James Le Gros Spent Two Years Figuring Out His Severance Character

Spoilers follow for “Sweet Vitrol,” the eighth episode of season two of Severance, which premiered on Apple TV+ on March 7. 

The biggest reveal of “Sweet Vitriol,” a rare Harmony Cobel–centered Severance episode, may not be that she invented the severance procedure or that Lumon stole credit for her work. It may be more of a surprise that Patricia Arquette’s character has … a friend? The hour follows the former manager of the severed floor to her snowy, desolate childhood home of Salt’s Neck, a former Lumon-factory town that fell into disrepair after the company abandoned it. Details about Harmony’s past are everywhere, from the ether facility where she worked as a kid to the home where she grew up with her mother, Charlotte, now dead. Remember the breathing mask and tube Harmony had on her shrine to Lumon, then carried around in her car? They belonged to Charlotte, whose passing has only further fractured Harmony’s relationship with her aunt Sissy (Tony winner and four-time Oscar nominee Jane Alexander), a Lumon true believer suspicious of her niece’s falling-out with the Eagans. In this town, the only person still on Harmony’s side — still, as she calls him, a “chum” — is Hampton, played by longtime character actor James Le Gros.

For decades, Le Gros’s rugged handsomeness and quirky accent work brought lived-in texture to a number of cult classics (Near Dark, Point Break, Drugstore Cowboy), critically acclaimed TV series (Ally McBeal, Mildred Pierce, Justified), and indie films (Support the Girls, Showing Up, Good One). In “Sweet Vitriol,” his Hampton is a gravelly voiced, ether-dealing diner owner who has a long history with Harmony — they worked in the factory together, still spark with romantic chemistry, and newly share a burn-it-all-down ideology when it comes to anything Lumon. Harmony is the most human she’s ever seemed around Hampton, and Le Gros, who has known Arquette since 1989, says their dynamic came from a fair amount of improvisation encouraged by director Ben Stiller, as well as an extra-long gap between shooting scenes for the episode. “This guy was in my head for almost two years,” Le Gros says of his character. “It’s like traveling with a ghost. It doesn’t ever leave you, because you know you’re going to be called to task at some point.”

How did Hampton come to you?
Casting director Rachel Tenner has been very kind over the years. I auditioned for Ben for Escape at Dannemora. I didn’t get that job, but Ben wrote me a really nice note saying, “It didn’t work out, but I hope to work together in the future.” I’ve received several of these kinds of notes over the years. However, I’ve never been hired. [Laughs.] So it was somewhat of a surprise when this offer came to my agents. I got a text from Ben saying, “We got this part, we thought of you. Give it a read. Not sure if you know about the series.” I’d heard of the series, but I hadn’t seen it. I read the script and it was fantastic, then I binge-watched so I could be familiar with the world, and I said “yes,” of course.

Hampton is very antagonistic with Harmony in a way that speaks to a lot of history.
I’ve known Patricia since 1989. I used to surf with this guy who was dating her at the time, and I had a pickup truck. He said, “I gotta move this stuff out of my girlfriend’s mom’s house.” That’s how we met. Patricia made us cookies. Patricia’s always had a very big, generous, giving heart.

Was there an aspect of Hampton that was most useful for you? The fact that you might have been childhood sweethearts, or you worked as child laborers in this factory together? Or was it just the amount of time your characters have known each other?
Jesus, a 50-year friendship? It can be a lot of things. It can be a prickly fruit, or it could be a soft, luscious peach, and everything in between. When you’re forming yourself, those people who have known you so long stand out and apart. You can’t really take on airs with them.

I’ve worked with some amazing actors over the years, and I think of Patricia, or Julianne Moore, or Kate Winslet, or Laura Dern. People like that make you better. My attitude when you’re dealing with somebody who has that kind of force of talent is, just let it out of the gate and I’ll try and ride it. She’s always different. She’s always spontaneous. You never know what to expect. We were privileged with time and the ability to experiment a lot. The first chunk of it we shot ages ago, before the writers’ strike. Funny enough, though, because I had to keep myself ready for when I was going to be put back in, I think that added to a lot of it.

In what way?
There was just this long gestation period. The original plan was we shot up in Canada because of these great exteriors. But it was determined once we got up there that the scene inside Harmony’s mother’s room was no longer going to be shot in Canada, that they were going to build a set in the Bronx, then we would resume shooting. I actually did a couple of TV shows and like, three or four movies since then. But that scene is big within the arc of that story line. That gave them time to recraft some of the dialogue and some other stuff we improvised around it. My God, this guy was in my head for almost two years.

Did you find yourself thinking about him?
It’s just this funny ongoing dialogue in your head. It’s like traveling with a ghost. It doesn’t ever leave you, because you know you’re going to be called to task at some point. It’s always living in your consciousness or following you over your shoulder. The ghosts in their relationship, maybe that helped.

What were some of the improv-y moments before the big mother’s-room scene?
There was some of that with trying to get past that wicked, wicked woman. [Laughs.] God, I can’t even tell you how long I’ve admired Jane. Ben was wanting, “Try this, try that, what do you think about this?” For how I’m built as a performer, it’s great when you’re in a situation where you don’t feel like you have to hit a target. They just want you to find something interesting. When you have a character, you get the voice signature and the body, but I don’t make any plans beyond that. I have no idea what I’m gonna do. I don’t know what they’re gonna do. I try and stumble my way through it, the way I sort of do everything else in my life.

The huffing of the vial of ether — was that always in the scene?
Oh, yeah.

How did you approach that?
Again, that’s when you have a director like Ben, who’s able to go, “Yes, this; no, that. Maybe more of that. How about you try this other thing?” He’s like Fincher; he is in full command of the thing. He understands all the parts, how they work, how you use them. I relied on him to tell me “Faster, slower, louder, quieter. More this, less of that. Could you do it more over here?” That’s what I like about movies and TV: It’s the ultimate team sport. There’s such a heavy factor of luck and everybody has to be making the same thing, which doesn’t always happen.

We shot that scene all day, pretty much. The only time I ever felt rushed on anything on that job was when we were up in Newfoundland shooting. A lot of the lighting language is blue light. The light is the light. It doesn’t care about you. There were some times when we really had to hustle. We had two little trucks that were Hampton’s truck that he was driving, and one of them died. It was this mad scramble. Ben and other crew members pushing the truck to get it out of the shot so we could get the other one in. They have some resources on this job, but they could’ve been in the same situation as one of these little tiny movies that I do for handfuls of cash. But that, too, brings a kind of magic.

Sometimes I work with other actors and they complain about nervousness. It’s really kind of impossible for me anymore. It’s a thing that’s been lost due to exposure, but the greatest thing about nervousness is that it’s a very compelling energy. You have the butterflies, but if you can get them to fly in formation, you’ve got something really special. And I think sometimes with that frenetic pace of like, “We got to get it. We’re losing light!”, you really get some things that glitter gold. Everybody’s gotta nail it.

I love your line reading of “Come tame these tempers, assholes,” as Lumon is driving into town and you’ve helped Harmony get away. What did you want to convey?
You feel the shadow of the beast start to creep upon you. Goliath almost always wins, but every now and again, David comes. I was looking at it through the lens of meeting the moment. There’s a great line from this blues guitarist and singer Muddy Waters. He said, “The question’s not, Am I ready? The question is, Are you ready for me?” Maybe that’s what Hampton was thinking: “I’m right here, I’m no place else.” As far as he’s concerned, the reckoning can’t come fast enough. If there was any fuse he could light to blow the thing up as fast as possible, he would.