Britt Lower on balancing Helly R. and Helena under the watchful eye of Lumon in Severance

Britt Lower was thrilled to be able to explore even more depth in her character in returning for season 2 of Severance, especially in getting to explore even more aspects of who Helly’s outie Helena is in the world. She noted that Helly is possibly who Helena could have been had she not been raised within the world and legacy of Lumon. The first four episodes offered a unique space of getting to play Helena disguising herself as her innie, Helly and it was important to Lower to detail her performance differently without giving too much away to the audience. Small details such as the body language and mannerisms changing ever so slightly, or taking a little longer to figure out how to turn the macrodata refinement computers on allowed her to tease the eventual reveal ever so slightly.

One of the moments this season which required a lot of detail within the scene was the eventual moment where Irving reveals Helena’s true identity plunging her into the cold water, and for Britt she felt it was important to experience this herself for her performance sharing how her and scene partner John Turturro executed this moment together.

In getting to have outie Helena meet Mark in the outside world for the first time, she enjoyed the aspect of getting to see her character try to establish a connection only to fail at the last minute as Helena likely hasn’t managed to connect with other people much in her life.

Watch the full conversation below: