Mr. Milchick’s Second Act
Severance breakout star Tramell Tillman teases a new, improved Mr. Milchick in the second season of the Apple TV+ thriller: “I’m tightening the leash.”
It’s ironic that the breakout star of Severance is the only one who appears whole and happy.
Apple TV’s sinister sci-fi thriller is all about the dichotomy between a work-self and a real-world identity, tapping a cast of heavy hitters to play double roles. Adam Scott, Christopher Walken, and John Turturro each find ways to subvert their on-screen personas playing “innies” and “outies” — the terms for the severed personas trapped inside Lumon and the original personas who leave each day — and each make a major impact on the series. But it’s Tramell Tillman, the unsevered manager of Lumon Industries, who feels like the perfect embodiment of Severance’s split focus.
As Seth Milchick, Tillman plays babysitter to the unruly innies of Lumon’s Macrodata Refinement team. His frosty condescension is a perfect complement to the sterile atmosphere within the Ben Stiller-directed series, though perhaps not as disturbing as Milchick’s performative warmth. That mercurial balance of kindness and cruelty would have been enough to steal the show. Paired with viral moments that amuse as much as they disturb — like the “impromptu” dance break in Season 1’s “Defiant Jazz” — Milchick has become an undisputed icon of the streaming era, a figure that audiences love to hate.
Tillman is happy to play Milchick once more: “It’s always fun to play the villain.”
Tillman, who spoke to Inverse ahead of the premiere of Severance Season 2, has come to relish his reputation as Milchick, especially in the limbo between Severance’s first season and its long-awaited follow-up.
“It’s always fun to play the villain or the antihero,” Tillman tells Inverse with a giddy smile. “Milchick is like, you don’t know what to make of this guy, but it’s so fun to watch and it’s so fun to play.”
Milchick has also changed Tillman’s life. Before Severance debuted, the actor lived a life of anonymity. But months later, he couldn’t attend San Diego Comic-Con without being swarmed by fans. Severance’s long hiatus gave Tillman, an actor who appreciates the stage as much as the screen, a much-needed chance to reset. As the series returns for its second season, Tillman is primed for the opportunities he’s long been manifesting. He’s due to appear in the upcoming Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning — a tentpole role that could soon launch him into the stratosphere. But before he makes his debut on the blockbuster stage, the actor sat down with Inverse to unpack Mr. Milchick’s second act.
A Defiant Breakout Star
Severance became a phenomenon through the “social media water cooler,” catapulting Tillman into the spotlight.
Tillman is a true dichotomy as Milchick. His mannerisms fill you with dread despite the warmth behind them, turning even the most innocuous gestures — a smile, a pat on the back, a bouquet of flowers — into an existential threat.
It’s a feeling I find myself trying to shake throughout my conversation with Tillman. Outside of his Lumon uniform, he’s seemingly exorcised any sign of Milchick. His pristine, ‘70s-esque mustache has grown out into a full beard, while Milchick’s starchy white button-down and tie have been replaced with a simple navy T-shirt. It’s early December when we convene on Zoom: Tillman’s calling from his home in New York City, perched in front of shelves of books and a record player. (His last played album? A Charlie Brown Christmas.)
“I love that people are digging in and dissecting the show.”
Physically, there’s more than enough to distinguish the actor from the character that made him famous. But Tillman does still carry some of Milchick’s mannerisms — or maybe they were Tillman’s all along. Either way, it’s hard not to feel like you’re speaking to his outie when you meet Tillman face to face.
Maybe it’s because Tillman is living a sort of double life in reality — in the aftermath of his viral moment in Severance Season 1, he was determined to separate his work self from the “social media water cooler.” Severance truly took off through social media: it’s where so many fans gather to share theories, memes, and admiration for the cast. It’s also where Milchick became a topic of fascination. Countless fans have speculated over the character’s true nature: could Milchick be a clone, or a permanently-severed individual? Tillman’s seen these theories and more, including one post that praised a “specific part” of his anatomy. He’s steered clear of Reddit ever since — but the internet’s best Severance theories still manage to find him, just on his own terms.
Tillman with the cast of Severance at 2022’s San Diego Comic-Con.
“Friends and colleagues will send me little blurbs and snippets of what people are saying,” Tillman says. “I love that people are digging in and dissecting the show.”
It helps that Tillman’s had some space to breathe since. Nearly three years have passed since Severance’s explosive season finale, in which the innies of the severed floor staged a revolt, emerged into the real world, and discovered new depths to Lumon’s corruption. Season 2 was meant to return swiftly, but a series of delays kept creator Dan Erickson from staging a comeback.
Tillman found other ways to stay busy in the interim. When the Writers Guild and Screen Actors Guild went on strike, he stood in solidarity. “I was very active in the strikes,” Tillman explains. “I wanted to be sure that I supported our writers and my fellow actors in that process.”
He also got the opportunity to return to the stage in earnest, rest, and travel — but staying idle was never an option. “If you have free time, you fill it. That’s my philosophy.”
Back To The Office
There are a few changes coming to Lumon in Severance’s new season.
Tillman has been busy these past few years, but he was more than willing to return to the severed floor when the time came. “I missed it,” the actor says of Severance, “and I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I was outside of it for so long.”
Getting back into Milchick mode was fortunately pretty easy, thanks to the team of costumers, hair stylists, and makeup artists that mold Tillman into Milchick’s image. “There’s been a lot of collaboration on Milchick’s hair, Milchick’s mustache; collaboration on his presence,” Tillman says. “All of that has really helped to feed the machine and also feed who this man is in this world.”
The actor likens his costume to a “suit of armor,” and Milchick to “a soldier” of sorts. “There’s a protection there. I think there is a part of Milchick that can hide behind the suit, hide behind the turtleneck and the mustache. Whenever I put on the armor, it always feels like I’m going off... to battle.”
There’s “a lot of bracing” where Milchick is concerned, as Tillman has to convey an idea of total stillness, total control, in the role. “We spend hours with hair and makeup to make sure that his hair is in impeccable shape every day,” Tillman adds. The actor even ties his own ties and shoes, a habit he’s maintained from the first season. “I probably drive my costumer crazy, but [it’s essential] to sell the mood of who this man is.”
Tillman got to explore more intersections of Milchick’s identity this season.
He’ll need to maintain that façade now more than ever, with Lumon working overtime to keep its workers in line. The Season 1 finale teased a fiery confrontation between Milchick and Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), who stayed behind at Lumon to activate his innie coworkers outside of work. Going into Season 2, retribution seems imminent: Milchick has sent his wards to the “Break Room” (a space literally designed to break their will) for slighter offenses. Tillman can’t reveal much about Milchick’s strategy this season, but he does tease a much sterner management style moving forward.
“There’s that line that he says in the trailer: ‘I'm tightening the leash.’ I think that is a strong indication of where he is and where he’s going.”
As middle management, though, Milchick will also inevitably have to answer for his negligence. His intermediate role at Lumon made Milchick a boss of the severed floor but an underling outside of it — and it kept the character from feeling like a total stock villain. As Severance continues, it’ll endeavor to explore more intersections of Milchick’s relationship with Lumon, even planting seeds of resentment.
“I’m not sure if he could be the kind of guy that could show up every day and do what he does if he’s wavering in his support to Lumon,” Tillman says, “but there is something to be said when the people that you respect take a moment to pinpoint your otherness in an attempt to accept you.”
“[Milchick] knows that he is different from his colleagues, his superiors, and subordinates.”
This season of Severance even wades into issues of identity. Lumon is the sort of corporation that wants to suppress any form of diversity: That’s evident in its stifling mid-century design and its maze of white walls, but how does that manifest for Milchick, one of two Black employees at that level in Lumon?
“Milchick is very much aware that he is a Black man,” Tillman says. “He knows that he is different from his colleagues, his superiors, and subordinates.” Severance Season 2 will bring those differences into clearer focus, examining tricky dynamics with a deft balance of humor and genuinely disturbing drama.
Whether this could be the beginning of Milchick’s own inner revolution remains to be seen: not even Tillman knows where the story is going beyond Season 2. The actor hopes that his arc will “spark conversation amongst people of color, specifically Black people in white corporate spaces.” Getting the chance to explore more sides of Milchick wouldn’t hurt, either: “If there is a Season 3, maybe there’s a world where we explore that.”
Tillman’s Next Mission, Should He Choose To Accept
Tillman next appears in the latest Mission: Impossible movie: “It was such a delight to be on that set.”
Per Stiller, conversations have already begun for a new season of Severance. If all goes to plan, it may not be that long before we could see Tillman back in Milchick’s suit of armor — but before then, the actor will be making the jump from prestige TV to big-screen blockbusters. Following Severance’s second season, Tillman will appear in the latest Mission: Impossible movie, The Final Reckoning.
“It was such a delight to be on that set,” Tillman says with a smile. “You watch [the movies] and you're like, ‘Oh, yeah. This is a big deal.’ But it’s nothing like being in the world of it. I am so grateful to be part of it.”
Tillman is once again tight-lipped about his role in the upcoming film, but his time on the set might have given him a taste for more action. Next on his wishlist is a role in a Marvel film — ideally, as another anti-hero or villain. “It’s always fun,” he says again, a distinctly Milchickian twinkle in his eye. It’ll be hard to top his role as Lumon’s resident middle-man, but there’s a high chance Tillman will find another way to surprise us.
