Dichen Lachman on the Duality of Gemma & Ms. Casey in Severance
Dichen Lachman shares how she initially approached her role of Ms Casey in season one of the hit Apple TV+ series Severance since she didn’t know much about Gemma’s backstory at that point in time. The pivotal details which helped her to hone in on the character were shaped around Ms Casey’s pull towards Mark in the time they spent together inside of the Lumon building and the feeling that certain feelings transcend the severance procedure even if they can’t be fully explained.
As a result season two gave her a lot to build off of, particular for her pivotal episode where we got to see Gemma’s backstory from when she first fell in love with Mark at a blood drive to where she is now inside Lumon with multiple severance procedures being performed on her as a test subject. She found that shooting this episode last in the series was incredibly helpful since she had the opportunity to play all of the emotions of the finale first and to spend more time working alongside Adam Scott before delving deep into their characters history together.
In the season finale she speaks to Gemma’s experience of seeing Mark for the first time again despite the fact that at first she’s a different severed self and doesn’t realize who it is, and despite the fact he’s covered in blood there’s still something in her instinct to trust him. She shared how during the final scene in the hallway between Gemma, Mark and Helly she found the journey of Gemma gradually realizing that it’s Mark’s innie who turns around and chooses to go the other way and what it was like to play this devastation for her character.
Watch the full conversation below:
Q&A on the Apple TV+ series Severance with actor Dichen Lachman. Moderated by Mara Webster, In Creative Company.
Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives. When a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs.
