Acting Up: Britt Lower
The Snapshot:
Britt Lower plays a woman who wakes up face down, in a dystopian workplace, without any idea who she is (or how she got there) in the Black Mirror-esque series, Severance. (The nine-episode series premiered February 18th on Apple TV+.)
The Performance:
If you thought clocking in for a job you hated was a thing prior to the global pandemic, just wait until you see Severance. As a great companion piece to The Great Resignation, this workplace trauma-edy starring Adam Scott and Patricia Arquette gives oxygen to the idea that some work is so dreadful that we’re not supposed to take it home with us. Hence, “severance” — a procedure people undergo to “sever” all memories of their work lives from their outward-facing personas.
It’s a series idea created by newbie Dan Erickson and EP’d/directed by Ben Stiller as well as a medical procedure performed by the seemingly diabolical corporation known as Lumon. The process is “comprehensive and irreversible” and what smacks us in the face in episode one when new recruit Helly (Britt Lower) wakes up on a conference room table like a lab rat with amnesia.
Fortunately, there’s a disembodied voice asking her questions through a speaker to ensure the procedure has worked — it’s her new immediate supervisor Mark (played by the always superb Scott). Helly is us, at that moment, unclear of what the hell is happening — something she will only ultimately get sold on once she sees herself on the outside offering her consent to it in a video.
After trying to escape her newfound captivity — several times, actually — Helly is subjected to her orientation to her new workplace at the hands of her wildly untrustworthy supervisor Milchick (Tramell Tillman). It’s the most minimalist version of cubicle life you can imagine, where Helly’s sole responsibility seems to be monitoring numbers on a screen until she sees “a scary one.” Severance is fraught with many WTF moments, and as Helly gets with the program, we learn bit by bit how we think this place works as Lower adeptly takes us along on the ride.
In conveying the disorientation of being trapped at Lumon, Lower conveys Helly’s bonafide confusion in super-relatable fashion as she gets indoctrinated into the ways of Lumon. At the same time, we know her early lessons are only the tip of the iceberg and that future episodes will bring all sorts of surprises. And if we had any doubt, we need only listen to Milchick, who tells Helly, “When we heard you were coming here, it was like a miracle. It’s amazing what you’re doing.”
I’m only two episodes in as of this writing, but who Helly actually is and how Lower plays it promises to be a compelling watch as this Twilight Zone-y series continues to unfold.
Photo Courtesy of Apple TV+
The Career:
The 36-year-old Lower was born in Illinois and attended Northwestern University, where she studied performance art before moving to NYC where, for a time, she turned faces in her direction. Literally, by painting them at places like the U.S. Open, Bronx Zoo, and Knicks games.
Lower may seem like an actor who’s come out of nowhere, but like so many, she’s been at it for some time, playing a myriad of people over the past decade. Her first role was in Unforgettable (2011), where many found her unforgettable in a 13-episode arc as Tanya Sitkowsky. Then, after a stint at UCB, the Illinois native starred in Man Seeking Woman (2015-2017), the FXX surreal rom-com series where she played the sister of the main character, who was played by Jay Baruchel. Since then, Lower’s also lined up recurring roles in several other series such as HBO’s High Maintenance (2019), Hulu’s Future Man (2017), and season two of Hulu’s Casual (2016).
As a Renaissance woman of sorts, the multidisciplinary artist has dabbled over the years in face paint, body art (where she turns “people into refrigerator magnets”), and various other pageantries. Borrowing from her real-life experience, Lower wrote, directed, and starred in the short film Circus Person (2020), which originally premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. In it, she plays a grieving painter who, after getting dumped by her fiancé, joins a one-ring circus.
Lower’s stock will continue to rise as Severance continues to trend up with a 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. What the future holds for Lower, we’ll see — but first, let’s see if she can make it out of Lumon with her head intact. If so, she may need it to run it back for a season two.
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Gregg Rosenzweig has been a writer, creative director and managing editor for various entertainment clients, ad agencies and digital media companies over the past 20 years. He is also a partner in the talent management/production company, The Rosenzweig Group.
