Brownstein: Ben Stiller asked Jessica Lee Gagné to return to Severance, and now she has two Emmy nominations

Montreal Gazette

4 days ago

Movies And TV
By
Jessica Lee Gagné felt most fortunate to have landed the position of cinematographer on the first season of the American psycho-thriller Severance, which began streaming on Apple TV+ 3 1/2 years ago. But when asked by series director and executive producer Ben Stiller to return for Season 2, the Montrealer initially declined, surmising she was ready to move on.
However, Stiller, with whom Gagné had worked as cinematographer on the award-winning 2018 crime-drama series Escape at Dannemora, persisted. He not only wanted Gagné to perform cinematographic duties on the second season, but also for her to make her directorial debut on one of the episodes.
After considerable deliberation, Gagné relented on both fronts. In retrospect, she realized that may have been one of the wisest decisions of her career.
Gagné has earned Emmy Award nominations for best cinematography in the first episode and for best direction in the seventh episode of Severance's second season. Season 2, which debuted in January, has netted a leading 27 Emmy nominations in the drama category.
For those yet to twig to it, Severance is a compelling, frequently disturbing series — a frightening metaphor about work/life balance. It is set at a futuristic company whose employees have gone through 'severance' surgery, wherein they have no memory of their outside lives while at work and vice versa. And let's just say it's more dystopian than utopian.
'It's actually quite bright in the show's 'innie' world, but it's quite a dark subject matter,' says Gagné, 37, accurately describing the show from a cinematographic and thematic point of view in an interview at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
The terms 'innie' and 'outie' — which heretofore had belly-button connotations for most — take on brand new meaning here.
The episode — titled Chikhai Bardo — that Gagné directed in the second season has been hailed as 'a television masterpiece' by Esquire entertainment editor Brady Langmann. A surprisingly tender moment in the series, it is a flashback, focusing on the outside love affair of lead character Mark (Adam Scott), who had been told his wife perished in a car crash before he had severed but later learns something particularly sinister has actually transpired.
So why the hesitation to return for Season 2?
'As a cinematographer, what I love is world-building, creating a new language,' Gagné explains. 'But since I hadn't read the Season 2 episodes prior, I didn't know there would be that much growth in the shows. So I felt it was time to do something different.
'Then they proposed I also direct. At first I said no, but then I read the Episode 7 synopsis and immediately connected with it. I felt I was the person supposed to tell this story. It's a story I felt a woman should tell.'
Regardless, it's not the easiest move to go from cinematographer to director.
'I've been a cinematographer for 15 years, having worked alongside directors and helping find a language with them. For me, the language of Severance was already quite distinct and I felt I had it in the bag. So, it was easier coming in as a director. You don't know it's not going to work out until you do it.'
Now she knows it did work out.
And with word that Severance will return for a third season, rest assured Gagné will be back in a dual role once again. She concedes she's really caught the directing bug. And like several Québécois directing luminaries before her — including Denis Villeneuve and Jean-Marc Vallée — Gagné can well expect lucrative offers to helm TV and film projects to come from Hollywood.
'What I realize now is I had this unconscious desire to direct that I hadn't been listening to. It had been bubbling up within and I have to give it a shot now. With the nomination, it's such a push for me to believe in myself for once,' notes Gagné, who was born in Quebec City to a franco mother and an anglo father but moved to Montreal two decades back to pursue film studies.
After graduating from Concordia's esteemed film production program, Gagné spent the following 15 years as a cinematographer, working on a wide range of projects, local and international. Among her nearly two dozen credits are Québécois film collaborations with her friend Chloé Robichaud on Sarah préfère la course and Pays and with Denis Côté on Boris sans Béatrice, plus with Canadian director Jamie Dagg on Sweet Virginia. In addition to Escape at Dannemora — 'the work I'm most proud of' — she did the cinematography for another critically acclaimed small-screen series, Mrs. America.
'I had been very involved in the Montreal production scene, and then at one point I headed off to France and India, where I did some work. Later I came back to do Sweet Virginia, and before it was even out, Ben (Stiller) saw it, because he was looking at it for casting reasons for Escape at Dannemora. He ended up (taken by) the cinematography and there was not much time, to be honest, before he was about to shoot. So he reached out to see if I'd be interested — after I had just moved to Paris. So we met and clicked automatically. And I moved back again.
'Ben took a big leap with me. I was from the dark world of filmmaking and he was definitely from a whole other world. But our different backgrounds have meshed together well.'
But the question that begs to be asked: Has Gagné gone through the severance process herself, though more symbolically than surgically? Is she able to cut herself off from her outie world when working?
'One hundred per cent, after I became a director and found that innie part of myself, the part that was free, allowing me to believe in myself and not be affected by my outside reality. I still love my outie, but I'm choosing to be with my innie and listening to it. It's keeping me motivated right now.'