Severance’s season 2 finale was full of wild moments, but nothing could top Mr. Milchick’s marching band surprise — and actor Tramell Tillman took preparation for the scene extremely seriously.
“I’m a perfectionist. I kind of grind, because I want to get it pristine,” Tillman, 39, exclusively told Us Weekly at Severance’s PaleyFest panel in Los Angeles on Friday, March 21. “I picked up on it very, very quickly.”
The grinding seems to have paid off, because the marching band scene went instantly viral after an episode full of standout moments. Many social media users have been comparing Milchick’s surprise turn as a bandleader to Beyoncé’s HBCU-inspired Coachella performance in 2018, while others are already clamoring for Tillman to score an Emmy nod. During PaleyFest, meanwhile, Tillman opened the Severance panel by leading USC’s marching band through the auditorium at the Dolby Theatre.
Tillman, an HBCU grad himself, drew inspiration from his own tenure at Mississippi’s Jackson State University when prepping for the scene, which showed Milchick leading the Choreography & Merriment department in a rollicking routine to celebrate Mark S. (Adam Scott) completing the momentous Cold Harbor file.
“I was in the marching band in high school,” Tillman told Us. “It is different from HBCU. But because I went to Jackson State University and I had the Sonic Boom of the South, I spent so much time watching them. I had to go back and look at the tapes. I was watching Bethune-Cookman and [Florida A&M] to get inspiration into that, and I hope I did them justice.”
Milchick has always seemed like a company man with regard to Lumon’s nefarious deeds, but season 2 — where he was promoted to manager of the severed floor — hinted that he might be starting to question some of what he’s seen and experienced. In episode 3, he was less than thrilled to receive a set of paintings depicting Lumon founder Kier Egan in Blackface, and he later told off Mr. Drummond (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) for critiquing his vocabulary choices.
“It was really important that we talked about those themes and that we did a high level of care for that,” Tillman told Us of the microaggressions Milchick faced this season. “I wanted to make sure that we are doing right by the community and being able to honor these stories and be able to tend to the trauma that people do face. These are stories that I dealt with myself being in corporate America or just being Black, so I wanted to bring credence to it and be very cautious of how we did it. It was a risk, and I’m glad that we had the license to be free and explore and let it be authentic.”
Still, Tillman doesn’t think Milchick is ready to hand in his Lumon badge just yet.
“I think he’s devoted,” the actor said. “You don’t go through what Milchick has gone through and do and produce the work that he has done if you’re not truly invested.”
Severance season 2 is now streaming on Apple TV+.
