“I kind of felt like I was severed in a way because I had so many different things to focus on, but it was all really fun,” Sarah Bock says of balancing high school and filming “Severance.”
Sarah Bock on her role as Miss Huang in ‘Severance’
Just 15 when she auditioned for Apple TV+’s “Severance,” Sarah Bock is now a college student juggling work and school.
When Sarah Bock first walked onto Northwestern University’s campus last fall, she was just another freshman, excited for new classes and friends. But now, Bock finds herself being stopped more regularly by fans of her first true onscreen role.
Bock, 18, is a theater and psychology major at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. But she is better known for her role as Miss Huang in Season 2 of the Apple TV+ original series, “Severance.”
Directed by Ben Stiller and starring Adam Scott, “Severance” is the top streaming series on Apple TV+. The first season of the thriller debuted in 2022, and after a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, fans eagerly anticipated the release of its second in January. The season finale streams March 21, but fans said goodbye to the eerily rigid Miss Huang during this week’s penultimate episode.
More: When does the next episode of ‘Severance’ come out? Season 2 schedule, where to watch
In the first episode this season, Miss Eustace Huang is the new deputy manager of the severed floor, taking over the role from Seth Milchick (Tramell Tillman), who was promoted to floor manager. Despite her often-questioned young age, Miss Huang is quiet and follows the rules of Lumon Industries closely.
“It was fun to have this sort of unexpected young person down there,” Stiller says. “She’s just very inscrutable in the way that so many of the Lumon managerial people are.“
Bock says she’s enjoyed watching this season with friends and reflecting on memories that began more than three years ago.
It all started with ‘Winnie the Pooh’
Bock says her first acting gig, at age 5, was a children’s theater production of “Winnie the Pooh” in her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina.
What kept her coming back to the stage was the community and ability to convey important messages.
“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve been able to recognize the power of it more, which makes me love it even more,” she says. “I’ve started to learn more about the art that I respond to and want to create.”
Auditioning at 15, becoming a fan
A common talking point for Bock’s role is her age ― both in and out of character.
In Miss Huang’s opening scene, in which she introduces herself to members of the severed floor, Mark Wilkins (Bob Balaban), an employee at least 50 years her senior, asks, “Why are you a child?” To which Miss Huang famously replies, with absolutely no emotion, “Because of when I was born.”
She auditioned for “Severance” at 15, sending a self-shot tape in which she read through that first scene. About a month later, she hopped on a Zoom call with Stiller. A month after that, she flew to New York to read through a few scenes with Tillman. Miss Huang interacts mostly with Mr. Milchick throughout the season.
Ahead of getting the role, Bock said she’d never watched an episode of the show, but her parents were fans.
“I hadn’t personally watched it, but I had walked into the back of the living room a couple times when they (parents) watched it and I was like, ‘Oh, the guy from ‘The Good Place’ looks different. What is the show?’” Bock says, referring to star Adam Scott. “But the night I got the audition, I binged the entire first season in one sitting just because I got so invested and became a huge fan.”
By the time production began on Season 2, Bock was 16, and still in high school.
Her scenes were mostly filmed at sound stages in the Bronx, with a seven-month hiatus due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.
“It was a long, long time and obviously, there was a break in between, but I feel like even in the show you can kind of see I grew up a little bit,” Bock says. “It’s kind of crazy to watch.”
Initially, she continued her enrollment at a North Carolina public school system during filming, but eventually she transferred to a hybrid magnet school, which allowed her to take high-school classes online. She’d film for an hour or so and then squeeze in about 30 minutes of schoolwork before returning to the set.
“I kind of felt like I was severed in a way because I had so many different things to focus on, but it was all really fun,” Bock says.
Getting into character
Sitting in her college dorm room, Bock is cheerful and bubbly, in contrast to Miss Huang’s persona.
“I would hope that I’m pretty different from her,” Bock says. “I definitely wouldn’t be able to stare down John Turturro (Irving B.) or Tramell Tillman in the way Miss Huang does in the show.”
To get in the “Miss Huang headspace,” Bock analyzed the performances of Tillman and Patricia Arquette (Harmony Cobel), who play strict upper management characters. She also listened to a Spotify playlist of “intense, dark songs” featuring the Theremin, an instrument she plays in a few episodes.
The Miss Huang conspiracies
A character introduced without warning and with little to no backstory has resulted in a whirlwind of Miss Huang conspiracies. Is she a clone? Is she the child of Mark and Gemma? Bock says she hears a theory that Miss Huang is a robot the most.
“I’ll get DMs from people just saying, ‘You are a robot.’ Nothing else,” she said.
By the ninth episode, Miss Huang’s exit, fans still don’t know much about the character. But they learn she’s a student at the Myrtle Eagen School for Girls, the same cultish boarding school Harmony Cobel attended as a child. At the end of the episode, she’s given a Jame Eagan bust, also given to Cobel many years earlier. She is then sent on her way, earmuffs and all, to start her next chapter with Lumon Industries.
Balancing college finals, interviews with Jimmy Kimmel
Bock spent her first semester at Northwestern University under the radar, making friends and soaking up the college experience before her face would be displayed on TVs across the world.
Bock’s social media features traditional group photos with her girlfriends, accompanied by “Severance” promotional media and then most recently, clips from an interview with Jimmy Kimmel earlier this month. “I kind of feel like Hannah Montana, the best of both worlds right now,” Bock said, laughing. “I mean, today I had a final for one of my classes and then I came here and I’m doing some interviews.”
How to watch Season 2 of ‘Severance’
The Season 2 finale streams March 20 in the U.S. and globally on March 21. “Severance” is available for streaming on Apple TV+ with a paid subscription.
Contributing: Gary Levin
