1 of 5 | Season 2 of Patricia Arquette's "Severance" premieres Friday. Photo courtesy of Apple TV+
NEW YORK, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Oscar-winning actress Patricia Arquette laments the fact that -- despite their both having starred in the film True Romance and Apple TV+ series Severance -- she has never actually shared the screen with Christopher Walken.
"In True Romance, I didn't have a scene with him, and now I still haven't had a scene with him," Arquette laughed during a recent Zoom interview with UPI.
"I can only long for Christopher Walken. What else can I do? Don't we all do it? I mean, I'm just like everybody else. I'm just one inch closer to Christopher Walken. That's all I can say."
Returning for Season 2 Friday on Apple TV+, Severance follows the hapless employees of Lumon Industries -- including Arquette's character, Harmony Cobel, and Walken's Burt Goodman -- who have undergone medical procedures to divide their memories between their personal and professional lives.
The cast also includes Adam Scott, John Turturro, Britt Lower, Zach Cherry and Tramell Tillman.
Arquette acknowledged it wasn't immediately easy returning to the twisty, complicated world of the show for Season 2 because it had been nearly three years since she filmed the first season.
"When I start acting after a long break, I feel like a broken robot or something," the actress said.
"It takes a little while to get back into the groove, but there's something about Cobel that's so hidden and covered," she said. "It has such a specific meter, this show, so getting back into that groove was interesting, but it's also exciting because, this season, they've come up with such beautiful new sets and different things. There's a lot going on to learn about."
Without giving too much away, Arquette hinted that viewers will see a payoff in Season 2 for some of the Season 1 narrative foundation-laying pertaining to Cobel.
"Towards the end of this season, there's things that come out that we had talked about at the beginning of the first season, so I'm happy that those stayed on track and that we start to reveal that," she said.
The project reunites Arquette with Ben Stiller, her director from the 2018 limited series Escape from Dannemora.
Stiller directed most of the episodes of Severance.
"I love working with Ben Stiller," Arquette said. "I think he's such an incredibly talented director and he's very precise about what he wants and how things look and he's really a perfectionist."
She also deeply respects Dan Erickson's writing.
"It's so rich, what he's written, and he cares about people so much, and he's so sweethearted," the actress said. "It's a really interesting mixture and it's very original, this material. Not everything is original, so it's really a nice thing to be a part of something that has a distinct voice and distinct story."
Erickson told UPI in a separate chat that he was very excited to explore the "outie" versions of the characters in their home lives in Season 2.
"In the first season, we mostly focused on 'Outie Mark' (Scott). But, this time around, we wanted to sort of explore the rest of the ensemble in that way," Erickson said.
"One of the most interesting questions for any Severance character is, 'Why did they choose to do this kind of messed up procedure to themselves?' And, of course, that question has to be directed at the outies since they were the ones who made the call."
The unique sci-fi story means the show is also a fascinating blend of workplace dramedy and psychological thriller.
"Ben and I have always said that there's a connection between Severance and a kind of an emotional brokenness or having something about yourself or your life that you're hiding from," Erickson said. "We wanted to interrogate why that was, specifically for each of these different characters."