Ben Stiller was really reaching for the stars while creating Severance season 2.
When the Apple TV+ series’ long-awaited return premiered in January, fans clocked that Keanu Reeves made a surprising cameo as the narrator of a “Lumon Is Listening” video shown to the Macrodata Refiners. However, Stiller, who is an executive producer and director on the hit Apple TV+ series, revealed that Reeves, 60, was not the first person he tapped for the job.
In fact, former President Barack Obama was Stiller’s first choice, he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on March 3 — and he really put in the work to try to make it happen.
“I didn’t ask him in person, I knew someone who knew his lawyer and his lawyer said I can relay the request if you write an email,” Stiller recalled. “So I wrote an email to him saying like, ‘Hey we have this show,’ whatever. And like two days later, I get an email back from President Barack Obama.”
In his email response, Obama, 63, told Stiller, 59, that he was a “big fan of the show” and that he “can’t wait for season 2.” Yet, regarding the Zoolander star’s request, the former politician said he didn’t “think I have time in my schedule to make this happen.”
Stiller then joked of Obama’s response, “What’s more important than doing the voiceover for the animated building in Severance?”
He admitted, though, “It was pretty cool that he responded.”
Stiller was still very happy with Reeves, 60, voicing the part, and told host Jimmy Kimmel that he “took it very seriously.”
“He’s just like the most warm, inviting voice,” Stiller said. “I don’t know if when you see the building and you hear his voice, you necessarily think immediately that it’s Keanu, but then I think you have this just innate feeling.”
Dan Erickson, the show’s creator, echoed Stiller’s sentiment in an interview with Collider as he said, “We talked about a couple of different people for that role.”
“We always wanted it to be somebody that people have certain associations with, but also, it had to be a very warm presence. The Lumon building is very friendly in the context of this video, and there’s a friendliness to that particular voice and a heart to that particular voice.”
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New episodes of Severance season 2 premiere Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on Apple TV+.
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