The Look of Severance (with Jeremy Hindle)

Summary

The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
Episode: The Look of Severance (with Jeremy Hindle)
Release Date: August 14, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of The Severance Podcast, hosts Ben Stiller and Adam Scott delve deep into the visual artistry behind the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning TV show Severance. Joined by the show's Emmy-nominated production designer, Jeremy Hindle, the trio explores the intricate design choices, creative inspirations, and the emotional underpinnings that shape the show's distinctive aesthetic.

Guest Introduction: Jeremy Hindle

Ben and Adam warmly welcome Jeremy Hindle, highlighting his pivotal role in crafting the show's unique look. They reminisce about their first meeting at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel, where initial ideas and sketches sparked a collaborative synergy essential for bringing Severance to life.

Ben Stiller [10:43]: “Jeremy, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here.”

Set Design Insights

Jeremy shares his background in commercial design, emphasizing how his 15-year experience creating elaborate commercials with renowned filmmakers like Alejandro González Iñárritu honed his ability to craft immersive worlds. This expertise translates seamlessly into Severance, where every set piece tells a story.

Jeremy Hindle [16:06]: “It's all about making every shot a story, every detail, every little pen. It's how my brain has been working for the last 20 years.”

Creative Challenges and Inspirations

The conversation shifts to the challenges of designing sets that are both familiar and unsettling. Jeremy discusses the deliberate choice of mid-century design elements to evoke a sense of nostalgia while maintaining a sterile, almost oppressive atmosphere that mirrors the show's themes.

Jeremy Hindle [24:28]: “The 60s had better taste. We went with the Kevin Roche and Eero Saarinen design philosophies to create beautiful, functional spaces that feel both familiar and alien.”

Specific Set Elements

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the development of key locations within the show, such as the wellness center and the MDR (Marketing Design Resource) floor. Jeremy highlights the meticulous process of selecting materials, colors, and architectural features that contribute to the show's eerie ambiance.

Ben Stiller [26:07]: “The ceiling is a little bit lower than it should be... it feels weird, but you wanted to play with negative space.”

Jeremy Hindle [27:05]: “We camera tested 26 whites to find the perfect hue that wouldn’t blow out or lose texture on camera.”

Emotional Impact of Design

Jeremy elaborates on how the set designs influence the actors' performances and the audience's emotional engagement. By creating spaces that are both aesthetically pleasing and subtly disturbing, the sets enhance the narrative's psychological depth.

Adam Scott [32:11]: “Walking into MDR pieced a lot together and ended up dictating a lot of character stuff. It's extraordinary.”

Jeremy Hindle [40:10]: “Designing emotionally and kinetically means making sure spaces feel real and can evoke specific emotions from both the actors and the viewers.”

Listener Questions and Insights

The hosts transition to listener questions, where Jeremy provides detailed responses about specific design choices and offers advice for aspiring production designers. Topics include the selection of unique furniture pieces, color theory, and the importance of storytelling through set design.

Listener Question [49:19]:
“Can you tell us more about the mid-century vanity in Gemma's room and the color theory behind the set design?”

Jeremy Hindle [49:48]:
“We use colors like blue and green because they are calming and natural. For special pieces, like the Chanel showroom chairs in Mr. Milchick’s office, we incorporate unique artifacts that elevate the set and add authenticity.”

Emotional and Practical Collaboration

Ben and Adam praise Jeremy’s ability to blend emotional nuance with practical design, ensuring that the sets not only look impressive but also serve the story's emotional beats. The collaborative dynamic between the production team is evident, fostering an environment where creativity thrives.

Jeremy Hindle [42:16]:
“We clicked in a way that emphasized the art over individual egos. Being able to openly critique and evolve designs made the creative process seamless.”

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with heartfelt exchanges and a glimpse into future projects. Jeremy’s passion for design and his collaborative spirit shine through, leaving listeners with a deeper appreciation for the meticulous craftsmanship behind Severance.

Ben Stiller [56:57]:
“It’s so much fun. Thanks, Jeremy.”

Adam Scott [58:28]:
“Thank you for listening.”

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Notable Quotes

• Adam Scott [00:31]: “The best thing that really has been found to help mental health the most is therapy.”
• Jeremy Hindle [27:34]: “If you knew the rules, you wouldn’t do it.”
• Jeremy Hindle [24:28]: “Work life balance has become such an interesting thing... It was really attractive to them.”

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Key Takeaways

• Collaborative Synergy: The initial meeting and ongoing collaboration between Ben, Adam, and Jeremy were crucial in establishing the show’s visual identity.
• Attention to Detail: Every element of the set, from ceiling heights to color choices, is meticulously crafted to evoke specific emotions and support the narrative.
• Emotional Storytelling: The design choices are deeply intertwined with character development and plot progression, enhancing the storytelling experience.
• Creative Freedom: Jeremy’s background in commercials provided the flexibility and creativity needed to innovate within the show's unique framework.
• Listener Engagement: The episode effectively bridges fan interest with behind-the-scenes insights, enriching the viewing experience for dedicated fans.

This episode offers a fascinating glimpse into the artistic process behind Severance, showcasing how thoughtful production design can elevate a show's impact and immerse audiences in its meticulously crafted world.

Transcript

[Ben Stiller]

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[Adam Scott]

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[Ben Stiller]

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[Adam Scott]

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Yeah. And it does affect my mood. After I get out, I feel better.

[Adam Scott]

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[Adam Scott]

That's right. I've always thought of therapy, and therapy has been so valuable to me in my life. I've always thought of therapy as like talking to a best friend, except you don't have to hear any of their stuff.

[Ben Stiller]

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[Adam Scott]

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[Ben Stiller]

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[Adam Scott]

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[Adam Scott]

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[Ben Stiller]

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[Adam Scott]

Is brought to you by the Farmer's Dog. Hey, it's me, Adam. And I'm really excited about this one because we have two dogs and like every family who has a dog or two, we love ours to a borderline crazy degree. But here's the thing. I never really thought about what our dogs eat. I assumed kibble was fine, but I also honestly didn't know anything about it. Turns out kibble is like lumen levels of mysterious. The farmer's dog, however, is a different story. They make fresh food for dogs using real meat and vegetables. And every recipe is formulated by their team of board certified vet nutritionists who are literal experts in what dogs should be Eating the farmer's dog also portions the food to your dog's unique needs so you know you're not overfeeding them. Why is that a big deal? Well, here's a fun. Dogs who maintain a healthy weight can live up to two and a half years longer. And that's basically the amount of time you had to wait between seasons one and two of our show. That was a long time. Sorry about that. But if I get that much more time with our dogs, I'm in. So, yeah, I switched our dogs to the farmer's dog and you can too. Go try the farmer's dog today and get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food@the farmersdog.com severance. Plus you get free shipping right to your door. Just go to the farmersdog.com severance. This offer is for new customers only. The Severance podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott is presented by the farmer's dog. Try fresh, healthy food@the farmersdog.com severance.

[Ben Stiller]

Hey, I'm Ben Stiller.

[Adam Scott]

I'm Adam Scott and this is the.

[Ben Stiller]

Severance podcast with Ben and Adam. We're back for the next six weeks to talk with the people who make Severance and inspire us while we're making it and influence it and just all that stuff.

[Adam Scott]

And today we have a really special episode for you all. We're talking to Severance's Emmy nominated production designer, the great Jeremy Hindle.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. And we've talked about Jeremy a lot, probably in every episode of the show because he's so integral to the show and to the look of the show. So I'm really excited to talk to him.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, totally. And the production design has a lot of specific influences that I can't wait to talk to him about. I'm also just excited to hear more about the conversations that you guys had early on. There's just so much artistry and consideration and care that goes into all of it. We've got a lot to talk about.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

How you doing, Ben?

[Ben Stiller]

I'm good. I'm good. I feel like it's been a while since we've. Since we've gotten together.

[Adam Scott]

It has. It's been, I mean, at least, what, three weeks a month? Something like that. Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Good summer.

[Adam Scott]

Enjoying your summer so far? So good. You know, we're getting ready to push our, our son out the door to go to college.

[Ben Stiller]

Ah. And how does he feel about that?

[Adam Scott]

He's excited.

[Ben Stiller]

Okay, that's good.

[Adam Scott]

I'm kind of yet to be determined. I think I'm just Going to freak out at some point. It hasn't happened yet, but we're leaving tomorrow, so.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, I've been through it. I've been through it twice now.

[Adam Scott]

And tell me, did you have a delayed freakout or did you freak out at the time? Like, do you have any advice for me?

[Ben Stiller]

It's sort of like a rolling freak out. It's sort of like it comes and goes. My son is starting his second year of college in New York.

[Adam Scott]

Wow.

[Ben Stiller]

And he just moved out.

[Adam Scott]

Wow.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, just about a month ago or so. And he just sort of like started a whole life that I don't have any idea what goes on.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. And, you know, that's how it should be when they're finding their way. And I can't really wrap my head around it at the moment, but that's the sort of thing I guess I'm gonna have to get used to is just sort of letting go a little bit. Letting him go out into the world.

[Ben Stiller]

No, it's really weird that you want him to go out there and just experience life. But also, as a parent, you're like, but don't experience too much.

[Adam Scott]

Right.

[Ben Stiller]

Just don't do anything too dangerous. But then, you know, of course, it doesn't really work that way.

[Adam Scott]

I know. I find myself giving him advice and it's just. It all sounds so pat. And I'm like rolling my eyes on the inside as I'm doing it. But you have to do it. You have to say all that stuff.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, that's cool, man. You know, in terms of summer stuff, too, I was thinking, I wish that I was out in LA for that Jesus Christ Superstar Hollywood bowl thing that just happened.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, yeah. That's a really big deal.

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, my God.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

So cool.

[Ben Stiller]

I saw, you know, I've just been watching clips of it and. Are you a Jesus Christ Superstar fan?

[Adam Scott]

I don't know Jesus Christ Superstar at all. I mean, other than the big fan. I know. For whatever reason, I don't know it. It's weird, right?

[Ben Stiller]

Did you not have musicals in your family growing up? Did people weren't into musical theater?

[Adam Scott]

Not really. Not until I was in high school and I was doing musicals.

[Ben Stiller]

What musicals did you do in High School?

[Adam Scott]

42Nd street and guys and Dolls. Those are the ones I was approaching.

[Ben Stiller]

Interesting. Interesting. Both very similar, kind of themed.

[Adam Scott]

They are.

[Ben Stiller]

I don't know, the 42nd street story. Really?

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, I don't either. I just know that I was Pat. I was the, like, the guy that didn't sing. And in Guys and Dolls I didn't sing either. I was Big Julie, and I literally lifted the performance from Al Pacino and Dick Tracy and just did that character.

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, yeah. Big Julie. Yeah, Yeah. Y might have been Sky Masterson. Because you'd be a natural Sky Masterson today. If they were doing a revival of Guys and Dolls today, you could get the call for Sky.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, thank you. That is a great role. I just can't hold a tune. I really can't. And so it's tough. That would have been tough for the audience.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, you know, Marlon Brando wasn't really famous as a singer.

[Adam Scott]

That's true.

[Ben Stiller]

He did it.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, that's true. I could have lip synced. We could have had someone backstage singing. Like in Stepbrothers. There was a guy singing, and I was just lip syncing.

[Ben Stiller]

No, in the car.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, my God.

[Adam Scott]

Really? So we could have done that in high school with Guys and Dolls.

[Ben Stiller]

All these years, I thought that was you.

[Adam Scott]

You did? Really? You thought I was singing? I wish it was. I really do.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, I feel bad for you that you are not in the Jesus Christ Superstar orbit, because it's really. I think one of the best pieces of drama fiction theater ever made, and probably the best production ever was my sister And I in 1975, when my parents had gone away to LA for a couple weeks, and they came back and we were waiting to perform it for them. Oh, that's made them watch that? Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Wow. So this is really, like, bone deep for you, the Jesus Christ Superstars. Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

And I have a real connection with my daughter on it, who is kind of obsessed with it, too. So it's been a fun sort of.

[Adam Scott]

That's great.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. Thing.

[Adam Scott]

That's cool. So something else that happened is our friend Stephen Colbert. His show was weirdly canceled.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, it's very weirdly canceled. Weird timing. For what reason unclear, Though you could speculate. It's really too bad. Cause he is really one of the best. And he's been such a great friend of the show to the Severance. I mean, he was ahead of the curve. Season one. He did the whole Severance parody with you guys.

[Adam Scott]

He came to the set and shot.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. Well, at least he's still alive.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, I feel like. Exactly. It's just a TV show.

[Ben Stiller]

And I bet he's gonna do something else that's gonna be better. And it's CBS's loss that's the last 100%.

[Adam Scott]

100%. It's a disturbing development, but we'll always have Colbert doing something. We're Lucky for it.

[Ben Stiller]

I look forward to his next thing. It's gonna be great.

[Adam Scott]

100%.

[Ben Stiller]

Anything else fun summer wise for you?

[Adam Scott]

Well, I wondered if there was anything about our last episode that you wanted to say out loud. I'm not going to. I don't want to lead you to it because you're talking about.

[Ben Stiller]

Six tablespoons 85 grams of unsalted butter, Half a cup of light brown sugar, 4 ounces half a teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 pinch ground nutmeg, generous pinch kosher salt. 3 medium ripe but firm bananas, about 1 pound, split in half crosswise and then lengthwise. Quarter cup of white or aged rum. And you know what that is?

[Adam Scott]

What is it?

[Ben Stiller]

That's Bananas Foster.

[Adam Scott]

That's right. That's exactly what that is.

[Ben Stiller]

Or should I say Bananas Foster a la Lindelof.

[Adam Scott]

Ben, you listened to the episode in your face, Lindelof.

[Ben Stiller]

I listened to it in real time.

[Adam Scott]

All right, you did, like while we were doing it?

[Ben Stiller]

No, no, close to real time. I wasn't there, but I listened to it immediately after and I loved it. It was great. That's great. I'm happy to be talking about the show today with Jeremy. Jeremy Hindle.

[Adam Scott]

Jeremy Hindle is our unbelievable production designer. On Severance on set, he had that nickname, the Hindleman, the man with all the handles.

[Ben Stiller]

What I never heard.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, I don't think that's anything real that anyone said.

[Ben Stiller]

The Hindleman, the man with all the handles.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. You never heard that.

[Ben Stiller]

It's like a point guard. I know that.

[Adam Scott]

He's got a handle on everything.

[Ben Stiller]

Jeremy, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Oh, thanks for having me. I'm very excited.

[Ben Stiller]

You and I never met before we started working on this show. Do you remember when we first met?

[Jeremy Hindle]

We met at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

[Ben Stiller]

That's right. We had like a lunch at the Polo. Was it the Polo Lounge?

[Jeremy Hindle]

The Polo Lounge.

[Adam Scott]

That's classy.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

You called me and asked me if I'd be interested. You sent me a script and I read it and I went, huh? And I said, can I have a couple days to put a look together? Cause I don't. What is it? Yeah, and then I pitched you that I had like a little 60 page document on my iPad that I kind of pitched to you what it was.

[Ben Stiller]

And yeah, we sat in a booth together. Right. And we kind of talked a little.

[Adam Scott]

And what was it at that point? What did you conceive that early on.

[Jeremy Hindle]

The first thing was an image of William H. Macy from Fargo in the parking lot. That high angle looking down of this lonely guy in the snow. Hence the snow. Do you remember that, man?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And I was like. And then the next was an image of your character in front of a big, sparse building. And it was just showing scale. Like, to me, it was instantly like, if you're. Cause we are so tiny and struggling. And it was just to show that the scale is the emotion of it was really important to me. Instantly.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. I knew you had done Zero Dark Thirty, which I thought was an amazing film. And when we sat down together, not knowing you, I think we sort of connected on aesthetics, Right?

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah, we did. Well, you know what? For me, it was more. Because I've seen your work, you know, all the films you've directed. And I. Especially if Tropic Thunder, for me was to do something that's a comedy. But the scale of it and how much of a real movie it is, like that. It's a real film that's shot like a real film. The sets, to me, I already. I knew you would go for something bigger and that we kind of just clicked, you know? And then Playtime, we talked about Playtime. And to me, that was just the word, playtime. Like, playing in this show was gonna be really fun.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, that's the Jacques Tati film. That's just visually just such an incredible specific world that he created. And. Yeah, I remember looking at that. And I do feel like when you first meet somebody, it was just interesting. Cause we didn't know each other, but then we sort of had to kind of like, leap off the cliff together a little bit.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. Well, I remember saying, if I showed you all the images, I said, if you would do this, I would do this. And you were like, yeah, let's do this. It just felt really instantaneous. I was so confident what I was showing you. I wasn't. When I read it, I didn't see it at all.

[Ben Stiller]

You know, Jessica Lee Gagne also kind of had, I think, a similar first reaction.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And then that's the bonuses when the three of us kind of connected was her images. Her references were different, but similar. You know, like how she was gonna shoot, how she wanted to shoot it. Like, it was those Lynn Cohen photographs. I remember.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, she brought in the Lynn Cohen photographs and then also the Lars Tunbjork photographs, which he did. Like this series of office photographs in the early 2000s in Japan and in Sweden and different places. That really were some of the first images we looked at, too.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. And Having those sort of like mid century elements and then connecting, that was.

[Ben Stiller]

A. I think that was a big part of it. I mean, I feel like what you said about kind of like going for something, being willing to go for something when you're making something that doesn't have a reference point necessarily in terms of work, that we really hadn't done anything like this separately. So that's an interesting thing when you're like kind of in a world where you don't have. It's not like you can say, okay, we're going to do like you know, a military base in Afghanistan or whatever. You know, it's like it was more open ended. And you had this willingness I felt, to kind of explore. And that's kind of what I felt as we started to work together. But your process, I'm just kind of curious where you come from, your training, how you got to a process of doing what you do because you kind of allow for ideas to come and you really emphasized having that space in the beginning for us to kind of just blue sky ideas and to allow for just ideas and references to look at things and not to have to commit to anything.

[Jeremy Hindle]

You know, it's honestly for me, I did commercials for so long for about 15 years. And I would do these, you know, 15, $20 million commercials where you'd fly around the world for 70 days for 60 seconds. And they were always with really good filmmakers. And it was always. There'd be an agency script, but a lot of times it falls on the designer to kind of create and just run with it. I would really just kind of invent these worlds. And what was similar was I manufactured a lot of things. I was always at legacy building things. The designer in commercials also has to design all the effects and oversee everything. So the training is very similar to what I kind of got to use in severance. I knew the tools and I knew how to be free. Like in commercials, there's a real freedom to. You're kind of winging it all the time. Like you're on a plane and you're shooting in Rio, but you're going to London, but then you're going right to Beijing and you're working with all these different people in four continents at the same time, running them all in, in your head and keeping this idea together. And I feel that training and also the every image in a commercial is so important that I feel like we do that on severance. Like every shot is a story, every detail, every little pen. It's kind of how my Brain has been working for the last 20 years.

[Adam Scott]

And having the freedom to create something from the ground up, like, actually come up with it and then conceive it and build it.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And also, there's a really good one. I did this P and G with Alejandro Inarritu, and we went around the world, and I remember the agency were terrified of what we were gonna do. And this was Proctor Gamble for the Olympics. And it's a gorgeous commercial. But I remember them always being worried about what we were gonna do. And I'm like, just relax. Relax. Fine. And they'd be like, you're gonna fix that hole in the wall beside his bed, right? And I'm like, yeah. But I didn't. I lied the entire time. And at the end of it, two months later, the vice president of Wieden called me, and she said, I just want you to know I'm so thankful that you lied to us the entire time. We knew it, but it's the most beautiful thing we've ever done.

[Adam Scott]

Wow.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And it was learning to just trust that people can't see. I can't see it myself totally. But I'm willing to fail so badly that I think that when you take those risks, you can't really fail. You know, you're making something that's really emotional. And I think emotional is really hard to explain to people. You know, when there's a feeling of something, and it's like you just. You just have to stick to it. And however you get there, you get there. And it's painful for people, including myself, because you're putting yourself out there.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, you're also living in. Not with a decision. Right. So you're living in sort of like, this ambiguity for a while that you have to be willing to do. And I was looking through my computer last night, knowing we were going to do this, and just the lookbooks that you created from the beginning, I was going back to some of the really early stuff, but there were a lot of specific reference photographs that we accrued that you found. Researchers. Jessica. You know, we would all bring these ideas, and you created this lookbook that then you would bring in pieces of furniture. And there was obviously the technology. So I found, like, the separate. The technology book that you created, you know, and that was a big thing. I remember when we were trying to figure out how to, you know, mix the different eras and what that would be. But I think that cache of all those images is still. So. I don't know. Like, I look at it, and I still get excited when I look at. You know, it's. Because it's like a picture from like, a. Some weird Soviet meeting hall or. You know, I was looking at the original designs that you did for the wellness room. So weird, you know, for wellness. Yeah. Because the original wellness was not the. We. We ended up with that wood and, like, the. The plant and, like, a warmer thing. But do you remember?

[Jeremy Hindle]

I remember them all. Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. The Was more like a. Almost like a Korean spa or something.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Well, it was. I just remember Dan wrote, there's a door to go in and a door to go out. And I'm like, but it's one room. And he's like, yeah, but they're just side by side. And honestly, for me, the thing I responded to was that Dan would write these ridiculous things, and he believed them. And that was, to me, was like, it's such a good rabbit hole to go down. Because he would say it, and I'd just be like, oh, yeah, like you. And it made it really fun.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. But those look books, really. It's interesting. I wish we could post them or something, because, like, they're so you can see exactly what the inspirations were, but it became its own thing. Also, like, talk about the wellness center. This a good example of, like, the process on the show creatively, in terms of being inspired by what Dan writes is that he wrote the two doors, which always made me laugh too, but, like, kind of made sense. And then you designed the wellness outer, you know, the waiting area, and which kind of was like. I think your first design was kind of like what we went with. And the inside changed a little bit and developed. But in season two, when we come back to wellness for the first time in the script in 201, it's written out that Mark gets to wellness. He opens the door, the waiting room, and it was written somehow like, the doors are boarded up and abandoned.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. And there was, like, wires hanging and.

[Ben Stiller]

Sparks flying, you know, like the Grinch had been there and taken everything away. That was the image in my head. And then one day, you just called me into your office and you said, or what about this? And then you just showed me this picture where there was an outline of where the doors were.

[Adam Scott]

It's so much scarier and weirder that way.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I mean, my favorite was. Cause you didn't tell. I just remember standing there when Adam saw it for the first time. And those are the moments I love, because I feel like that's what we're doing on the show all the time, is trying to cause it's so real. Like your reaction on your face, I was like, wow.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. Because I think you were. What I felt was that you were wrestling with in your mind for season two, how do I make this feel like severance? How do I make the imagery in this room and like boarded up doors? Doesn't necessarily.

[Jeremy Hindle]

They're not sloppy.

[Ben Stiller]

Right, right. And then you came up with that idea of sort of the negative space and I just. It's like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's it.

[Adam Scott]

That's Lumen too. It's like nefarious and like a triple mind fuck.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. They're amazing at this. They're so manipul and fun and they really mess with you guys. And then I get to mess with you guys.

[Adam Scott]

Okay, we're going to take a break. We'll be right back after this. This episode is brought to you by the Farmer's Dog. So employees on the separate floor of Lumen industry know their work is mysterious and important. The farmer's dog, on the other hand, is. Isn't mysterious at all. Which is good, because what you feed your dog shouldn't be a mystery. The Farmer's dog makes 100% mysterious free fresh food for dogs. And they always use real meat and real vegetables, which are gently cooked to retain vital nutrients and avoid the risks that come from ultra processing. Their recipes are developed by their team of board certified vet nutritionists so they can ensure that your dog's food is is always complete and balanced. The Farmer's dog food is made to human grade safety standards, which are the same safety standards as the food that you and I eat. Because as far as I know, if you're listening and understanding this podcast, chances are you're a human being. The Farmer's Dog also portions the food to your dog's unique needs, making it easy to keep them at a healthy weight. So go try the Farmer's dog today and get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food@the farmersdog.com severance. Plus you get free shipping right to your door. Remember, you can't get it at stores, you can't get it at Lumen. You can only get it@the farmersdog.com severance. This offer is for new customers only. Hey, it's Adam. I travel a lot with my family and we stay at Airbnbs all the time. It's great being able to be all together in one house, hanging out and feeling at home while we're away. If you're like me, you travel a lot for work and your home tends to just sit there empty. But it doesn't have to anymore. Thanks to Airbnb, you can turn that downtime into extra income. If you have a place that's vacant while you're away, why not make it work for you? Hosting on Airbnb lets you welcome travelers while earning some extra cash on the side. So no matter where you are in the world, if you're away from home, Airbnb makes it easy to share your space and make the most of it. So make use of your home while you're not there, instead of just letting it sit there empty. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how [e-mail] host how you designed the offices in the workspace. Do you want to talk about that? About the idea of work and why kind of a mid century idea was what fit in with Lumen and how you approached the idea of work when coming up with all of this.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I mean, I think ultimately it was, we wanted it to look cool, the show to look beautiful. We wanted them, you know, they're a big pharmaceutical company. They have taste. But I always think that the 60s had better taste. They did like John Deere. We kind of went with the Kevin Roche Eric Saarinen design. And when offices were designed for real, just work. And you had this beautiful desk and a beautiful computer and one pen and a Rolodex. And there was no family life because the 80s human resources took over. And it's like, why don't you work longer hours? You can bring your family, put some pictures and have a plant. And they started to like, became like, let's do it.

[Adam Scott]

An extension of home.

[Ben Stiller]

Of home.

[Jeremy Hindle]

So like, yeah, stay longer. And like, wait. This is actually just about work. So let's go back to that aesthetic, which was one, it's stunning. And two, it's just the practicality of it. You're only there to work. You wouldn't have anything. You have a coffee cup with their name on it, not the one with your kids from their lacrosse game or whatever. And I just felt so natural to. And in a way that I think people could understand it. You know, it's familiar because you kind of remember it. Young people don't know it, but they're like, oh, that's interesting. Like, they kind of want that now.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, for sure.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And also I think the work life balance has become such an interesting thing, obviously, when, you know, Dan writing it. But I think Covid really helped that too, because a lot of these young people have grown, only grown up at Home or on zoom. So I think for them it was like, oh, this is really. They just got really. It was really attractive to them.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

And I remember we were just talking a lot about MDR and the space when we were starting up, because we knew that so much of the show would take place in that space. So in a way, I kind of likened it to, like, a show like the Office, which I talked about a lot. But the idea, this is their space and how do we make it very, very spare and sparse and, you know, what it should be, but also interesting. And that process, I remember you showing renderings and creating renderings for the ceiling. I remember us talking about the height of the ceiling and just how low we could actually go with it.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Seven, nine.

[Adam Scott]

And what's the idea behind that specific height? Because it's not oppressively low when you walk in the room. But there's something weird, and it's. It is lower than a ceiling should be. It's very specific. So where did that come from?

[Ben Stiller]

I mean, that was in the script. I went back to the first, like, to the draft, and it said, like, the seam, like, feels like the ceiling is a little bit lower than it should be, but that was it.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

And it said a cubicle island in the middle. So I don't know. I feel like we took that cube. But then you took it with the lighting. I mean, the whole idea of that lighting grid system above, which kind of reminded me a little bit of the stuff from the time Life building back in the day.

[Jeremy Hindle]

A lot of it was done.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, I remember you just came in with this rendering, and I remember standing in the space measuring the height of the ceiling. Yeah. And it was coming to life. And it was this thing of like, wow, this is really weird. We're committing to this. And then you want to talk about the walls and the color, the white walls, because the way that white photographs, it's really hard to get that texture, especially with digital, in terms of what translates in HDR on TVs. So there are a lot of tests.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah, we camera tested 26 whites.

[Adam Scott]

Wow. And what happens when it's the wrong white? How does that translate on camera? What's the issue?

[Ben Stiller]

It might just blow out or have no texture, or it might feel like you're just in a kind of almost in space or something.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Some are really yellow, some are really blue. They're just all. It's just a lot of them went really beige. I mean, I remember you going 26, and I'm like, I know. Wait Till we see it. And when we went to watch it, it was like, oh, God. Oh, no, no, no, no. And we came down to two. It was only two that worked.

[Adam Scott]

Would you test it by having someone walk in front of it? Would you have an entire hallway of it?

[Jeremy Hindle]

Like, we built a section of the ceiling. We built three walls. And then we had different green carpets and then a lot of wardrobe all in the space. And it was so mind blowingly surprising for everyone and exciting and fun. You're like, but that's what weights are. They're all so different. And the green and how the green.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, how it interacts with the green, I'm sure.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And the ceiling, like, the ceiling really picks up with all its angles. We just don't know.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, the ceiling would pick up the green reflection a lot too, which didn't really look right. And then also we had to figure out the dividers and figure out their green. So. But all of it was just with the thought of like, this is going to be where we're at for, you know, for many, many, many episodes. And I'd never had that experience before, had never set up a series. So it was. I remember just like we were angsting.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Over, you know, the best was none of us had. I think that's why it's good.

[Ben Stiller]

Right?

[Jeremy Hindle]

Like, you know what? The thing I've heard the most on this show from a lot of people is always, this isn't how you make tv.

[Adam Scott]

Right.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I go, well, yeah, great. And I think it's because if you knew, you wouldn't do it.

[Ben Stiller]

Right.

[Jeremy Hindle]

You always do better when you don't know the rules. When you don't. One, you don't wanna know the rules, but two, they're not inside you.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, it was a little bit like we were kind of outside of the system a little in the beginning because I think of COVID and because of us being in New York and sort of in this, you know, we were just kind of like doing our thing.

[Adam Scott]

Even geographically, I feel like we were up in the Bronx. We weren't at a studio, like sharing stages with eight other shows.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Where they're. You mix and mingle with other shows. We were sort of off by ourselves.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And just find severance.

[Adam Scott]

Yes. It's.

[Ben Stiller]

So, yeah, we were in the South Bronx for five years on the show. And also I remember it was a brand new stage. Like the stages had never been used before. And I remember the very first thing that happened was the stage where MDR was stage three. Right. We realized Right off the bat that the floor was not level enough because we were doing. Because we're not using Steadicam, we're using dolly shots a lot and we're. And so they had to build. What was it, like a 6 inch platform or something?

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah, it was up and down, up to 6 to 8 inches.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. So they had to build a platform for the entire set over the floor. Before we could even build the set.

[Jeremy Hindle]

We ended up having to do it to all the stages. But it was hard because we were doing the hallways. Like you would notice it.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Of course, MDR would never have worked.

[Ben Stiller]

And then, do you remember also with the final MDR plan, you had the plan for the stage for stage three, where we used almost every single part of the stage except for one hallway that would have connected all the hallways.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Because no one would let. They were like, no, we can't build anymore. And we just slowly kept connecting the.

[Ben Stiller]

Dots and we were like, we gotta connect. We gotta connect this. It's gotta be all. So. And that's how the idea for the opening shot where you walk the hallways was. Let's see if we can use all the hallways that we connected.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I mean, it was you. You kept saying, I just wanna keep going, keep going and bend and turn and move. Because it really was. We were trying to confuse every. It's trying to make them not be able to figure out where they're going.

[Adam Scott]

It was confusing.

[Ben Stiller]

Exactly.

[Adam Scott]

They were always shifting, so you would always get lost trying to get to set. The hallways were always evolving into different things depending on what you're shooting.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. Creating little jogs and like you created those little sort of like pit stops in areas you can go. Yeah. It was really fun.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. Those weird little inlets. Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Duck, duck, duck, duck. I know. Honestly, it really was just fun.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

But you were willing to play it as soon as I showed you that deck. I remember, like, just the look on your face. It's kind of what you need, though. I would have known right away if you had a. If it wouldn't have worked or it wouldn't have worked because you were willing.

[Ben Stiller]

To go for it too.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And it was. Why not?

[Adam Scott]

I just want to say something really quick about something you said earlier, which was the emotion of what you were creating and of those rooms. And when I first got there in 2020 and first got to New York and Ben brought me to the stage and showing me the set for the first time and walking into mdr because we were just starting and I was like, how am I gonna do this. Trying to figure the character and the innie and the Audi out and just sort of trying to piece it together. But then walking into mdr, a lot of stuff just immediately fell into place. And it was emotional seeing that for the first time. And I don't know if it's the ceiling or what it was, but the hallways and MDR really pieced a lot together and ended up dictating a lot of character stuff. It's extraordinary. I've never had an experience like that before with a set also.

[Ben Stiller]

Cause the set was, you know, it was so360 that you were just. You were in it. When you were in it, you really couldn't get out of it, for sure.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I mean, I think the key is, as a designer, is to, like, make it especially for this one, especially underground. Like, for you, everything's a first. You're a child.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, I am.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And it was like, how do we make this that everyone. Because they're so new and it has to be something that you've never really seen before, but it's still just an office. And it was. How do you make something that you can believe? I think is really important.

[Adam Scott]

And I think that the MDR and the Severed Floor is about limits, limiting curiosity, limiting imagination. And I think that was moving to me when I first got in there. It was tragic and kind of really sparked my imagination. And it's also. It's not a in your face sort of thing. It's all subtlety, and it's all. It does it to you. It's not telling you what it's doing. It actually does that. It blocks you off from the world.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Like, when you walk out of the elevator and see a new painting in front of you, it must be so odd.

[Adam Scott]

It's everything. Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Amazing.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

You know, I've never told anybody this, but I always play all the characters on sets before they're done. As we're building them, I walk and I play everybody. As much as I not really like the dialogue, but I think of where and where I just do it, honestly, sometimes probably hundreds of times. And it's mostly just walking and looking and thinking and trying to think of things that would either surprise you or inspire you.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Wow. So you're actually just putting yourself in the headspace of the characters by being in there. That makes sense to me.

[Adam Scott]

Totally. It shows.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And for me, it's the most fun part. To make sure that this feels real enough and just those subtle ways for you to. For anyone to feel like they're really in a space that is reasonable for this to happen.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

What did you feel was the biggest challenge for season two? Going in, knowing what we've done in season one?

[Jeremy Hindle]

I mean, it was scary because we were gonna see more of the outside world. The outside world does scare me because, as you know, it's just hard because we shoot in New York. You're trying to find something that's unfamiliar. Like, we're trying to find things that people. They understand it. But I can't be in law and order. Like, remember the train station? Like, we're going to Utica.

[Ben Stiller]

Y to Utica for the train station where Bert and Irving say goodbye. And that was because we were willing to kind of look outside of the immediate area, which is more expensive and challenging, and you have to figure out how to make it work. But the desire, I think, was to, like. Yeah. Not do something that maybe you had seen before or that was very specific to the show. And I think you're right. The outside world, kir. Even in season one, you know, a lot of time was spent trying to figure out the look of that place. I was looking again at our reference, and we pulled a bunch of amazing Gregory Crewdson photos. His exterior night shots, which are very cinematic and beautiful, were very inspiring, too. Then in season two, yeah. We had episode 204 where we had the Ortbow. And I remember, like, our first conversations. We're like, we should go to Peru.

[Jeremy Hindle]

We were talking Argentina.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, my God.

[Jeremy Hindle]

We were talking about everywhere. And I was like, how am I going to build this world? I have to go three hours where it's. I think I walked. I don't know. Brian and I must have scouted 25 days walking and walking and walking in bed. Like, no. And then, because I remember, like, reading it, and he starts. I think he woke up in the forest. And I remember I said, oh, shouldn't he wake up on the lake?

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

This is the thing, I think fun about this show is when you have you or John Turtiro, when you have actors of this caliber as a designer, you immediately go, well, it's John Turturro on a frozen lake. It's going to be really. You just know.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Instantly you can do it.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. And have to do it in. We did it in Blake Minnewaska, which is, you know, like two hours from New York and wanting to get that scale. And then, you know, the combination of getting very lucky with the weather where we actually had real snowfall, which I think made a huge difference. Like, the dead seal.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah, the dead seal.

[Ben Stiller]

The wide shot, the dead seal scene, which I think the snow was only falling for, like, three or four hours that morning. But we got the whole scene. It's funny how fast you can shoot.

[Adam Scott]

When you need to shoot when fresh snow is falling.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. But that was another challenge for season two. And I think you're right. The feeling of how do we keep making Kir and the outside world as interesting and as specific, which has always been something.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Well, and it's like finding something that's not recognizable to everyone when there's so many shows that shoot in anywhere. And I think it's just that if you connected it, I think it would take it away. You really need to feel like, I don't know, like, the train station, I kept saying, it's in Poland. Like, we don't know where it is, and it shouldn't be anywhere. I always thought, you know, when we did Newfoundland, like, you don't really. We should never think, okay, I'm in this place. It would take away from the story, Right?

[Ben Stiller]

Well, yeah, that's been the challenge. Right. Like, to create a space that feels familiar but is not specific to anything we know, necessarily. And then just to talk a little bit about 207, it's the incredible work you did with Jessica directing. You know, the challenge of creating the testing floor.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

And that process, and I know that started very early on in the development of the season. Talk a little bit about how you and Jessica began that process, because it was so great. Because obviously, you know, Jessica having shot the show too, you know, it was all just sort of like, there was nothing that had to be explained or anything. It was like more like, okay, we all knew what the reference points were and were going for something.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. It was just like, what's the extension of this? And I think the key was that it was a medical floor, to me, was like the clinical nature of it was the experimentation. And it felt like doctor. Like Dr. Maurer and her. And I think that was, for me, the most important thing was that she walks to a door, and then when she severs, when she goes through, it's like, okay, how does she not see what's through the door when it opens? So it's like, okay, we have to create it on an angle. So when she walks through, because otherwise she would remember that one split second of what I'm like, oh, the wall has to be on an angle. And then she walks in and it's like, what the fuck? It's just a white Wall. And then left or right is the real space. So that kind of. That rule just was the guide for.

[Adam Scott]

That's so true. I never quite understood why that every time I walked into one of those it's like, okay, well now I gotta. That makes complete sense.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Cause it's only just as it wipes open, she has a second and then once she steps through, she doesn't remember. And also when she would come out.

[Ben Stiller]

So it's just that by the way, that's something that you wouldn't think about in reading the script or even as we're putting. And then becomes very real. Like a real issue when you're actually having to create the set.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Like we really do try and work on the math so that you really. That it's as functional as possible. If anyone really wanted to think of. I find it also creates some of the absurdity because you kind of have to do those things. That's the reality of it.

[Ben Stiller]

You and Jessica really were like mind melding on it and. And this challenge of creating something the same but different. And the question of should the hallways be another color? And we came back to like, no, no, it should be kind of similar, but the scale is different.

[Jeremy Hindle]

They're wider, it's higher.

[Ben Stiller]

And the angles. She came up with these really great sort of triangular angles. Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

It's always like. I think it's really just designing with emotion. Like she's walking these halls and there's creating a violence to things like sharp angles. They make you feel something and you're not. I find it's really kinetic, more than cerebral. It's like people feel things as they're watching it. And you're watching her very tiny human walk through these hallways and all of a sudden just sharp. Just. I really find it's just so powerful.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, you're talking coming from like character and emotion. Yeah. When you're thinking about it in terms of the characters in the story, that's gonna be the most. There's the most there because there's so much feeling there that you're. If you're putting your piece.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. It's funny, I didn't know until that I'd always designed like this until I really. Till after this season, I didn't realize how emotional I was responding to things like that's how I was thinking. But it's a show like this that you start to really see what it really does do you know you do it all the time. Like you scale is the most important thing in designing. But this one you really start to feel, like, how you can play with people's emotions and how you feel when you're on a set and you see it in you. And, I mean, I feel like it really is. It's such an interesting way to help infer things that, you know, emotionally.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. Cause that floor, it is about trauma and violence. And we're introduced to it through Gemma's eyes. And this is a place where she is. Where it's. That's all it is to her.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Like, her little desk where she sits, her little table. Like, I was like, how do I make this table violent? So it's like, oh, it's for two. But I made it. I just thought everything has to have some sort of violet nature to it.

[Ben Stiller]

But you put a little chunk in the table.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. Where she smashed it out. Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

That was, like, the history of. At one point, she had thrown someone.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always trying to. I mean, it's playtime. I don't know. I feel. I honestly, I feel really lucky that we get to do something like this. It's. You know, making art is not something that. The biggest commodity out there these days.

[Ben Stiller]

And I do feel, like, that openness that you have in thinking and talking about this stuff, like, the openness to ideas, to new ideas, just sort of, like, allowing space for something to show up.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah. I mean, you and Jess and I just clicked in a way that was so interesting. You guys already had your dynamic, and I could already see it, but you guys were quite. You were so welcoming. And what I loved was, Jess is insanely opinionated. You are insanely opinionated. I'm insanely opinionated. But none of us are fragile in a way about the art, you know, like, we could be hurt, obviously, but it was more the art was the important part. And I love that one of us can just say, that doesn't work. And we would just all let go of it. We'd be like, yeah, you're right. And it just became really natural for me to work in that environment.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. And look what we got.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

It's such a great experience when you have that. When you have that trust with someone. And then I just have to say, like, things that you would just incorporate, like in the birthing cabin, at the fireplace, the sculptures. Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Can you talk a little bit about that? That's amazing.

[Jeremy Hindle]

So the set was. We were super happy with the set. And I was. I'd actually gone to this pottery place in New Jersey, and I was looking at different ceramics, and I had this idea for these Ceramic sculptures that I'm like, there has to be something here that's very here. What is it? And I called Dan. I'm like, if I was going to make two sculptures in front of the fireplace, I know what they look like. I just need to know who are they? There needs to be two people. And he immediately, so quickly said, Mrs. Kir pregnant with child. Mr. Kir pregnant with industry. And I hung up. I didn't even say. I just hung up. And Panko, like within two days we'd made those things. And then I didn't tell anyone. I didn't tell you. I was just like, I love these little surprises. And you walked in and Patricia at the same time. And Patricia went to it and started hugging it. And like, what the fuck is this?

[Ben Stiller]

Hinto?

[Jeremy Hindle]

But it's the connection that we have. Like the fact that Dan can come up with something, like it's in his orbit, it's just having the right vessel to use.

[Ben Stiller]

But you asked the question. It's just like. It's just sort of a fun process to have that back and forth and ping pong ideas and then something comes out of it. And that for me, when I saw that, it blew my mind because it was like, oh, that's just so weird and so interesting and so specific that I was determined to make sure we get a cutaway, a close up at some point of it, just to have it in the scene.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I just kept thinking, there's something that needs to be there for you. Like you're gonna be in this room and there's. Obviously it's a room, but it's like, what's the thing that's. They're always planting some torturous thing to happen.

[Adam Scott]

Yes.

[Jeremy Hindle]

So what is it? What seed is this?

[Adam Scott]

I love that set so much. And I remember walking in for the first time and the fire was going. Cause when the fire lit up, I mean, it's a beautiful room. But then when the lights went down and the fire went up, it changed completely. And just knowing we were gonna be in there for what, three or four days doing these really difficult material and then walking in and being like, oh, this is so cozy and weird.

[Jeremy Hindle]

It was the perfect roaring fire ever.

[Adam Scott]

Huge.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Huge.

[Adam Scott]

Ridiculously big.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah, I mean, I think it was. What's interesting is. And it's. Cause all this comes from Ben too. Cause Ben plants little seeds in me. This is half an episode, dude.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Like that pressure is like, oh my God. Holy fuck. That's a long time. What is it? What is it? What Is it? And it has to be spectacular.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. And we also built off of the location where the original birthing cabin was. That set that you created was based on an idea of the actual location, but you embellished it and kind of.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Made it better, made it work for us.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

No, and it was more, once again, the scale, like in playing and trying to make it, it's inviting and comfortable. But what's that little. What's the moment? That's. These people are nasty.

[Ben Stiller]

All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back after this. Adam, if our partner, ZipRecruiter, was helping Lumen hire for various roles.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

What kind of keywords would they use?

[Adam Scott]

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[Ben Stiller]

That's good. Enjoys long, claustrophobic hallways.

[Adam Scott]

Perfect. Drum major.

[Ben Stiller]

Goat lover.

[Adam Scott]

I know for a fact that Lumen would love to search resumes quickly with.

[Ben Stiller]

Those particular keywords and that they can talk to qualified refiners the very next day, which is especially helpful if suddenly a refiner goes missing.

[Adam Scott]

So if you're a business owner who needs to hire, ZipRecruiter has all these tools and features and more, and they're designed to make hiring faster and easier. I mean, that sounds great.

[Ben Stiller]

I'm telling you. See for yourself. When you try ZipRecruiter for [e-mail] severance, something incredible happens. Oh, yeah.

[Adam Scott]

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[Ben Stiller]

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[Adam Scott]

The first day? Yeah, the first day.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, I know. It's insane.

[Adam Scott]

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[Ben Stiller]

That's ZipRecruiter.com S E V E R A N C E. Oh, that's how you spell severance.

[Adam Scott]

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[Ben Stiller]

Jeremy, you're awesome. We're going to do some hotline questions now.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Where people call in and ask questions. Would you like to answer some with us? Of course. Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

But let me ask you, Jeremy, before, before we do that for you, if you were gonna give somebody advice who wants to do what you do and be a production designer in films, and what would your advice be to them?

[Jeremy Hindle]

Go to every gallery you can go to. Go to every museum. Listen to music 24 hours a day. It's like literally absorb art. I notice everything. Tree bark, leaves. I literally am obsessed with anything in the world. I think you have to be an encyclopedia of art and a lot of music, too. I really believe designing emotionally and kinetically is really. It's not from your head. It really comes from inside you. And I realize that more and more. And this show, really, I woke up to it, that that's the process, that that's what I do. And I think because I'm so obsessed with textures and fabrics and clothes and every. Literally everything, you have to just be a sponge.

[Adam Scott]

Well, we feel it directly from you. So thank you. Incredible work.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Thank you.

[Ben Stiller]

The show has been a nice sponge bath.

[Adam Scott]

Exactly.

[Ben Stiller]

Squeezed that.

[Jeremy Hindle]

We're all playing ping pong and I love that. I do think it's the most important.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

All right, let's do some hotline.

[Listener]

Hello, this is Momo G. I'm calling in regards to the beautiful mid century vanity featured in Gemma's room. It's making me fall in love with not just the show, but the set design equally. And I have to ask, because I've noticed it, the color theory as well. If you could tell us more about why certain rugs are certain colors or any insight to the set design, that would be amazing.

[Jeremy Hindle]

The vanity, well, that could answer that. First. I'm just obsessed with furniture. Every piece of furniture. I have thousands and thousands of images in my phone and I save everything I see. So it's like a data bank. And I also have an amazing researcher and decorator, David. I find the key is that because we like to make a lot of our own furniture and obviously we design the sets, but sometimes putting one really special piece of furniture that 99% of the world don't know, but there's a few that do really elevates the sets to such a different level.

[Adam Scott]

Like the chair and Mr. Milchick's office.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Mr. Milchick's. Oh, the black.

[Ben Stiller]

That's his redecoration that he did.

[Jeremy Hindle]

So that's from a Chanel showroom from the 60s. They were customers, 12 of them in the world.

[Ben Stiller]

Wow.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And they were designed for just the Chanel showrooms. And those pieces are such. They're pieces of art, and they elevate something so far beyond. And they kind of help synchronize all of our work and added some authenticity, too. And. And also, I actually like. I think there's a really cool way of educating people in design, too. In the show. We're lucky to do it. Those little things that just make people appreciate that there's really a lot better things out there, and you should be more careful of what things are and take your time. And there's so much effort in those objects. So I do have an appreciation for always highlighting special pieces. The colors of the colors are always blue and green. And for me, the emotional part of green is always the same. It's like every hospital has green. It's calming. It's natural. The color we see everywhere, leaves and grass. And it's just. It's the one color we always respond to that is just emotionally comfortable. It's where you feel. If it was red, it would have felt insanely different. Or like. I love in the show when we use red just once or twice.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

The first time is, you know, for me, is when in the Chinese food restaurant, like, the most crazy scene ever. You two talk, but there's that red. And it's like. It's the love, but it's not love. It's like violence. It's all those things together.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah. The zufu scene.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Jeremy Hindle]

And I love. I love that you're talking to her, and it's like they love each other, but they don't know each. It's so odd.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. Red is alarm.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Do you remember we found. You found the Chinese restaurant.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Ryan and I were up scouting for something, I guess. I think it was probably for episode four. I don't even remember. Somehow we saw this Chinese food restaurant, like, can we use it in the show? And we just started to go into the data bank of things that could eventually become.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, I feel like we had another scene that was gonna take place. There's like, some other shorter scene, I can't remember. But then getting into that restaurant, which was just. It's such a cool restaurant. Cause it's really, like, you know, set in time, but the lighting on the ceiling is literally the hallway lighting.

[Adam Scott]

Right.

[Jeremy Hindle]

It's the same.

[Ben Stiller]

Which was like. It almost felt like it was, like, meant to be or something.

[Adam Scott]

I love that Location so much.

[Jeremy Hindle]

It was amazing. It had such a severance. Let's say the other thing I love when I say it's not sever and everyone's like, you gotta stop saying that. But it's true. That is just severance. We walked in and we're like, we have to shoot here. What will it be? And I think it just got placed there. Eventually you put it there and then.

[Ben Stiller]

When the red came in, in that scene, it sort of harkened back to 108 for me. The Helly and Mark scene before, you know that you have in the kitchenette during the party and we play the same song. The same song is playing in 108. And in the zufu scene who.

[Jeremy Hindle]

You guys are good.

[Ben Stiller]

But no, but, no, but that was. I'm just saying it because it was like it kind of led. One thing led to another. It's like, oh, this. We were watching and editing the scenes. Like, oh, this kind of feels, you know, Mark and Helly. This is, you know, Audi, Mark and Helena. But it felt like that scene. And so like that triggered off different decisions that all were kind of like just were talking about sort of the one thing feeding off another.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. There was like an unexpected intimacy to both of those scenes that I don't think either of them anticipated in both scenes. Interesting.

[Ben Stiller]

Cool. Let's do another question.

[Listener]

Hi, I'm Kayla G. From Baltimore, Maryland. And my question is. So I made a letterbox list that is called Helena Egan's watch list a couple weeks ago and just filled with different movies that I think she would like because I feel like she needs something to watch other than just the security camera footage in Lumen. So I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of movies that I should put onto that list. Thank you so much. Praise Gear.

[Adam Scott]

I mean, the Shining. I feel like Helena would, you know, not a great father in that movie.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, father, daughter stories. I think of like her in this sort of weird corporate world that just is so cold and specific. It kind of like makes me think a little bit more of like some like 90s sort of thrillers, you know.

[Adam Scott]

Disclosure.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, Disclosure. Basic Instinct.

[Jeremy Hindle]

For some reason I thought of Anibaba. I just. I love how violent that film. Have you ever seen that Japanese film?

[Ben Stiller]

What is that?

[Jeremy Hindle]

Anibaba?

[Ben Stiller]

No.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Amazing movie. It's a woman who's in a mask and she's haunting this man in a hut. It's in the 60s Japanese, black and white, stunning. But it's really, really cerebrally violent. But she wears this crazy mask and she's scary as shit, and Helena really scares me.

[Adam Scott]

I think that sounds like a Helena choice. 100%.

[Ben Stiller]

Maybe tar. Tar, yes.

[Adam Scott]

That's a great one. Great choice.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, she is tar.

[Jeremy Hindle]

That's a good one.

[Adam Scott]

Maybe Devil Wears Prada.

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right, let's do one more.

[Listener]

Hey, Ben and Adam. This is Amanda Lynn. I'm from Quebec, Montreal area. And I love severance. Thank you so much for this show and for this amazing companion podcast. And I wanted to ask, if your Emmys were in the choreography and merriment department, what instrument would you hope that they play? Thank you so much. I can't wait for season three. Praise gear.

[Ben Stiller]

Well, that's an easy one for me because I am a drummer. Shooting that sequence was so much fun for me to be. I love marching bands and drum corps, so for me, it would be. I'd be, you know, one of the snare drummers. And by the way, we had some of the most amazing musicians on that track and in that scene. And there's a drummer named Ralph Nader, who's one of the main drummers, who you see when you see, like, the snare cam where you see him playing, you know, you just see the sticks, like, kind of like right up against the edge of the drum. He's just incredible. And it was just so much fun to watch those guys do their thing. So that's, for me, just drums. What about you, Adam?

[Adam Scott]

I would shred on guitar.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I'm kind of attracted to the theremin. I'd never seen one, and I fell in love with it.

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, my God, guys, marching bands don't have theremins.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Oh, in a marching band. Oh, sorry.

[Ben Stiller]

Oh, I guess I'm gonna play choreography and merriment.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Sorry.

[Jeremy Hindle]

I guess I'm.

[Ben Stiller]

Unless you're a separate. The separate division.

[Adam Scott]

You guys, I would be marching out front, shredding on guitar with a little portable amp like those on Venice, like in Mad Max.

[Jeremy Hindle]

When he's on the front of the truck.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah, just like that. That's what I would do.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Cool. I guess I'm gonna play a trumpet.

[Adam Scott]

You shred on trumpet?

[Jeremy Hindle]

Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

All right, man. Well, this is great. So much fun talking.

[Adam Scott]

Thanks, Jeremy.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Thank you.

[Adam Scott]

It was so fun.

[Ben Stiller]

And, Jeremy, I just want to say, also before you go, like, I have such good memories also of you, and I kind of like walking around the set when it was first built, kind of like geeking out a little bit, like, going like, this is just like Star Trek.

[Jeremy Hindle]

It is like Star Trek.

[Adam Scott]

Star Trek.

[Ben Stiller]

It is.

[Jeremy Hindle]

Except they only had half of the set. We actually did go 360. They had to go back and forth.

[Ben Stiller]

But I remember we were both like, kind of like, this is so cool.

[Jeremy Hindle]

You know what? It really is a spaceship. Like that's. It is designed like a spaceship.

[Ben Stiller]

Yeah, it's fun. It's so much fun. Anyway, thanks, man.

[Adam Scott]

Okay, that's it for the episode. The SE podcast with Ben and Adam will be back again next week with an episode you don't want to miss. Let's just say we're getting the entire gang back together. Yeah.

[Ben Stiller]

Very exciting. It's going to be good. You can stream every episode of Severance on Apple tv.

[Adam Scott]

Plus, the Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller and Adam Scott is a presentation of all Odyssey redhour productions and Great Scott.

[Ben Stiller]

If you like the show, be sure to rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your other podcast platform of choice. It really makes a difference.

[Adam Scott]

If you've got a question about severance, call our hotline, 212-830-3816. We just might play your voicemail and answer your question on the podcast.

[Ben Stiller]

Our executive producers are Barry Finkel, Gabrielle Lewis, Naomi Scott and Leah Rhys Dennis. This show is produced by Ben Goldberg. It's mixed and mastered by Chris Basel. We have additional engineering from Javi Cruces.

[Adam Scott]

Show clips are courtesy of fifth season music by Theodore Shapiro. Special thanks to the team at Odyssey. Maura Curran, Eric Donnelly, Michael Lavey, Melissa Wester, Kate Rose, Kurt Courtney and Hilary Schuff.

[Ben Stiller]

And the team at Red Arrow. John Lesher, Carolina Pesikov, Gian Pablo Antonetti, Martin Valderruten, Ashwin Ramesh, Maria Noto, John Baker and Sam Lyon.

[Adam Scott]

Annette Great Scott, Kevin Cotter, Josh Martin and Christy Smith at Rise Management.

[Ben Stiller]

I'm Ben Stiller.

[Adam Scott]

And I'm Adam Scott.

[Ben Stiller]

Thank you for listening.