SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 1 of “Severance,” streaming now on Apple TV+.
When a 15-year-old Sarah Bock first read the script for the second season premiere of “Severance” way back in 2022, all she knew about her character was a job title: the “newest deputy manager” of Lumon Industries — a corporate position that would seem much too mature to be played by a high-schooler who looks barely old enough to be an office intern, let alone the boss.
Of course, that was the point. “I didn’t know much about her other than her position but I did know that she was unusually young,” Bock, now an 18-year-old college freshman at Northwestern University, tells Variety about what creator Dan Erickson and director/executive producer Ben Stiller told her about the role. “But they said in the audition that she might be a little bit more in control than she seems, which was kind of my first clue into her odd but definitely strong-willed personality.”
Bock’s Ms. Huang — yes, she did ultimately get a name — is one of the oddest plot lines in the second season’s premiere, of which there are many. After Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette) is ousted from her position as the manager of the severed floor, she’s replaced by Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman), who is then taken over by Ms. Huang. While her exact age is never revealed — “She’s definitely younger than my actual age, but I’m not exactly sure how old she is,” Bock says — it’s clear that she’s a child with an eerie sense of audacity she summons to boss around her much older underlings.
Bock says she felt imposter syndrome on her first day of set alongside older, seasoned actors like Adam Scott and John Turturro, but she had to shake the feeling in order to deliver a convincing performance — because, clearly, Ms. Huang has never felt professional fraudulence a day in her life.
Our beloved innies — Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Dylan (Zach Cherry) and Irving (John Turturro) — are just as confused about her presence as we are. “Why is she, like, 8?” Dylan asks Mark in a whispered worry as they follow her down one of Lumon’s many never-ending tunnel-like hallways.
At this point, we know we’ll never get a clear answer from Ms. Huang herself. Earlier in the episode, when Mark W. (Bob Babalan) asks her point-blank “Why are you a child?” during an ice breaker game, she gives him a stone-faced look: “Because of when I was born…?” Psychologists are using the scene as a case study for gaslighting as we speak.
Below, Bock breaks down the Season 2 premiere of “Severance,” how she mastered her sinister aura and how Ms. Huang evolved from her first script read.
Did you watch the first season when it came out?
No, I hadn’t seen it before, but I had heard of it because my parents were superfans of the show. I walked into the living room a couple of times while they were watching Season 1, and I was like, “What is this?’ But once I got the audition, I ended up binging the whole series that day, staying up until like 4 a.m., because I wanted to get a sense of the tone. But I didn’t anticipate getting so hooked on it. I just needed to watch the whole thing, because I became a fan and I was obsessed and needed to know what happened.
How did Ms. Huang change from your initial script read?
She was a little bit more of how you would expect a child to typically act — like, maybe a little bit nervous or timid and out of her element. But as we played around with it, even on my first day of filming, I wasn’t exactly sure how they wanted the character to be, but there was a specific moment when we were doing the ball game scene with Mark S. Ben told me to just stare at Mark for a really long time, almost like an eye-contact contest. He was like, “Once it feels like you’re staring for too long, stare for like three seconds longer.” And it was in that moment that I started to understand who she was, and started to understand that maybe she’s not your typical teenager in the situation — she’s a little bit more powerful than that.
What was your audition process like, and what scene did you read?
I got my first self tape at the end of August 2022, then we started filming in October 2022 — so it’s definitely been a super long process. The first step was my self-tape, and that was pretty word-for-word the ball game scene that’s in [the first episode]. And I think a month later I had a Zoom call with Ben, and then a couple of the producers, and I think Atingley4 Dan [Erickson] might have been there. And then a month after that, they flew me to New York and I got to meet Tramell in person and read the ball game scene with him, which was so much fun. I read that with Ben and Tramell and they played different characters. And then there was a scene that’s not in the show that I read with Tramell where I think I was sending someone into the Break Room.
How much did you know about Ms. Huang and where she was headed in the story while you were shooting?
I think at the beginning of Season 1, they got all of the scripts to start. But for Season 2, the process was a little bit different — I think we got the first three or four, but then the rest came as the months went on, so we didn’t necessarily know where the season was heading. So it was definitely a lot of theorizing, at least on my part, and as I read the scripts, I didn’t know what was going to happen next. It was definitely super mysterious. And there were a lot of rewrites and just changes plot-wise. So that made things a little bit confusing sometimes, because we did shoot out of order — but it also kind of kept me on the edge of my seat because I was really excited to see what was going to happen.
What was your experience on set with actors like Adam Scott, who I’m sure you were familiar with beforehand?
I definitely had a lot of imposter syndrome, because I’m a huge fan of all of them, and they’re all incredible actors and just incredible human beings. But it was my first time really on a set ever. So they all just taught me how to carry myself, and how to find my mark but not make it obvious that you’re looking at your mark, and things like that. And I think they’re all just such amazing role models, as far as being leaders on a set and setting the tone and keeping morale up. So yeah, I definitely learned a lot from them.
You’re a freshman at Northwestern. How have the reactions been like from your classmates ahead of your breakout role in this new season?
They’re really excited for me, which is super sweet. When I came to school, I didn’t tell anyone because I just wanted to get to know people first, and I don’t really think I’d even been announced yet. So for the first couple months, only two people knew. But then once it was announced, everyone was so supportive. And I was in a show in the past fall with some people here in the theater program, so they all want to do a watch party with me, and everyone has just been really sweet about it.
Did you watch the first episode with friends when it came out on Thursday night?
So I’ve actually been sick all week. Unfortunately, I was just in my dorm room but I FaceTimed my parents and my sister and we all watched the episode together.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
