Severance’s Tramell Tillman Still Has “So Many Questions” About Mr. Milchick
Apple TV’s breakout villain tells Inverse what it really means to “devour feculence.”
Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman) has become the living embodiment of malicious corporate compliance. Sure, he’s prone to a silly dance every now and then, and he’s determined to improve the lives of his subordinates, the employees who “sever” their minds to further the “mysterious and important” work at Lumon Industries. His failboss tendencies have also captivated the Severance fandom, which has grown bigger and more vocal as the series continues. But he’s also dedicated his life to upholding the unethical, dehumanizing values of one of the most evil entities in pop culture history — and Severance’s second season hasn’t shied away from the effects of that.
Severance Season 2 has seen Milchick take over management of the severed floor from Harmony Cobel (Patricia Arquette), his ice-cold superior, but something’s holding him back from conducting business as usual.
“There was a little bit of treason that happened, right?” Tillman tells Inverse over Zoom. “Milchick ratted out Ms. Cobel. We don't have the clear story yet. We don’t even see that resonate completely in Season 2.” Whatever Milchick did, the “paranoia” is definitely building as the series goes on, haunting him in a desktop screensaver that still only greets Cobel, and through upstart child-intern Eustace Huang (Sarah Bock).
Ms. Huang is a haunting presence for everyone in Severance, but for Milchick, she’s akin to “the telltale heart.”
“I really believe that there’s an element of Milchick that’s wrestling with what he did to Cobel. And now, you have this creepy child who’s watching his every move,” Tillman says. “You see Milchick stewing in that; it reminds me of the telltale heart.”
Milchick’s loyalty to Lumon has been challenged throughout Severance Season 2. By the time Mark S. (Adam Scott), his most rebellious employee, tells him “work is just work” in Episode 9, he’s about ready to crack under the pressure.
“You see Milchick stewing in that; it reminds me of the telltale heart.”
There’s no question that Milchick is absolutely going through it, but Tramell Tillman — who’s portrayed Milchick in both seasons of Severance — is finally reaping the rewards for a truly committed performance. As the season comes to an end, Tillman also has his hands full, just with much glitzier business. From appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live to viral edits on TikTok, the actor is almost inescapable. Everyone wants to know what’s next for Tillman, and, more importantly, what Milchick is going to do in Severance’s season finale.
Milchick is still reeling from his bad performance review.
Following Severance’s last episode, there’s really one question on fan’s minds: Will Milchick turn on Lumon’s upper management and side with his employees, the macrodata refiners, in an uprising against the company? He doesn’t have much love for the MDR team after all their exploits, but he’s not exactly simpatico with his superiors either. Milchick’s boss, Drummond (Ólafur Ólafsson), has been a particular thorn in his side. During his tenuous performance evaluation, he took Milchick to task for using “needlessly complex words” in conversation, but nothing Milchick does seems to be enough.
It’s not clear why Drummond takes such issue with Milchick’s complex vocabulary, but Tillman has his theories. “Here we are in this story with Milchick, who is very clearly a Black man and is aware of his Blackness,” Tillman says. “He is at a corporate structure that is predominantly white and they’re policing his speech… Maybe they feel that this Black man should not have access to these words and he shouldn’t speak this way. Or maybe there is this internalized thought that Milchick is speaking down to them. But that’s just who he is.”
And that’s what makes his latest face-off with Drummond so cathartic. When Drummond forces Milchick to apologize for “losing” Mark S. at work, Milchick squares his shoulders and boldly tells his superior to “devour feculence.” (The “monosyllabic” translation is much less demure.)
Lumon’s style is designed to crush the spirit: “You appease the boss. You serve.”
“It was 100% satisfying in that moment to tell this man to eat sh*t,” Tillman declares. “I remember when we did that scene, Uta [Briesewitz] was the director, and she said, ‘I imagine if this was in theaters, everyone would be applauding for Milchick.’ Like, yes: He needs that moment.”
As an audience member, it’s not always easy to root for Milchick. But Tillman has to live in the mind of this character, and he understands his plight intimately. “You don’t get to see Milchick stand up for himself in that way,” the actor explains. “This man — from Season 1, Episode 1 — has been taking blow, by blow, by blow, by blow.”
He’s not wrong: as middle management, Milchick is vulnerable on both sides, corralling unruly innies like Helly R. (Britt Lower) and kowtowing to bullies like Drummond. “Now, this man is coming up on him and checking his speech? Enough.”
“We find ourselves playing small, and we can’t be our authentic selves in these spaces.”
Tillman also found Milchick’s big moment cathartic in a personal way. Growing up in Prince George’s County, MD, “one of the richest Black counties in America” at the time, he, like Milchick, was raised as a lover of big words. “But when I started using these words, my peers would make fun of me for that and automatically lump me in the category of wanting to be white.” Telling off Drummond on Milchick’s terms felt like a way of reclaiming his voice.
“It spoke back to the times where I didn’t have the space or the vocabulary to stand up for myself, to my superiors, or even my fellow colleagues,” continues Tillman. “So much of corporate structure is, ‘You appease the boss. You serve, you serve, you serve; you don’t rattle the cage.’ We find ourselves playing small, and we can’t be our authentic selves in these spaces.”
Will Milchick turn against Lumon? Maybe... maybe not.
That Milchick is reclaiming his authentic self feels like the first step towards a company-wide revolt, at least to the fans hoping Milchick will turn against Lumon. For all their enthusiasm, though, Tillman is wary about putting the cart before the horse.
“This is Tramell speaking, but with everything that this character went through, we need a lot more information,” Tillman says of Milchick’s next move. “Because otherwise, I feel we do a disservice to Milchick, and we also do a disservice to the community.”
Milchick has come far in Season 2, but his development is only just beginning. In showcasing his humanity, Severance shows that everyone is a victim of Lumon’s dehumanizing practices. But is Milchick’s showdown with Drummond, or his conversation with Mark, enough to turn him against the company altogether? Without giving too much away about the Season 2 finale, Tillman admits that he still has “so, so many questions” about Milchick and his future at Lumon.
“One of the questions that I’ve asked the creatives is, if this man has devoted so much of his time and his life to this company, is he willing to walk away just because he had a bad couple of days at work?” Tillman says. It’s a fair point, and Severance has only scratched the surface of it. Whatever happens in the season finale, hopefully it will bring Milchick — and those not-so-secretly rooting for him — a bit closer to an answer.
