Dichen Lachman
Appearances
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
How much longer do I have to do this?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I mean, it was incredible. And Jess was really, she really wanted to explore her being kind of like a defiant teenager, you know? And I mean, she's such, she's so incredibly talented.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, it was great. I loved how loose she was with like, oh, let's just do it this way. And she really knows how to just like push forward. And I think maybe it's from her experience working like a lot in the independent film space. Sometimes you can work with people who are very regimented within like a studio structure or whatever, but I never felt like that on this show ever.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Stop being such a bad sister. Sister. Stop being such a bad sister, you fuck. I can't swear on this, can I?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Like there's just seemed to be so much time to explore and experiment and Ben, obviously she's worked with you, you know, a number of times. And I think her directing style, I feel like she's learned a lot from you because she just really wanted to, like you do, try lots of different things.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Oh, yeah. Okay. Or the other way around.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Themes of religious conversion in Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
What about you? Are you reading?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Kid's a genius. You should flunk every other child.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Stop being such a bad sister.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Blonded. What the fuck are you doing?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Oh, gosh. To me, it wasn't so difficult as much as it was like exhilarating and fun. Ben, when you came that day or a couple of days actually with that little camera, I don't know what it's called.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
That was so much fun to just go and get random things. Like Adam, remember we had like little- A picnic. Yeah, we had a picnic. I mean, just between setups, we would like run out with Ben and Ben had the camera and he was like on his knees in the mud. And I was like, oh my God, like don't-
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Oh, you're so... I couldn't have done it without all of that incredible support. But it really was... It was extremely challenging, but I feel like it was the most fun I had just because those parts of the episode where it's less of a flashback, more going into the minds of these characters. It was just so much looser, you know, and free.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And it was something that was just a little less like oppressive like that, those hallways, which I don't know how you guys make hallways so interesting to look at. It's incredible how beautiful the show is.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Okay.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I would say go for it.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Oh, when he comes into the office?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
That's right. Haji Murat.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
That was functioning, wasn't it? There were ants in there.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
There were ants in there.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Your beard was incredible, but it was painstaking, right, to put that on?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yes. Hi, guys. Keep going.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Even like not just on the field, like in person, I actually thought that was your beard.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
She did such an amazing, amazing job.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Oh my gosh, if my innie, I had to process this, if my innie was having a session, but isn't my innie, I've got so many innies, right?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
All right. I guess like what I was allergic to. That would be important.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
It's practical because in England, every time you go to a restaurant, they're like, any allergies?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Thank you for having me. Congratulations, guys, on an amazing season two.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Nothing.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I don't believe you.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, it looks like it's lit by you.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, mole beams, which you love. Tell people what a mole beam is.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
That's a long time to keep going in this day and age.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
But would you take movies off the shelf and go home and watch them?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And who are the filmmakers that you loved that made you say, I want to do this?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, and I feel like when we went from Dannemora, which was very much 70s inspired for the vibe of it, even though it took place in present day, when we went into Severance, there was also kind of a similar influence that was from a very different genre.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
You're being so much nicer to me on this podcast than you are in real life about my operating.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Right. It is very lonely directing, I find, because ultimately it's a subjective choice that you're making and you can look around to everybody. But at the end of the day, it's your choice.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I wanted to shoot on film. Yeah.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yes, I am. I'm sorry if I interrupted you earlier. I wasn't sure if that was the right time to step in.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And it was at the very end, and spring was coming, and the leaves were on the trees.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Thank you. Thank you for having me. I've been enjoying listening, so...
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I mean, it had that kind of feeling of that starkness and that beauty and gives it this unique quality that was very important because this is the only time we're ever really seeing Mark and Gemma's relationship in the past.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah. And a different time, you know, I also thought, you know, just in terms of visual storytelling, you know, how you blocked and came up with even the scene where Mark's sitting alone and the police come up, you know, what a tough scene to have to figure out how to shoot.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Cause it's a scene we've seen a million times in movies and TV shows and not have it seem cheesy or cliche and the way that you did it with no dialogue. Just seeing the police taking their hats off.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's a combination of these visuals that are very technically, you know, kind of crazy to pull off. And also just this pure, simple emotion. The shot going down through the center console down to the testing floor, that was one of your little sort of... Side projects?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I mean, we could get into the rain on Mark.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, well, I was born in Kathmandu and moved to Australia when I was about seven years old and spent a lot of my teenage years there. And then when I was 23 years old, I moved to Los Angeles. And now I'm in London, just working my way around the world. Wow.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And the way you use it in that shot where you see the light, you hear the footsteps. but you don't see the person is very specific and I think really cool.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
It is. Even Adelaide to LA is a long way.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yes, they were. They were living in Kathmandu. Kathmandu in the 80s was not very developed. And a lot of people lived like they lived hundreds of years ago. You know, we didn't have electricity half the week. I think the only movies we had access to were Superman, Supergirl, Police Academy, and Hindi movies. Well, that's all you need. So it was like another world.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I was working in Australia and at the time there weren't a lot of opportunities there. And I knew that if I wanted to keep working, I'd have to sort of expand my horizons. And so I came to Los Angeles just like many young aspiring actors do and And it was really exciting. And I knew so little. I feel like if I knew how hard it was going to be, maybe I never would have done it.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
But that naivety was very helpful.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, I think, I mean, we all go through it. It's interesting, Ben, to hear you say that because, you know, someone who doesn't know you or hasn't had the chance to speak to you about it might assume that it was an easier path or something, but it never is.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I think everyone's journey is up and down and that's what makes it so beautiful, you know, because we get to have that contrast of the rejection and the highs of the wins and everybody started somewhere.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Thank you for noticing. Yeah, I mean, to go back to the whole journey of being an actor, many years ago, I realized that so much of this business is out of our control. You know, it's not really a competition because it's just like there's just a person who's right for the part. And 99% of the time, it's not going to be you.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And it's such a frustrating thing that, I mean, we all know what that feels like to have a million no's. And I think I got to a point where I wasn't even feeling like I was being able to be creative. I guess I just decided like... okay, I can't control whether I get the job or not.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
But when things started moving to taping, which I would often push for, I was like, this is my opportunity to be creative. This is my opportunity to, you know, I learned how to use a camera. I learned like a very little bit about lighting. I got the best microphones I could. And I just decided that any tape I sent out, whether I got it or not, I just, I wanted it to
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
be a really great quality product and represent my commitment to my work and my creativity, especially when you get something so wild like this. When I got those sides, I had absolutely no context. So it was like, what is this woman saying and why is she saying it like this? But it was an opportunity to be creative and get into my imagination.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And Max, my husband and I, we sort of do it for each other now. And I'll go handheld. I'll learn the lines for him. And we'll get the bounce boards out. And it's like we're working. It feels like we're working, which is, you know, sometimes you don't get to do that.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
No, Ben and I got on a Skype call. Ben, do you remember you told me on the Skype call that Gemma was Miss Casey? Yeah, I had no idea because I hadn't read anything.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I was like, wow, this is a lot of pressure. I'm going to – I can't let anybody down. Well, because it's, you know, it's- Sure, right.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
But also the buildup to Gemma, you know, and the audience getting to know her and everyone seeing what, you know, Mark had that he lost. So when I read it, I was extremely excited to be involved much more with you guys and to be able to collaborate with you all more. But I was also like, don't mess this up.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I did. Yeah. Well, Ben was like the hair, like he was concerned about my hair.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
But I totally get it because it's, you know, it's like, it's such a, it's such a specific world. And like, it really does matter on a show like this. Like most shows, like it probably doesn't matter that much, but on this show, it is super important.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
So I bought all these different wigs and then I was on set for something else and I borrowed some of their wigs and I took photos and I made a whole PDF just so like Ben could be like, is it brown hair? Is it red hair? Is it black hair? Is it like, what is it? And then you responded to the-
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
Yeah, I feel like she was curious. And also now in Seven, you see that in those other rooms, she's isolated basically with Dr. Maurer. And I think it worked out in a way because that curiosity being with the group and how she so enjoyed being in that space with them. And I felt like her face sort of sit differently to all the other characters. It was... It was this longing for connection.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And I think Ben, I don't know if you remember, but we were on a call. I think it was about my hair, but we also ended up talking about the character.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
And I was like, she's like a doe, you know. So I sort of worked with that animal. And Ben, really, you helped me. me build this character and dan you know like you guys led me through that right all right it's time for us to take a quick break and we'll be right back
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E7: Chikhai Bardo (with Dichen Lachman and Jessica Lee Gagné)
I've been trying to learn an Irish one, actually, because my daughter and I have been watching Bad Sisters, and we absolutely love it. And Matilda's, like, been walking around the house saying, you know, like, all the different names on the show. And, like, sometimes, like, we'll just start trying to talk to each other in Irish accent. But I have to, like, start perfecting it.