Ben Stiller Likens ‘Severance’ To Hollywood Today: “Constriction And Choices That Are Safer”

deadline.com:

In the way that Lumon Industries is disconnected to its workers on Apple TV+‘s Severance, so too is Hollywood perhaps disoriented about its creatives, Ben Stiller posits.

Previewing the highly anticipated and delayed second season of the mystery-box thriller to the New York Times in a recent interview, the executive producer and director likened the lack of control the series’ characters have to a similar floundering facing those in the entertainment industry. “At a certain point there’s always somebody making a decision who is not making it to your face or you don’t even know who that person is,” Stiller said, referencing the show’s unraveling of a group of workers who have chosen to surgically bifurcate their brains into work (aka innies) and home (outies) selves.

In Severance Season 1, the eerie contentment of a fictional conglomerate — occupied by characters played by Adam Scott, John Turturro and Zach Cherry — is upended with the arrival of standout Britt Lower’s Helly, who questions the shadowy circumstances of their predicament. “Why a decision is made is never explained to the creative person,” Stiller continued the analogy. “Or, if it is, it’s usually not the truth.

It’s a cliché in Hollywood, but it’s kind of true that everybody will say yes and it doesn’t mean yes. It means no or let me think about it — more than ever, honestly.” Stiller especially pointed to the exacerbation of the problem with the number of crises that have since rocked Hollywood (and now, the Los Angeles wildfires): “It’s a very tough environment now to get things made.