Ben Stiller knew he needed to make Severance the moment he read an early version of the show in a writing sample its creator, Dan Erickson, submitted to his production company. Now, years later, Severance is a hit, reportedly generating $200 million for Apple TV, and Stiller is the series’ executive producer and go-to director responsible for some of its most pivotal episodes. Kara talks to Stiller about the most poignant themes of the show, from its commentary on surveillance and technology to its meditations on trauma and identity. Plus, they chat politics — including Stiller’s reaction to an angry post about him by Elon Musk and his view on making political art now. Listen to more from On with Kara Swisher here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: How did Ben Stiller become involved with Severance?
You had the season two pop up in Grand Central Station that was hysterical, where you put them in a glass box and had people, had them do their work in the glass box, which was great.
For three hours, they were.
For three hours, and you were outside, people were shooting pictures of you at the same time. How do you, does everything now go around Netflix in that regard, or is there, streaming is sort of starting to settle, I guess, but maybe not?
I don't know in terms of how it's all settling out. I know it's a crazy new world. I know Netflix has changed everything. The amount of shows that they produce, movies that they make, the level of what they're putting in and spending, it's just changed everything. Everybody who makes stuff, you want your stuff to be seen.
And so it's that sort of push-pull where if you have something on Netflix, you know that you have a chance for more people in the world to see it than probably ever. But it also could be just go down the queue very quickly and never even, you know, get any attention. And so that's a real thing, too, you know?
You're scared of the queue?
Yeah, sure. But I mean, like, who wouldn't be, you know, feeling like, oh, I don't want to just go down, you know. But it's just such a crazy world now that the cultural moment that you have for something. I actually like being on Apple because they don't drop everything at once. We get to have an episode every week. And I think for our show, that benefits our show.
It does.
Because we get a chance for people to chew on it and to think about it and to talk about it and to go online and go back and forth.
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Chapter 2: What are the themes and inspirations behind Severance?
So tell me why, because he was retweeting a Daily Mail headline that read, Ben Stiller says woke America killed edgier comedy. That's not what you said at all from what I could read.
No. Yeah, that was not at all. It's the opposite of what I was saying. I don't know why he has so much time on his hands that he's retweeting something that was written about me. I know he really likes Tropic Thunder, great, good for him. But I think he's, you know, after that, you know, the Nazi salute, the double Nazi salute, I'm just, I'm not, yeah, I'm not into it, never was into it.
And I think, you know, what's happening, honestly, not that anybody needs my opinion, but What's happening in terms of him being so close to the president and, you know, all the questions that that brings up in terms of conflicts of interest. All of that stuff is really, really concerning.
It is, absolutely. The two of them together.
And what he cares about, pop culture and all that stuff, it's like, you know, who gives a shit?
He wanted you to agree with him that Tropic Thunder couldn't be made. Isn't that awful? It goes with the narrative of isn't everybody trying to stop us because we're the greatest victims on earth. Us rich people are the greatest. I think that's down that lane, something like that.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think it makes anybody a victim. I mean, what the temperature is in terms of what movies are getting, you know, made or not. The reality is, yeah, sure, the environment is different and it would be tougher to get it made. I don't know if it could get made or not. I think it would be harder to get it made.
But that doesn't mean I'm commenting on, you know, the state of our culture.
He wanted you to agree with him, I think.
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