I mean, she leaves the baby for three days to go try to figure this thing out with Mark, and it'll be interesting to see next season where that goes.
Something I wrestled with as a fan of the show was Devon's decision to call Cobel.
To call her 'round the world, yes.
How did you feel learning about Devon making that decision? Did it feel like a natural extension of where she had been heading? And what was the conversation on set around such a big decision?
It was a math problem, for sure, because it made total sense to me that she would do it. I think she's in a moment of abject desperation where she is like, "You know what? What else am I going to do?" We were doing a panel a couple weeks ago and someone asked me the same question, and I said, "If my real life brother was in danger and the only way to save him was to call JD Vance, I'd say, get him on the phone." I'm not going to like it, but I'm going to make the call. I think Devon felt the same way about Cobel. Of course, she doesn't trust her, but at the end of the day, Devon is a doer. She's a fixer, and I think she saw a path.
In hindsight, it's something I'm more willing to accept because of where it leads - specifically to the birthing suite. Devon's in a unique spot among the cast of the show to talk to both Innie and Outie Mark. What was that experience like for you? You're basically dealing with two different characters, right?
Yeah, and Adam plays the two of them with such nuance, and there's such a subtle but poetic disparity between them. Getting to interact with both of them back-to-back was fun, but also really emotional. I remember that first moment where Innie Mark wakes up. I think in the take we kept you could tell I'm a little emotional, because I couldn't not feel the deep pain of looking at the person with whom I'm closest in the world, but knowing they don't know me.
How much do you know?
Of Devon specifically, I know a little bit. What I do know is that our scripts are ever malleable, and I know the writers are hard at work. I had the great fortune of going and visiting them recently; such a talented and benevolent group of people. I did bribe them with sweets. I brought them a bag of artisanal chocolates in the hopes that they would tell me more than they did.
Is there already time blocked out on your schedule for filming in Season 3? Do we know when things are happening?
I can't say much on that, but I know everyone's doing their best to make this happen in a timely fashion. Whatever the timeline is going to be, I think this will be our best season yet, and I'm really excited.
Alright, so once the swarms of locusts hit, I'll know that you guys have started filming.
Yes, when fire rains from the skies.
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