Sydney Cole Alexander
Appearances
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Oh, I love that question. I think for me, first of all, like I had worked at a company that reminds me of Voluminous. So I knew what it was like to like be on the receiving end of friendly feedback, but it feels like you're being stabbed in the heart. And so I felt like I kind of understood the world and how people communicate in that way.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
And so for me, there's a lot of back and forth with harmony and a lot of like thoughts. Because she's not following the rules. And that was pretty clear to me. But then when it comes to Milchak, like, he's so by the books, especially in season one, and he's such a company man, and he's so committed that I felt like...
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
There was room for Natalie to have a different relationship with this individual. And so because he hasn't questioned me, because he has, he seems to like be more inquisitive about how to go about things. And I didn't feel threatened by him. I felt like I could have a slightly different tone with him than I did with Harmony, who
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
To me, it's like the closer she gets to the board, the further away I'm getting to the board. And so that creates some tension between us. But Milchick is a different case.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
So I tried to think about like, so we're all people in this world and some things we're conscious of and other things are subconscious. So I tried like as an actor to understand everything that was happening subconsciously. I thought about how interesting it is if two black characters are having a different black experience.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
And I asked myself like, well, would Natalie choose to kind of lean on her being light-skinned? Like, would she take that path? And I thought the answer was yes. And so even though there were moments where I felt like sympathy come up, because I think that Natalie is very empathetic.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
I think that's why she's so great at manipulating, because she can feel what people are feeling immediately, but she lacks sympathy. And so when there were moments that where I started to feel sympathetic, I tried to just like push it back down in order to maintain my status in the company, because I think that while she may have
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
sympathetic feelings, her drive to maintain as close to the board as she can, is more of a priority for her. So I what I tried to do is kind of like, let those things come up without letting them take over completely because I don't think that Natalie, at least now in her journey, would be able to do that because this is everything to her.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
And so I thought about like, okay, well, if Tramiel's gonna approach it this way and I approach it from a different way, I think that that's more interesting to see two people who are struggling with a similar problem, but are approaching it differently and responding to it differently. And you can kind of see their different levels of humanity in a way.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
But surely beer and juleps cannot fill the void left by love. Indeed, only wine can achieve this, but it is famously costly, which is why sadness is among the most recurrent issues facing the poor.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
It's a joy to meet you, Devin.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
I am. I'm sure you know by now that your husband's work has found its way onto our severed floor. Yeah, do we know how that happened yet?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
That was a really fun scene to shoot as well. Because I remember we went through so many different variations of like, for a lack of a better word, Natalie maybe flirting a little bit. Like how much, how can she be professional? How can she flirt? And like, where is the line? And kind of playing around. And that's one thing that's so wonderful about working with you, Ben, is that you...
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
I feel like you really allow the actors to try different things and go too far and then pull it back and change the size of whatever we're doing. And that freedom is just really wonderful.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Fabulous question. Well, I would have to say that Lumen has a strict policy against bringing in animals unless it is a service animal. And as far as a severance procedure goes... Yes, the dog would have to be severed and then they could work with the goats and wrangle in all of the goats and be a sheep dog, if you will. That's really the only option.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Misbehaving dogs. Weirdly enough, my cats listen to me pretty well. They even do tricks for treats and they come when I call them. I know.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Are they food motivated?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Oh, I've always been a dog person, but over the pandemic, I fostered three cats and then I somehow ended up with two. But I had them when they were two and a half weeks old because they were abandoned. So they're very attached to me and they even sleep through the night. They drool when I pet them. They run to the door like dogs when I come home from work. I think they're very strange cats.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
I know.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Cats are great. I thought they were fine before this, but now I love cats. So I would say I'm both a cat person and a dog person. I don't think I can choose.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
I was going to comment on your sweater, but I didn't want the listeners to feel left out. I was like, that's a cool sweater.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Yeah, my Lumen-approved answer would be that to question the board's existence is very inappropriate. And the suspicion that this person seems to have is they might need a wellness check for that.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Oh, it's so fun because I'd never do that to anyone in real life. So it's so fun to be able to do it in acting because it's just so condescending. It's just what an experience.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
It's crazy. The Reddit page is insane.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
This has been wonderful. And I'm just honored to be a part of the show. Thank you for having me.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Yes, absolutely. I remember every detail. I got the audition, did the audition, and then I was called in for a callback at the studio. And I remember my manager called and was like, so Ben Stiller is going to be in the room. And I'm like, oh my God, what am I going to do? This is crazy. Because, you know, I grew up watching you and-
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Sometimes, you know, you get a producer or director session and you have to Google the person to know who they are, but that was not the case for me. And I think at the time I was still getting really nervous during my auditions, like papers would be shaking in my hands. And so I'm waiting to come in and I'm waiting for that feeling to happen. And I, it didn't happen. And it was weird.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
I kind of felt like the stars aligned and I was like, okay, what's happening right now? And I entered and you were so friendly and you were like, oh, you went to LaGuardia High School. And we were chatting about that. And so I did the audition and I remember I left and I called my boyfriend at the time and I was like, I bombed that audition. I was horrible. There's no way I'm booking this role.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
And I think it's because I wasn't as nervous as I normally was. I just didn't know what was happening. It felt unfamiliar and it felt strange.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Yeah.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
No, actually, I got brought in for the camera test to check out the hair and makeup. And after, you were like, OK, you can step out now. And I stood directly in front of a light. And you looked at me and you're like, you're standing in front of a light. And I was like, oh, and I moved to the side. And then you were like, have you done TV before? And I was like, not a lot.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
And you were like, well, this is great for you. Congratulations. And you were so friendly and welcoming. And I was like, oh, I hope he doesn't fire me. Oh, no. Oh, no.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
That's such a good point. I think so. Because it doesn't feel like you're performing, you know?
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
And then the first day on set, it was really quick because we just did that news, that little news section.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
So that was really quick.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Uh-huh. So we blew through that scene. I think it was like 10, 15 minutes we shot only, which is like so fast. And then when I came back for my first scene scene, Ben, you had seen my Crest commercial that had come out.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
And you were like, give me the Crest smile. And I was like, what? And so the smile just kept getting bigger and bigger. And it's so funny because I think especially because I went to performing arts middle school and high school and college and people are like, oh, commercials. I don't want to do commercials. And you really never know.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Like that commercial influenced Natalie on, you know, a piece of work that I'm really proud of. So I feel like I'm like, yeah, commercials. You never know. It might be an incredible experience that kind of gives something else a little something. Yeah.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
that this knowledge should be a given for a person managing a severed floor. Yes, of course. While, of course, getting MTR to their projected numbers by the quarterly deadline in three weeks. Yes, of course.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Yeah, I think so.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
Thank you so much. I was a little nervous because, you know, it's like first day with a larger scene on set with a legend with Patricia Arquette. But what was helpful for me was just coming in really, really prepared because I can overthink sometimes. When I know I'm prepared, I don't have the room to overthink that much because I'm like, I've done the work. I know that.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
So now I can kind of just relax. relax and see what the other actors are giving me. And since there's so much talent in this show, it was kind of easy to just look into people's eyes because it's unlike an audition. I'm not having to imagine what the other person is doing. There's so much coming back toward me to work with.
The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott
S2E9: The After Hours (with Sydney Cole Alexander)
So I think it was like a mix of preparation and then also just being awestruck by all of the hardworking people around me that were just so obviously talented and benevolent. Unlike all of the characters in the show are not all so benevolent.