Severance S2 finale: Dichen Lachman on Ben Stiller, and technology fears

0:03Hi, it's Helen Orwadia and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. Coming up, how have you enjoyed the hot weather today? As London becomes warmer than the Algarve, we'll find out where the sunny spell came from and if it will last. Like with most things that happen in terms of weather in the UK, you blink and the weather changes. We'll be joined by Claire Nasir, Met Office presenter and meteorologist.

0:36But first, the season 2 finale of Severance is almost here. UK fans are at the ready to sit back on Friday for a 76-minute-long close to what's been another highly acclaimed series. Despite season 2 coming to an end, director Ben Stiller has reassured fans that the wait for the next series won't be as long as the one viewers went through for series two. Speaking on Jason and Travis Kelsey's New Heights podcast, Stiller said it won't take three years and that they'd hopefully be able to announce what the plan is very soon. Severance on Apple TV is a sci-fi thriller based around a team of office workers at a company called Lumon, whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives.

1:27The latest season saw the severed employees continue to investigate Lumon and what they were really doing at the company. For a special treat, we have highlights from an interview between the London Standards culture and lifestyle writer, India Block, and Deachan Lachman, who plays Gemma, otherwise known as Miss Casey, in the show. They discuss delays from the writer's strikes, the ethical questions surrounding technology, plus what Ben Stiller is like as a director. To read the full interview, we'll pop a link in the show notes.

2:04Fantastic. So yeah, did you have any idea when you first started Severance that it was going to be so huge? You know, whenever you start a project, you never really know if people are going to get it or, you know, they're going to fall in love with it. I just knew I was obsessed with it. I first read the scripts when I was in the Jurassic World Dominion Bubble Hotel. That was in 2020, I think, for season one. There were many days where you were just sitting around like we weren't allowed to leave. It was during the pandemic. And I've got all the scripts. I got all 10. Well, there were 10, I think, initially, and then it became nine.

2:45Initially, I was like, oh, well, I've got, you know, I'll read a script a day. I've got time. And I just couldn't put them down. I was obsessed. I became like a fan of the show before the show was even made. No, it's wonderful that people are so engaged with it and inspired. They're creating art and making fan videos and the theories that are floating around. It's just incredible to see that kind of reaction. And so did you know before you were even cast the main beats of Gemma slash Miss Casey's plotline or was that kept under wraps? No, it really was kept under wraps. When I taped for it, I had no context.

3:33It was just this really peculiar character saying these very random, you know, outie facts. And then there were some other scenes which were actually Jen Tolick's character, Devon's scenes, like, you know, just like a normal human being speaking normally. So I didn't know. And then finally when I had a Skype meeting with Ben at the end of the call, he sort of like said, well, actually, you know, she's, you know, Mark's wife, Gemma. And that was all I knew. And when it came to filming Episode 7, as basically colloquially known as Gemma's episode, when did you get a hold of the scripts for that?

4:17And how did you feel knowing what your character is going through, essentially being held prisoner and tortured in the bowels of this evil company? Yeah, I had an idea that Gemma was on the testing floor early on, like at the end of season one, because she's going down there. The details were obviously not so refined. And when I finally did get the script, it was just before the writer's strike, which is partially due to the like what caused the delay for the fans. It was about eight months of our industry sort of shut down. And just before the strike, I had some conversations with Jessica, the cinematographer of the show.

4:57and we talked about the episode and we talked about sort of what we both wanted this couple to like feel like just as grounded as possible and then there was sort of like radio silence for eight months so you know we weren't able to really discuss it for a long time. Anyway finally when things started moving along we got into it and it was really exciting to collaborate with her And the writers were very giving in terms of like especially the miscarriage stuff to let Jessica and I work that out. Being two men writing a scene about, you know, a woman going through something like that, they were so open to hearing what we kind of felt those moments needed to feel like.

5:51How do you feel about technology in general and about the technology in Severance? I'm not one of those people who absolutely hates technology because I can see the benefits of it. I think that as human beings, maybe things might be going too fast for us to adapt to it. And as human beings, things always tend to get abused. I think that with anything, it's always like a double-edged sword, you know, and there are good things and bad things. It's tough because I have a nine-year-old daughter and I see how different her life is now and also the potential of how different it's going to be as she grows, you know, up and is in a world where technology has always been exponential.

6:48And that growth, I'm not sure if we're ready to adapt to the speed. I want to be hopeful. I want to think that everything will be okay. But it's a double-edged sword. Whenever something new and amazing comes out, whether it's a medical intervention or something physical like with a computer or a robot or, you know, AI, amazing things can come from it and benefit like people but then there's people who also suffer from it so it's just it's a big responsibility like as a society how we choose to integrate and adopt it and the speed of the adoption and what's bed like as a director because i think a lot of people are familiar with his work mainly as an actor and this is really catapulted him into sort of star director status.

7:46Yeah. I mean, he, he's amazing. I still have to get over the fact that it's like Ben Stiller. Cause as you watch both seasons, you know, Miss Casey or Gemma isn't like there very often. And I think the others have sort of desensitized themselves maybe a little, I don't know. I won't speak for them, but I don't get to see him a lot, you know? So I have to go to work and then sort of calibrate just for a second and sort of like, okay, it's Ben Stiller, but we're all here just to do the work. And then I focus on that. And because he's an actor, he knows how to speak actor, I suppose. And it also has a tremendous amount of compassion for you.

8:32I remember in season one, shooting the scene, the artifacts with John Turturro. and Ben was so gracious. We took our time, got to this like point and then he would play music that he was planning to put into the final cut. I guess he, you know, he always envisioned this music in the wellness centre and he played music for a little while before he said, you know, action. And I'd never had that happen before. It was so wonderful because as an actor, because he's already sort of picked the music, or at least he has a piece of music which is informing how he wants the tone of the scene to be. It's such a wonderful cue for you to know where you have to sit in the space.

9:26So it's just been a really like extraordinary experience to be on a show that he's sort of at the helm, you know. Let's go to the ads. In part two, we'll be joined by Met Office presenter and meteorologist Claire Nasir with a look at why we're experiencing a sunny spell on the spring equinox. We'll see you back here in just a moment.

9:59Welcome back. The spring equinox today has brought soaring temperatures in the capital. By 11am, London had already reached 19 degrees Celsius, hitting 20 degrees at noon. The UK's previous spring equinox temperature record was 21.5 degrees Celsius in 1972. The dramatic shift in temperatures today prompted City Hall to issue a warning to Londoners after forecasters from Imperial College London detected rising air pollution levels from mainland Europe. Londoners have been urged to switch off their vehicle engines when idling or sitting in traffic and to refrain from burning wood or any garden waste.

10:43But what caused the sudden shift in weather? And will it last? Here to take us through it all is Met Office presenter and meteorologist Claire Nasir. Claire, it's the first day of spring. We've had some beautiful sunshine already. How high are temperatures today? Temperatures are going to peak probably mid to high teens, depending where you are in the country. But certainly for London, we're likely to see a temperature in excess of 20 degrees Celsius, so a degree or so higher than yesterday. Where is London warmer than today that it isn't usually? Temperatures today in London are warmer than the Costa del Sol.

11:18They've seen a lot of heavy weather over the last few days, including Storm Martino. So Storm Martino has brought really quite horrible weather to Iberia. So it's nice to flip flop situation where we've got the lovely sunshine at last and people in Portugal and Spain are seeing loud, heavy rain and thunder. And tell us, what has caused today's high temperatures? Okay, we've seen a really interesting change in our weather from last weekend. Things really sort of went from one extreme to another. So we saw this northerly wind develop early this week. Temperatures on Monday struggled to get above 8 to 12 degrees Celsius.

12:02The wind has now changed direction. It's coming in from the south, east, south, inheriting some warmer air from the south. That's continental air and that's pushing temperatures higher. You have local effects going on as well. So the air is drying as it pushes across the UK, allowing for some warmth associated with that. Interesting at this time of year, we talk about the equinox. We have something which is called a diurnal range, which is how big is the range of temperature from the minimum to the maximum. And we find in springtime we get the most extreme diurnal range because the air can be still cold.

12:45We've noticed that last week. Yeah, it was much colder earlier this week. And the ground is still cold. It hasn't been warmed up by the strength of the sun. Also, sea surface temperatures are at their lowest. So you get some cold nights, but the sun strength is increasing. So you can get a real high temperature by day. And that's exactly what we've seen yesterday and today and certainly tomorrow as well. So temperatures in the high teens, but still cold at night, a bit chilly at night. Now, obviously, we've seen people, Londoners, enjoying the sun already out and about in pubs and in parks. But will those with pollen allergies suffer today?

13:23They could possibly, yes. the pollen today is tree pollen or something I suffer from actually and levels are sort of high or very high so high I think in London so it's something which might catch people by surprise there's a lower percentage of people who are affected by tree pollen most of people who suffer from hay fever it's grass pollen that comes slightly later in the season but certainly that's one thing that of note today including the uv levels are higher as well so particularly with people who have maybe very fair skin they may find they're affected by the strength of the sun today and tomorrow well just on that note how can londoners take care of themselves i think the most important thing is to celebrate the sunshine sunshine brings so many health benefits it makes people feel happy, particularly after a very grey and dull and wet winter.

14:16And also vitamin D is really important. You know, it's a good way of getting a blast of that. But certainly UV levels are going to increase through the next few months. So it's something to be aware of. And certainly as we head into more springtime weather, protecting yourself through the middle part of the day is important. Now we spoke about hay fever but can the hot weather also contribute towards air pollution? So air pollution can happen any time of the year. It's not totally dependent on temperature although obviously the sun can place an action chemical reaction on say our exhaust fumes and certainly in dry weather where things are fairly settled it can build up.

15:02Looking ahead now to the rest of the week can we expect this glorious sunshine to last like with most things that happen in terms of weather in the uk you blink and the weather changes whether that's because the wind direction or because we are influenced by a different air mass and things are changing they're going to start changing tonight in the west we'll see some showery rain we hang on to warmth and some brighter weather elsewhere. It's going to turn windy though. And then into the weekend, low pressure will cast an influence. So we've had high pressure for the last few days. Low pressure takes over and that means some showery rain across many areas, including London, before things dry up early next week.

15:48But it's going to feel a lot cooler the beginning of next week. So another change of type. So we've gone from warm and sunny to fairly warm and a bit showery to cooler, cloudier and drier through the beginning of next week. And finally, is this kind of unsettled weather normal for this time of year? Yes. I mean, we sit on the western periphery of the continent of Europe. So we're far more vulnerable to weather systems that brew in the Atlantic. It doesn't take much for the wind to change direction for us to see a different type of weather. So this week, we've seen cold weather, the air has been coming from the north, shifted around to the southeast now it's warming up and then when we inherit some westerlies again which no doubt we will we'll probably see some unsettled conditions but when the sun comes out it's going to feel warmer because the sun is getting stronger every day

16:43and that's the standard for all the latest news and to read more about the stories featured in this episode head to standard.co.uk if you'd like to get in touch with us we'd love to hear from you drop us a line at podcast at standard.co.uk.