Emmys 2025: ‘Severance’ Star Britt Lower On Embodying Helly R & Helena And ‘The Duality That We All Have Within Us’ [VIDEO]

For anyone unfamiliar with Severance, Apple TV+’s most watched series ever, you are missing out. Sure, some find it frustrating and impenetrable. I was in that camp until I forced myself to begin again, thanks to Britt Lower’s endlessly fascinating performance. Now, I’m hooked. The show has a loyal and ravenous fan base and is up for 27 Emmy nominations, the most of any series this past season.

Wikipedia defines Severance as “an American science fiction thriller,” but that doesn’t do it justice. It’s also wickedly satiric, romantic, suspenseful and, sometimes, terrifying.

The series examines the lives of a gaggle of employees at Lumon Industries, a biotech company where its workers have undergone a medical procedure known as “severance,” whereby they live two separate lives, one at work (an innie) and the other at home (an outie)–with no recollection of either.

One of the best reasons to tune in is the truly beguiling, layered and often hilarious work by Lower, who received her first Emmy nomination last month. She plays Helly R and her outie Helena and, in Season Two, sometimes we’re not entirely sure who is who. The actress is absolutely entrancing whether she’s embodying the steadfast and determined Helly R or the ruthless, but possibly misunderstood, Helena, the daughter of Lumon’s CEO.

“The real treat for me as an actor was getting to ask those questions in season one, that disrupt the status quo, and then in season two, step into the perspective of someone on the other side,” Lower offers, “And to have this really internal battle between two very different perspectives inside of the same person, it was a wonderful challenge as an actor.”

Lower grew up in Heyworth, a small farm town in Illinois, and attended Northwestern University where she received a BS degree in Communication.

She has been acting in film and on TV for almost two decades with a slew of short films on her resume. She played significant roles in the indie films Those People (2015), Holly Slept Over (2020) and two terrific films that bowed at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival: Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer opposite Steve Buscemi and John Magaro and Darkest Miriam, co-starring Tom Mercier. Both are currently available to stream.

In 2020, she wrote and directed the short film, Circus Person, and is planning on turning it into a feature.

Seasons 1 & 2 of Severance is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

The Contending had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Lower about the show, her career and her much-deserved Emmy recognition.