Tramell Tillman on ‘Severance’ Finale, Marching Band Dance

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 10 of “Severance,” streaming now on Apple TV+.

Tramell Tillman was done dancing.

After his “Severance” character, Mr. Milchick, conducted a memorable and oft-memed “Music Dance Experience” in the Apple TV+ show’s first season, he didn’t think it was possible to catch lightning in a bottle again.

But when director and executive producer Ben Stiller pitched him on a marching band sequence in the Season 2 finale, “Cold Harbor,” Tillman saw an opportunity to tap into his roots. “I went to two HBCUs, and one of them was Jackson State University. They housed the Sonic Boom of the South, one of the best marching bands in the country, and I would watch them during my undergrad years with such awe and amazement in the athleticism, the creativity and the passion that these musicians and dancers served with,” he tells Variety.

So, after Adam Scott’s Mark S. completes the all-important Cold Harbor file, Milchick introduces the Choreography and Merriment department, serving as the drum major (with some slick moves) while they celebrate Mark’s achievement.

It’s the cherry on top of a fantastic season for Tillman, whose Milchick has delivered some of the series’ most iconic lines, from “Marshmallows are for team players” to “Devour feculence.” Below, Tillman unpacks Milchick’s biggest moments from the finale, from his comedy routine with Kier to that unforgettable marching band sequence.

How physically demanding was it to film those scenes kicking down the bathroom door with the vending machine?

You know, it really felt good. Because Dan [Erickson] and his whole writing team did such a great job to craft the story of where Milchick came from to get to that point, I didn’t have to act so much in order to knock the hell out of that vending machine down. It was so gratifying, because the choreography for that vending machine was originally something totally different.

I was actually supposed to go down with the vending machine. But as luck would have it, there was one particular run where I ran into the vending machine and knocked it down on its end, and I just stood there. And that was the take that they went with. This is so much cooler! And then just did this superhero hop on top of the vending machine like a badass. I was like, let’s go! This is so much fun.

It’s interesting that you call him a badass, because it feels like there’s been a reevaluation among fans surrounding this character that once may have been dismissed as simply a villain. What has it been like watching viewers develop empathy as we’ve learned more about Milchick?

I love it. I absolutely love it. It’s so rewarding to see, because it’s a very human thing for us to see someone and automatically have our own opinions of it. It’s protection. We do that for ourselves. But then to watch people’s opinions shift — and there are people that are still not completely on board with the fact that he’s a good guy, which I totally respect — but the fact that people are starting to question that, I was like, “We’re tapping into something. This is good. This is where the conversation starts.”

The whole show talks about, “Who are you?” We lead with that from day one, Season 1, Episode 1: “Who are you?” I think Milchick in particular has this identity journey where he is trying to figure out who he is, and who he is within this company.

This season has really started to scratch the surface on what race means within Lumon and the ways that it affects Milchick. What was your first thought when you read the scene where he receives the paintings of Kier depicted as a Black man?

Before I even saw that story in the script, Dan Erickson came up to me and asked me if it was OK to include that story in his arc. And I appreciate that. We took a risk by telling that story, because if we did not tell the story and give it justice, the show could take a total different bend, and we could alienate a good portion of our audience. So there was a lot of conversation that I had with with Dan, with Ben, with Sydney Cole Alexander, who plays Natalie brilliantly, about how these two people of color, these forward-facing people of color, how they carry on in this corporate structure, knowing that the corporate structure is a little bit racist.

And so what I appreciate about that day, when Sydney and I were on to film that scene, is that Ben was essentially hands off. 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, that was a conversation, a non-verbal conversation between Natalie and Milchick that Sydney and I were finding in the moment as soon as the board ended the call. And that was electric.

To carry that moment on into Episode 5, right before he has his performance review, I was so grateful they kept that scene, because that was under discussion to be chopped. But I said it’s so important for Milchick to have another opportunity to connect with another person of color about what he has experienced, and for Sydney, to be able to have her character really respond or not respond.

This season, Milchick has been consistently reprimanded for using big words, despite many other characters like Cobel and Jame Eagan also using colorful language. Did you view that as an extension of those racist undertones within the company?

It was a total microaggression. These people are policing his language and telling him what they feel is appropriate for this man to say. How belittling and controlling it is of Drummond to approach Milchick while he’s being reprimanded for something totally different, to then castigate him and say, “No, change your language. On top of you not bringing Mark in to refine to get to 100% for Cold Harbor, I am now going to stick the knife even deeper and chastise you because you are speaking in a way that you should not be speaking.” And it’s not even about protocol. It’s probably more about ego than anything, because Drummond probably doesn’t know what “devour feculence” means. He has no idea, no but he learned that day.

Your delivery of “mon-o-syl-a-bic-ally” and “devour feculence” in Episode 9 are some of my favorite line readings of the season. How did you approach that tense confrontation with Drummond when we see Milchick push back for the first time?

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

So anytime you were speaking in a certain way, using your vowels and consonants, it was like, “Oh, you’re trying to be white.” So regardless of the fact that these people who had issues with my vocabulary and my diction, 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 F-U. You’re not gonna control my speech. You’re not gonna tell me what to do. It was like baby Tramell, teenage Tramell rose up in that moment through Milchick. And he checked him. It was necessary.

We’ve got to unpack that insane marching band scene. Did that come about because of the audience reaction to your Music Dance Experience moves from Season 1? How long did it take to learn the sequence?

I did not want to do it. And when I saw that it was a possibility, I said to a couple of the creators, “I just don’t want Milchick dancing in every single season.” Because I was concerned that we were going to try to replicate the Music Dance Experience. You can’t do that. It’s iconic, and it was special for what it was. But then Ben told me he was bringing in a marching band. I went to two HBCUs, and one of them was Jackson State University, and they housed the Sonic Boom of the South, one of the best marching bands in the country, and I would watch them during my undergrad years with such awe and amazement in the athleticism, the creativity and the passion that these musicians and dancers served with.

So when Ben told me there was a marching band coming in, I said, “OK, hold on. What kind of marching band? Military style, or is it HBCU style? He said he wasn’t sure at the moment. I asked him, “How did you want me 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 is going to be HBCU style, like Jackson State University, I’m gonna be the drum major.

It was so much fun. And I have to give credit to Ty and Teddy and Tyrone, who were the choreographers and the organizers of Choreography and Merriment, essentially bringing all those musicians and dancers together in this space to teach the choreography and get the moves right. It was epic. We had so much fun, I think we filmed that sequence over a couple of weeks, and that includes the rehearsals that we had on my on our days off, and making sure that we had everything that we need to make this absolutely incredible. I had a great time bonding with the band.

Right before that moment, you perform a strange comedy routine with an animatronic Kier. It felt like the characters were using a script at first, but after Kier insults Milchick’s vocabulary, it seemed he snapped, ribbing Kier right back. What’s the truth behind that moment?

It was a scripted moment, as far as the jokes in the beginning, but then shit just got real. Again, this man has been holding onto so much, and things have just been compacted for him. It also goes back to “devour feculence.” I think that was not a planned moment. It just came out, mon-o-syl-a-bic-ally. I think we’re seeing the remnants of what is happening as the facade of Milchick starts to crack a little bit. The figure, the man, the myth, the legend, is right here, and he’s doing the very same thing that he has been chastised for so long, policing his language. He’s standing up to that.

If we go back to Choreography and Merriment, I think there’s something about the presentation of those songs. “The Kier Hymn” is done very traditionally, very by the book. But then you have this other number, “The Ballad of Ambrose and Gunnell,” and we see Milchick get down. I think that’s by design. We’re finding ways that Milchick is infusing his likeness, his personality, his history, into the world of Lumon: through the leather jacket, through the ORTBO outfit and the Choreography and Merriment number.

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

I think we have so much more to mine before we’re able to make that decision. We talk about how Lumon is very cultish, I relate that to so many of the cults that have existed and that still exist today. So many of the people that have been a part of these cults have been brainwashed and indoctrinated, and it’s not easy to walk away. Some people will never leave. Does he have it in him? I don’t know. But we need to know more about who this man is, for us to figure out where he’s headed.

This interview has been edited and condensed.