Posted in: Apple, TV | Tagged: Severance

Severance Star Britt Lower on Helly R & Helena's Respective Journeys

Severance star Britt Lower reflects on her journey as Helly R, that game-changing Helena Eagan, and where things stand for both of them.

Throughout most of the AppleTV+ series Severance, the stars were able to play two different versions of their characters as the premise of the series of employees of Lumon Industries have two separate lives. An "innie," which is a person's work persona, is generally defined as their first name and last initial, and an "outie," their normal lives outside of work. Lumon technology doesn't allow either persona to retain the memory of their counterpart, as memories get swapped. The caveat is that the outie makes the decision for the innie to exist for Lumon, which may not sit well with the innie, who might not be pleased with their work environment.

In season one of Severance, Helly R (Britt Lower) reluctantly finds herself as a reluctant employee of Lumon, trying everything she can to leave. As we progress along both seasons, not everything is as it seems, as there's far more about Helly R that complicates matters with her secret larger role in Lumon and her innie loving relationship with Mark S (Adam Scott). Lower spoke to Variety to make sense of her journey to distinguish her personalities, the nuanced challenge of playing both sides as her outie, Helena Egan, the daughter of Lumon CEO James Eagan; and what we might expect in season three.

Severance: Lower on Navigating Helly R's Rebellious Journey, Helena's More Sinister Intentions

When we find Helly R, she's desperate enough to escape her environment to the extremes, which include self-harm. "I've loved getting to know how Helly's mind works and what she's driven by. In Season 1, it was an emotional journey that was very physical: 'Get me out of here at all costs.'" Lower said. "She had a very clear understanding that something was ethically off about this place that she woke up in. 'What is this work that we're doing? It doesn't have any meaning for me, whatsoever.'"

On her dramatic shift, "She came to discover at the end of the season that her outie is very deeply connected to the company, very deeply connected to the family that is keeping her trapped there. Her whole consciousness is shifted," Lower explained. "Now, my duty has shifted. I have a purpose, and I know that this is wrong, and I have this internal compass where I want to make things right."

Lower is also cognizant of the bonds Helly R developed with Mark S, Irving B (John Turturro), and Dylan G (Zach Cherry). "Meanwhile, she's learning the meaning of family. She gets her chosen family, and she really comes to love Irving and Dylan and Mark. Season 1 was, 'Who am I and what is this work?' Season 2 becomes, 'Who am I in relationship to how I show up for the people who I love?' That gives her a great deal of meaning for me. She's on this journey of, 'Who am I, really? What makes me human? This other part of me, this inner saboteur of Helena, told me I wasn't a person in Season 1, in front of my friends. Well, am I a person? Do I have the right to make choices about my body?' That's some of what's driving her."

When it came to the "Overtime Contingency" that involves bridging the innie to their outie parts of their mind, "That was something, as Britt, that I had to really track, because we were picking that up in Episode 5, like halfway through," Lower said. "We filmed out of order, but [I was] keeping track of what Helly knows and doesn't know and is privy to and not privy to, and then just waking up and all of a sudden, everyone else is holding her accountable to her outie's actions, of which she had no awareness of. She's on the back foot."

For more on Lower describing Helly's growth, dealing with what happened with Irving being severed, and navigating the season two finale, you can check out the rest of the interview. Both seasons of Severance, which also stars Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, Michael Chernus, Jen Tullock, and Dichen Lachman, are available on AppleTV+.

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