What Tramell Tillman Learned From His Own ‘Severance’ Re-Watch

[This story contains spoilers from Severance season one’s finale.]

Like the rest of the world, Tramell Tillman is rewatching season one of Severance. As one of the stars of the hit Apple TV+ series — Tillman plays Milchick, the supervisor of the severed employees of Lumon Industries — he was, of course, there for all of it. But the show’s unexpectedly long hiatus has been testing his memory, too, and he wanted to make sure he was prepared for all the questions coming his way during the press tour for the long-awaited season two premiere (the show returns on the streaming platform Friday). His big takeaway from the binge? “I see why people want to fight me,” he says with a laugh. “At the time, when I was acting in season one, I was like hey this is all fun — but now, I see that it’s terrifying. I don’t even recognize that guy as me.”

Tillman, 39, is Zooming in from his New York apartment, hours after returning from the Severance cast’s appearance at Comic-Con Brazil in late December (and, it must be noted, the real-life actor — clad in a hoodie that stands in stark contrast to his onscreen business casual, is decidedly warm and breezy). The trailer for Severance’s second season dropped while he was traveling, so in between fighting the jet lag he’s been fielding texts from friends, family and colleagues about the footage — the first that audiences have seen since the season one finale aired in April 2022. “Everyone wants to know what’s going on at Lumen, and whether we’re going to pick up right where we left off,” he says. “But still, the number one question I get is: what the hell took us so long?”

The answer to the former is straightforward: Season two opens on the Lumon employees in the immediate aftermath of the severed floor’s attempts to learn about their outies. The answer to the latter is a bit more complicated: Hollywood happened. The cast and crew reconvened to shoot season two in the fall of 2022, and when the WGA strike came down the following spring, they decided to pause production in solidarity. “We had a monumental, historic shift in our entertainment industry, and we needed to tend to that,” he says. “If I’ve learned anything during my few years here, it’s that nothing and no one is safe — but I was always optimistic that we would return.” By the time everyone came back to set following the resolution of the SAG strike, it was January 2024.

The role of Milchick served as a long-awaited breakout moment for Tillman. He grew up in Maryland, and though he developed an early interest in acting he pursued a college degree in communications and worked at a nonprofit. His creative passions eventually won out, and Tillman enrolled in the University of Tennessee’s acting MFA program; in 2014, he became the first Black man to graduate from the program. He then spent years doing guest roles on shows like Elementary and Godfather of Harlem before landing Severance. Now, his commercial and critical success finds him in rooms  — both of the party and meeting variety — he’d never dreamed of being in. He joined the cast of the next Mission Impossible movie and went to the Emmy’s. “So many celebrities were terrified to come talk to me, but then I would break the ice and they’d realize I was actually much nicer than Milchick,” he says. “I’ve also been learning that a lot of people think that I’m British, which I’m starting to see as a compliment.”

While he wants to be strategic about the advantages that come during this stage of his career (see: MI8, and he’d also love to do Shakespeare, Marvel, or a movie musical one day), he says he’s mostly focused on finding projects that feed his soul. “I grew up in the church and we talked about ministry; I think the art of storytelling is a form of ministry for me. I think about what I witnessed in Brazil, how excited people were to see us and get our autographs, how much they love the show, it’s really beautiful and rare.”

And in the meantime, he’s working on fielding more questions about Severance. When asked if the second season will offer another viral dance scene akin to season one’s beloved maraca sequence, he offers a sly, wink-punctuated no comment. “That scene wasn’t scripted as anything specific, so we as an ensemble had to figure out how we were going to choreograph it — and it took two days to film,” he says. “It was a fantastic surprise that it became such a huge moment, so the fact that people are even asking whether I’m going to dance again is a reward in itself.”  

Severance returns with its 10-episode second season Friday on Apple TV+, releasing new episodes weekly.