Jen Tullock plays Devon, Mark Scout’s sister, on Apple TV+’s new hit series, Severance. We caught up with her to talk about Devon’s journey within Dan Erickson’s terrifying world, as well as upcoming projects and what inspires her as a performer. Dive in and get to know the real Jen Tullock!
(Interview contains spoilers up to Episode 6 of Severance)
Mary Littlejohn: What attracted you to Severance? In general, what is it that attracts you to particular projects?
Jen Tullock: For me, it’s always about the story. This story, in particular, was compelling in ways that I hadn’t seen before and married two tonal worlds that I had never gotten to inhabit in the same thing. It’s a deeply felt, sincere drama about grief and human ennui, and also a thriller with cool Hitchcockian, suspenseful moments.
I was also just really drawn to the character of Devon. I hadn’t ever played anyone like her. In the years leading up to Severance, I had been doing a lot of comedy and looking to do something darker and more dramatic.
I had met Dan Erickson, [the creator of Severance] years ago, working at a streaming network called Super Deluxe. I was acting in and co-wrote this series, and Dan was on the production side, and I remember thinking how intelligent and bright and kind he was.
We had organically fallen out of touch over the years, and so when I came in to read with Ben [Stiller] and Adam [Scott], Dan was there, and I went, “Oh, my God, it’s Dan!”
I’ve never experienced such rapture for someone else’s success — it’s so well-deserved. I was just so thrilled because he is incredible, and his acuity for world-building is really unparalleled.
I started in the indie film world, came up through Sundance, and cut my teeth there. I learned a lot there and was very lucky to do that, but then also have a theatre and music background.
For me, the only through-line that matters is a compelling story, telling difficult truths. Sometimes that is a big broad comedy, and in this case, it’s Severance.
How much did you know about the overarching story when you were filming? How much of the Lumon plotline are you privy to, or is it closely guarded?
In terms of the big sweeping storylines, I had an understanding of it all going in. However, past a certain point, I stopped reading the storylines that took place within Lumon because I thought if Devon didn’t know, I didn’t feel like I needed to know. I’d rather stay focused on the world that Devon inhabits.
Before the show premiered, they asked if I wanted to see some episodes early, and I decided to wait and watch them weekly, in real-time, with everyone else.
There are certainly things happening in the Lumon world that I am surprised by — I’ve had a couple of audible gasps!
I love Devon and Mark’s dynamic. It feels natural and intimate, like a real brother and sister with a deep bond. Devon always meets Mark where he’s at in terms of his grief and depression. Did you and Adam Scott do anything special to create that bond, or did it just occur organically?
It was both. Because of COVID, our shoot schedule was all over the place. It had been paused and shut down so many times that everything was sped up by the time we were back. Adam had already been shooting for about two months when I started.
I had met him two years before, pre-COVID. We bonded accidentally in that we traveled from LA to New York together in 2019 for the table read. The two of us on this flight were sitting across from each other, and I remember thinking, “Well, we have to talk, but we’re on a flight.”
The last thing you want on a flight is for someone to say, “Pardon me, how many siblings do you have?” But he was warm and incredibly sincere — I had an immediate fondness for him.
As with most brilliant comedians, we know him for having such a lightning-fast wit and being a great improviser, but it was so beautiful to get to know him in this character.
Obviously, Mark, especially Outie Mark, is so much more withdrawn, and I loved showing up to work with that version of him.
We also talked about politics between takes and geeked out on our favorite political theory books — nerd alert!
I’m very close with my real brother. He’s my only sibling. We’re best friends, and I feel very protective of him, so it wasn’t a difficult dynamic to pull from.
In my mind, Devon represents the concern of the outside world looking into Lumon and the emotional sobriety of a person who hasn’t severed. She’s going through her own stuff while also taking care of someone she loves, which is an experience a lot of us have been through lately.
I found it especially telling that even when she was in labor, she was still looking after the men in her life. Ricken is crying over her belly, and then she’s trying to set up Mark with Alexa while she’s having contractions!
It struck me also how well this show did at portraying the monotonous side of labor. What did you draw on for those scenes?
I’ve never experienced labor, but three of my closest friends in the last two years have had children, so I had access to those experiences in varying degrees, just by being someone who loves them.
I called them, and I had a text thread of my pregnant friends, saying, “I have to get this right.” It’s such a specific thing that, while universal, I feel like actors don’t always get right.
Of course, my friends all had different experiences, but the one through-line was how much time you spend waiting, just sitting there joking or reading or being annoyed. The physical terror comes at a certain point, of course.
I just wanted to get as specific as I could. I remember physically, during the contraction, Adam was very helpful — he and his wife have children — and I remember in one take I was straining, and I asked if it was too big or too much, and Adam said, “No, it’s not, trust me. That’s what it sounds like.”
Devon and Ricken are probably my favorite part of the show. They bring such lightness and warmth to the dark subject matter. What made Devon choose Ricken? Do you have a backstory of how they got together?
Yes, Michael Chernus [who plays Ricken] and I do. Devon loves Ricken in that she can see his kindness, sense of wonder, and eye for beauty more clearly than she does any sense of ego or histrionics — those are just a byproduct of something else that doesn’t really affect her.
When they met, Devon knew he would be a good father, and she knew he would be passionate. She knew he loved his work and had a steady career.
In my mind, Devon probably had a pretty wild time when she was younger, backpacked all over Europe, dated everyone, definitely did some LSD in Prague, like she had a good ol’ time.
When she met Ricken, she had never met anyone like him before, and while he was probably the kind of person who at first glance made her roll her eyes, I think that’s why she ended up falling in love with him.
Like everyone, he isn’t just one thing. What Michael does beautifully in that role is find the moments of actual vulnerability and nuance. With a character this big and full of life, he finds the tenderness, and you can see he is concerned about Mark.
I have to give props to Michael because that’s a really complex character to make human, and he did it beautifully.
Devon and Ricken are best buds. It’s the classic opposites attract. Ricken helps elevate her into the clouds, and she helps tether him back to earth.
I’m concerned about Eleanor after seeing Mrs. Selvig (Patricia Arquette) getting in there and holding her. Do we need to be worried about the baby?
That was the first scene I got to do with Patricia, so that was super exciting!
I promise you will not be traumatized in that regard. I can’t make any other promises, but Eleanor is still with us. We love Eleanor.
One surprising thing has been the love story between Burt and Irving [John Turturro and Christopher Walken’s characters]. I’m curious how you feel about them.
Swoon! I have so much respect for both of those actors — they’re just legendary. They were so concerned with telling that story in a beautiful and sincere way, and you can feel it in the performances.
I just clutch my heart when I watch them. It was a brilliant story point to see a love story that happens to be queer inside these walls where perhaps it doesn’t exist in that way outside and what that means about Lumon or the severance procedure.
I was fascinated by it and excited to have some queer characters on the show. I’m just so in love with them together! Every time they touch hands or see each other in the hallway, it’s so sweet!
Is there anything else about Severance you’d like to touch on, that you’re allowed to say?
I will just say if you think you know what’s coming, you don’t!
Yeah, I think after the baby goats, anything can happen.
The baby goats really did open up a new portal! [laughs] It continues to grow and expand in its imagination.
I’m excited for everyone to see how Devon progresses and becomes more ingrained in the Lumon story as the season goes on. I love how her story has been a slow burn with her family stuff and Mark, but let me tell you, in the second half of the season, some jazzy stuff happens.
You’re a very busy woman with lots on the go. How much can you tell us about Spirited?
Spirited, also for Apple, is a reimagined version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol. It’s set nowadays and stars Ryan Reynolds, Will Ferrell, Octavia Spencer, myself.
I can’t say much yet, but I did have a great time! I had never worked with Ryan before — he’s very cool, kind, and lovely.
I had just wrapped Severance, and because of scheduling, I had offered to drive to Boston that night for a fitting for Spirited, and they would let me off early for my birthday. So I wrapped Severance, took a 2-hour nap at 3 a.m., and drove to Boston in a rental car for a fitting.
Spirited is a musical comedy, so going from Severance to that — the characters could not be more diametrically opposed! I’m very proud of my part in it.
It’ll be out Christmas this year, and I’m hoping it’ll be a new Christmas classic. The music is by Pasek and Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman).
Do you sing in it?
A little. I play a character whose singing voice you don’t necessarily want to hear! We talked about if this person would sing well, and we decided that she would not, so it was a little tough, as a singer! [laughs]
Have you done a musical before?
I have. I grew up doing and watching musicals. I was just workshopping a new musical in New York right before COVID, and I haven’t done one properly in a while. I’m excited to go back to the theatre now that it’s becoming a thing again. I sang in a jazz band for years in New York — that was my side hustle.
Can you pinpoint who or what inspired you and made you realize you had to be a performer? What drove you to this path?
Growing up working-class, I didn’t have much access to movies in a theatre or any real proper training. My mother was a wonderful voice teacher, so I was lucky in that regard.
I just watched everything. I watched AMC and Turner Classic Movies ad nauseam.
The American Movie Classics magazine was still very much a thing back then. When I was twelve, I begged my parents for a subscription, and I would go through and highlight every film, play, script, or performer I didn’t know about and then research them.
There were two films from that time I remember seeing, affecting me biologically, physiologically.
The first was Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand (said every remotely funny actress in the history of time). That performance is a triathlon, and it was the first time I felt seen by a character.
It was as much Fanny Brice as it was Barbra Streisand. Here was a character who didn’t necessarily feel understood by those around her or her peers and had a sort of anachronistic sense of humor.
The other was How Green Was My Valley. That was the first drama I remember watching, when I was about nine or ten. It was the first time I ever cried so uncontrollably at the end of a film. It stayed with me for days. It just wrecked me. The performances in that film are impeccable.
Those two films represent the two directions of my career — one is a broad musical comedy, and the other is more intense cerebral drama.
What is something you haven’t done that you’d like to tackle next?
I wrote a feature with my friend Frank Winters, a wonderful playwright, and I’m directing that next year, universe-willing! That will be my first time directing a feature, so I’m excited about that!
As far as lofty dreams, I’ve always wanted to get an Anita O’Day biopic off the ground. She was always one of my favorite singers, and I grew up listening to her records. Her story is so crazy — she was a heroin addict, had a million husbands, she was an incredible musician.
So many biopics have come out recently, and I’ve always been preoccupied with her story. I would love to be able to do this singing for it in a picture-perfect world! I listened to her so much as a kid that I remember my mom saying, “You’re impersonating her! That’s not your voice!”
What is inspiring you and driving you these days?
Björk is my favorite musician, and I saw her live about a month ago. I knew it would be an intense, life-changing journey. I went into it as one might go into an ayahuasca trip.
She’s my favorite living artist. I go to her when I don’t remember who I am anymore because her work orients me and what I think is important.
You get the same sense of rapture with her as you do with musicals. There’s no irony there, but also, her work is not afraid to be deeply grievant or big and unabashed.
I just saw The Worst Person In The World, which is my favorite film of the year. You should see it, everyone should see it! The director, Joachim Trier, did a film about four years ago called Thelma, which was also incredible.
Other than that, my friends! It’s been a weird time of transition. I just moved, Severance has just come out, and I’m in the middle of shooting [Season 2 of] Perry Mason for HBO.
I’m at that point in my thirties where I’m realizing that my best friends are my family, so I’ve just been spending a lot of time with my friends and my godson.
Is there any one thing that you’ve done that you’re most proud of that you wish everyone could see?
Yes! My friend Sam Benenati is a writer/director, and we made a short film together a couple of years ago, Red Light.
Sam is such an exciting voice, and we made that with our bloody knuckles — it was us and a skeleton crew and about $5. I’m so proud of what we did. Sam had to cobble together the money to rent that car for the day, and we the whole thing was shot with just one incidental red light.
I did feel after a thirteen-hour shoot like I was losing my mind a bit. It’s great in that it can’t ever really become anything else — it’s such a contained, tiny world. I love a short film that’s actually that potent, and I got to play all of the characters, so that was enjoyable and a fun challenge.
I also just thought it was really moving and that the story we were able to build together was unique. You can watch it on Vimeo!
Thanks so much for taking the time to chat. We look forward to seeing where you — and Severance — go from here.
New episodes of Severance air on Apple TV+ every Friday.
This interview has been edited for length/clarity.
Mary Littlejohn is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.
