Tramell Tillman about ‘Severance’ final, marching band dance

Spoiler alert: This story contains spoilers for season 2, episode 10 of “Severance”, streaming now on Apple TV+.

Tramell Tillman was finished dancing.

After his “dismissal” character, Mr. Milchick a memorable and often average “Music Dance Experience” in the first season of the Apple TV+ Show, he didn’t think it was possible to catch lightning in a bottle again.

But when director and executive producer Ben Stiller threw him in a series of marching band in the final of season 2, “cold Harbor”, Tillman saw the chance to tap his roots. “Ik ging naar twee HBCU’s, en een van hen was de Jackson State University. Ze huisvestten de Sonic Boom van het Zuiden, een van de beste marcherende bands in het land, en ik zou ze tijdens mijn undergrad -jaren bekijken met zoveel ontzag en verbazing in de atletiek, de creativiteit en de passie en de passie die deze muzikanten en dankers dienden,” hij vertelt dat hij vertelt, “hij vertelt dat These musicians and dancers told, ” Variety.

So, after Adam Scott’s Mark S. has completed the most important cold Harbor file, Milchick introduces the choreography and the Merriment department, which serves as the drum Major (with some slick movements) while celebrating the performance of Mark.

It is the icing at the top of a fantastic season for Tillman, whose milchick has delivered some of the most iconic lines of the series, from “Marshmallows are for team players” to “Feculence”. Below Tillman takes the biggest moments of Milchick from the final, from his comic routine with a crack to that unforgettable marching band series.

How physically demanding was it to film those scenes that shed the bathroom door with the machine?

You know, it felt really good. Because then then [Erickson] And his entire writing team has done so great work to make the story of where Milchick came from to come at the time, I didn’t have to act that much to beat hell out of that machine. It was so satisfying, because the choreography for that machine was originally something completely different.

I actually had to go down with the machine. But as was lucky, there was a certain run where I came across the machine and had put it to his end, and I just stood there. And that was the opinion they went with. This is so much cooler! And then this superhero simply did the machine on top of the machine. I had something like that, let’s go! This is so nice.

It is interesting that you call him a badass, because it feels like there is a re -evaluation among fans around this character who might ever have been rejected as just a villain. What was it like to see viewers how empathy developed as we learned more about Milchick?

I think it’s great. I really love it. It is so worth seeing, because for us it is a very human thing to see someone and to automatically have our own opinion about it. It’s protection. We do that for ourselves. But to see the opinions of people shifting – and there are people who are still not completely on board with the fact that he is a good guy, which I fully respect – but the fact that people are starting to question it, I thought: “We are making something. This is good. This is where the conversation starts.”

The whole show tells about: “Who are you?” We lead from day one, season 1, episode 1: “Who are you?” I think Milchick in particular has this identity trip where he is trying to find out who he is and who he is within this company.

This season really started with scratching the surface about what race means in Lumon and the ways in which the milchick influences. What was your first thought when you read the scene in which he receives the paintings of Kier that are depicted as a black man?

Before I even saw that story in the script, Erickson came to me and asked me if it was ok to include that story in his bow. And I appreciate that. We have taken a risk by telling that story, because if we did not tell the story and give it justice, the show could take a totally different turn, and we could alienate a large part of our audience. So there was a lot of conversation I had with Dan, with Ben, with Sydney Cole Alexander, who plays Natalie brilliant, about how these two people of color, these progressive people of color, how they continue in this business structure, knowing that the business structure is a bit racist.

And so what I appreciate about that day, when Sydney and I were on my way to filming that scene, is that Ben was in essence. He said, “You all do what you want to do.” And yes, he directed behind the scenes about microscopic moments, but for the most part it was a conversation, a non-verbal conversation between Natalie and Milchick that Sydney and I found at the moment as soon as the board ended the call. And that was electric.

To wear that moment in episode 5, just before he has his execution review, I was so grateful that they held that scene because it was discussed to be minced. But I said it is so important for Milchick to have another chance to make contact with another person of color about what he has experienced, and for Sydney, to make her character really respond or not respond.

This season, Milchick is consistently reprimanded for the use of big words, despite the fact that many other characters such as Cobel and Jame Eagan also use colorful language. Have you seen that as an expansion of those racist undertones within the company?

It was a total micro -aggression. These people check his language and tell him what they find suitable for this man to say. How decreasing and checking is from Drummond to approach Milchick while being reprimanded for something completely different, then casting him and saying: “No, change your language. Moreover, you don’t put in a mark to get 100% for Cold Harbor, I’m going to stick even deeper and you speak in a way you have to speak.” And it’s not even about protocol. It is probably more about ego than anything, because Drummond probably does not know what “devastating feculence means”. He has no idea, no but he learned That day.

Your delivery of “Mon-Osyl-a-Bic-Alls” and “Devour Feculence” in episode 9 are some of my favorite line measurements of the season. How did you approach that tense confrontation with Drummond when we see Milchick pushing back for the first time?

I just had to lean at the moments I experienced, where I felt that I was being checked in my speech. You know, growing up in PG County and had the importance of education, it was impressed by us that we were intelligent and that we presented ourselves intelligently. But unfortunately, in the era that I grew up, intelligence was close to whiteness.

So when you spoke in a certain way, with the help of your vowels and consonants, it was like: “Oh, you try to be white.” So regardless of the fact that these people had problems with my vocabulary and my dictation, it was nothing about me. It was all about their ego, and what they saw was an expectation of me. So for me that moment was a big FU. You are not going to control my speech. You are not going to tell me what to do. It was like Baby Tramell, Teenage Tramell was on that moment via Milchick. And he checked him. It was necessary.

We have to unpack that insane marching band scene. Has that been created because of the reaction of the audience to your music dance experience of season 1? How long did it take to learn the order?

I didn’t want to do it. And when I saw that it was a possibility, I told a few of the makers: “I just don’t want Milchick to dance in every season.” Because I was worried that we would try to replicate the music dancing experience. You can’t do that. It is iconic and it was especially for what it was. But then Ben told me that he brought in a marching band. Ik ging naar twee HBCU’s, en een van hen was de Jackson State University, en ze huisvestten de Sonic Boom van het Zuiden, een van de beste marcherende bands in het land, en ik zou ze tijdens mijn bachelorentjaren bekijken met zoveel ontzag en verbazing in de atletiek, de creativiteit en de passie en de passie en de passie en de passie en de passie en de passie en de passie en de Passion and the passion and the passion and the passion and the passion and the passion and the passion and the passion and the passion and the passion and the passion with which these musicians and dancers served.

So then I told me that a marching band came in, “Okay, wait a minute. What kind of marching band? Military style, or is it HBCU style? He said he was not sure right now. I asked him:” How did you want to participate? Did you want me to be the band director, or did you want me to be the drum major? “And I said to myself, if this becomes an HBCU style, like Jackson State University, I become the drum major.

It was so nice. And I have to give Ty and Teddy and Tyrone the honor that the choreographers and the organizers of choreography and cheerfulness were, in essence, bring all those musicians and dancers together to teach the choreography and get the movements good. It was epic. We had so much fun, I think we filmed that series for a few weeks, and that includes the rehearsals we had on my days off, and ensuring that we had everything we needed to make this absolutely incredible. I had a great time with the band.

Just before that moment you perform a strange comic routine with an animatronic crack. It felt like the characters used a script in the beginning, but after the vocabulary of Kier, Milchick insults, he seemed to sniff again immediately. What is the truth behind that moment?

It was a script moment, as far as the jokes in the beginning, but then Shit just became real. Again, this man has held so much and things have just been compacted in front of him. It also goes back to “Share Feculence.” I think that was not a planned moment. It just came out Mon-OSYL-A-BIC-OLLLEI. I think we see the remains of what happens when the Milchick facade starts to crack a little. The figure, the man, the myth, the legend, is here, and he does the same that he has been punished for so long, to control his language. He stands on that.

When we go back to choreography and cheerfulness, I think there is something about the presentation of those songs. “The Kier Hymn” is very traditionally done, very much through the book. But then you have this other song, “The Ballad of Ambrose and Gunnell,” and we see Milchick go down. I think that is because of design. We find ways in which Milchick uses his similarity, his personality, his history, in the world of Lumon: through the leather jacket, through the Ortbo outfit and the choreography and the cheerful song.

Do you believe that Milchick has it in him to stand up against Lumon once and for all?

I think we have so much more to mine before we can make that decision. We are talking about how Lumon is very culti, I tell that to so many of the quotes that have existed and that still exist today. So many of the people who are part of these crashes have been brainwashed and indoctrinated, and it is not easy to walk away. Some people will never leave. Does he have it in him? Don’t know. But we need to know more about who this man is, for us to find out where he is going.

This interview has been edited and condensed.