"She Is Overtaken by a Violent Storm of Repressed Emotion": 'Severance's Gwendoline Christie on Tackling Her First Fight Scene Since 'Game of Thrones' (2025)

Editor's note: The below interview contains spoilers for the Severance Season 2 finale.

Now that the Severance Season 2 finale has finally dropped, we'll finally learn the answers to all of our most burning questions, right? Well... not so fast. While the episode does finally resolve some of those lingering mysteries — like what's going on with Cold Harbor, and what the file pertains to in terms of Mark Scout's (Adam Scott) wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman) — there are other questions that still remain unresolved now that the show has been confirmed for a third season. Still, it's never a bad thing to see an adorable baby goat from the Mammalians Nurturable department show up, and the good news is that nothing bad will happen to it while Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) is around to defend its life.

Ahead of the Severance Season 2 finale premiering on Apple TV+ (and before the news that the show had been renewed for a third season), Collider had the opportunity to speak with Christie about her surprising return for the episode. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Christie discusses when she found out that Lorne would be popping back up again, what it was like to film her first fight scene since Game of Thrones, how much she loved working with all the goats, and more.

COLLIDER: Did you know from the beginning of joining Season 2 that you would be coming back for the finale, or was it something you found out about later?

GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: I had no idea what was going to happen at all. I have loved this show since it first screened Season 1. The first time I saw it, it felt like the freshest, most original, complex, intriguing, and mysterious piece of work I'd seen in years. I thought it was magnificent, and I badly wanted to be a part of it. It very much matches my tastes and many of the things that I'm interested in creatively. So I was just happy to be a part of it. I've talked quite a lot about how I received the email, but when I received the email asking me if I'd be interested in being a part of Severance, I just wanted to be a part of it. And whatever form the creative team felt that that should take, I was very happy to do that.

So when it started, we talked about the character extensively. We did extensive work in pre-production. They were hugely collaborative. Ben Stiller, and Dan Erickson, and Sarah Edwards, brilliant costume designer, and Judy Chin, brilliant makeup designer, and John Carter, brilliant hair designer. They all were very open to what ideas I had, and then we worked through them as a sort of process of elimination. Their ideas were spectacular. I only had about 4,000 references just for hair alone. I work in quite a detailed way. But it was thrilling to be able to go on that journey and to throw things away, take on board whatever they wanted.

"They Don't Want To Stop Existing": 'Severance' Creator Dan Erickson Breaks Down the Season 2 Finale and the Meaning of That Ending

Erickson also discusses the significance of Choreography & Merriment and which scene he's wanted to write since the very first episode.

Posts

And then I didn't really know... Ben described what the scene would be to me, but I didn't know what it would be until we got much closer. I didn't receive all of the scripts, which I totally respect due to the secrecy of the show with its incredible and massively increasing fandom. And I had no idea how it would end up — only when I got a call from Ben saying what they would like to do in the finale and how they saw Lorne's story in the finale. Of course, the answer is always yes.

Because what it felt to me was that this was the emergence of a woman who is dedicated to her job, who communicates best with animals, and those closest to that world, a woman whose world is small but is put under vast pressure and does her best to carry out her duties while her psyche is being eroded. And then there comes a moment of conflict, and she is overtaken by a violent storm of repressed emotion, anger, and desire for change. That was thrilling to me because it felt like, yes, there's a fight sequence — but as with most, not all, but most good fight sequences, this is not just about one person fighting another. This is a story being told of something almost phantasmagorical about the violence with which Lorne is overtaken, and the total change that takes place in personality, and the desire to avenge, and the violence in that, the naked violence of it.

Gwendoline Christie Did Most of Her Own Stunts in the 'Severance' Season 2 Finale

"She Is Overtaken by a Violent Storm of Repressed Emotion": 'Severance's Gwendoline Christie on Tackling Her First Fight Scene Since 'Game of Thrones' (2)

That fight is, like you said, this knockdown, drag-out, really bloody, sort of primal. There's almost a ferality to Lorne in that moment...

CHRISTIE: I haven't seen it. So the more you can tell me about it, the better.

How much of it did you get to do yourself in terms of the fight choreography?

CHRISTIE: I did a lot of it actually, and far more than I thought. We had a brilliant stunt team who, of course, share the responsibility so the actors can remain safe, but it's important to me to do as much of it as I possibly can myself, because it was such an emotional journey and I had a lot of support. I felt well taken care of, and I thoroughly enjoyed it because it was a very intense storytelling moment of this big change in a character, big change in a woman of power and horror, actually. That's exactly how I saw it — as a primal moment, a primal scream. So I haven't seen it, but I immersed myself in it as fully as possible, and that's essential in order to activate the spontaneous responses. I don't know how effective they were, because I haven't seen it, but I'll be watching it through my fingers tomorrow night. But it's interesting what comes out of physical movements like that.

I have an idea of how I think the story could go, and then I listen to my director and work with my fellow actors, and then whatever comes out, comes out. But I knew it had to be a climactic moment, a psychic overhaul and climactic change. I worked with my trainer, [because] as soon as I sort of knew about this fight, I thought, "OK, OK, so we're going to do that again." I really wanted to, because I've deliberately not done combat since Game of Thrones, because I didn't want to be typecast as just playing, as just doing action.

Gwendoline Christie Loved Working With the Goats on 'Severance'

There is a tension that builds in that scene from when we first see your character returning with this baby goat, bringing this offering from Mammalians Nurturable to be sacrificed. How difficult is it to keep a straight face when there's a baby goat climbing all over that little cart that you're pushing? Even in the take that they use in the episode, the goat is trying to climb towards you at one point, and it's just such a funny moment.

CHRISTIE: The goat loved me, and I wish the goat was mine still. It's funny, I'm very immersed in the situation because I very badly want it to be good, so I immerse myself as much as I can. Going down those endless corridors really reminded me of The Shining, those endless corridors and the horrific violent madness at the end of it, of Jack Nicholson. But what's brilliant about working on the show is that for all of its intensity and seriousness, the lengths that it goes to in terms of the drama and storytelling, how far removed it is from our everyday experience of reality, yet still imbued with this extraordinary humanity that is connecting to so many people around the world, you still have a lot of fun. And I laughed a lot and I had a wonderful time, and I loved working with my fellow actors, and they're incredibly generous and creative and spontaneous and supportive.

Ben Stiller is too important a director for you to laugh through his takes — so I laughed after the take, but I just love that goat, and they let me be around the goats and hold the baby goats, and on my breaks, I'd go and hang out with the goats and hold the goat, and they said, "Oh, the goat's really bonded with you." And I did, I adored the goat, which ironically was called Peggy in real life. And I was reminded, of course, that there is that connection of Peggy in The Lexington Letter. It felt like omens everywhere, but that's not the case. That's just my experience as a fan. The goat was a delight, but I felt such love for the goat that I wanted her to do whatever [she] wanted and just encourage her into the right place.

All episodes of Severance Seasons 1 & 2 are now streaming on Apple TV+. Season 3 is set to premiere at a date yet to be announced.