Movies - TV
Ben Stiller Stunned The Severance Cast With A Season 1 Surprise
By ANDREW HOUSMAN
Audiences weren't the only ones who didn't know what to expect from the first season of “Severance.” According to Adam Scott, who stars in the sci-fi thriller, director and executive producer Ben Stiller launched the infamous dance party sequence on the cast without telling them, meaning that the reactions of the actors in the scene were of genuine surprise.
In Episode 7, titled "Defiant Jazz," creepy supervisor Seth Milchick rewards new hire, Helly Riggs, for her stellar macro data refinement performance with a "Music Dance Experience" (or "MDE," in its corporate acronym.) The entire dance sequence took two days to shoot and the actors were aware of the script, but the initial burst of colorful lights was kept a secret from the cast.
Scott explained that the reactions from the actors "marveling" at the spectacle were from people who were genuinely in awe of the radical change in pace. Part of the reason for the cast's surprise is that there were previously no signs that the harsh office ceiling lights even had the capability to turn into dance club strobes. In the end, the MDE was a welcome respite for both the fictional characters and the real-life actors.