Inside the sterile walls of Lumon Industries, Sarah Bock is “Miss Huang,” an ambitious, humorless child employee vying for power.
Outside, she is a friendly college freshman at Northwestern University, performing in school theater productions, taking midterms and making dinner plans in the city with friends.
Both the actress and her character on the hit Apple TV+ show “Severance” know how to play the theremin, though.
Juggling the worlds of academia and entertainment, Bock is a great fit for a show about duality. The popular series follows a group of colleagues who have chosen to undergo a medical procedure to separate their work and personal lives. It will close out a strong second season with the final episode airing on March 21.
As a new cast member, 18-year-old Bock is embracing newfound fame while striving to stay humble and focused on her education.
“It’s been a lot more than I was expecting,” Bock said of getting recognized. “If I go downtown and get some food, sometimes the waiter will be like, ‘Are you who I think you are?’ And then with other students, I’ve been approached in the dining hall and they’re like, ‘Can I get a picture with you?’ It’s pretty crazy.”
But the North Carolina native is adjusting to her new reality.
“It’s a lot of communicating with my teachers and professors to make sure I’m up to date on my work, like if I need to leave to go to L.A. and do press or whatever,” she said. “But also having really good people surrounding me who knew me before I was on the show and don’t really care that I’m on the show is nice because it helps keep me grounded.”
Bock has said she chose to attend Northwestern following a suggestion from her castmate Britt Lower (Helly R.), an alum and Illinois native. Bock is currently studying theater, but hopes to take on a second major in psychology — a relevant area of study for an actress on a show about altering the brain.
“I’ve always been really fascinated by the human mind and behavior,” she said. “As an actor, it’s a really cool subject to get into because it helps me understand characters and get into different mindsets. And my sister went to the University of Chicago and was a psychology major there. So, I feel like it’s just something I’ve been connected to.”
Outside of “Severance,” Bock is sharpening her skills in productions with Northwestern’s student-run Purple Crayon Players. She portrayed a “Bird Girl” in “Seussical the Musical” and choreographed dance numbers for “A Year With Frog and Toad.”
Musical theater has long been a passion for Bock; she said she was inspired to act after seeing “Matilda the Musical” on Broadway at 8 years old. She then immersed herself in acting, voice and dance classes, and performed in multiple musicals at her local children’s theater. She also plays piano, guitar and harmonica.
Learning about the role of Miss Huang from her manager, Bock submitted a self-taped audition in 2022. She received a callback and flew to New York to meet with “Severance” executive producer and director Ben Stiller, and co-star Tramell Tillman (Mr. Milchick).
To transform into Miss Huang, Bock said she studied the tone of the show and listened to relevant music, including songs by thereminist Clara Rockmore and Welsh pop singer Marina.
“I feel like the lyrics are very ambitious and the vibe is pretty intense, which I feel matches Ms. Huang,” Bock said of Marina’s music.
Miss Huang assumes a no-nonsense attitude when managing Helly R., as well as Lumon colleagues Mark S. (Adam Scott), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), and Irving B. (John Turturro). And she isn’t afraid to assert herself with her own boss, Mr. Milchick.
“Mr. Milchick is my favorite character,” Bock said. “Tramell is just amazing and he’s also such a friendly person, but when he becomes Mr. Milichick, that is so scary. So, I was definitely very intimidated in those scenes. And I had to really ground myself to be able to even challenge him a little bit as Miss. Huang.”
But Bock and Tillman also have their fair share of fun, especially filming “Lumon Management Program (L.U.M.P.)” videos in character for Lumon’s LinkedIn page.
“We had to improvise a little bit,” Bock said. “And Tramell Tillman is an amazing improviser. He made me break character quite a bit, which was very embarrassing, but I couldn’t stop laughing because the stuff he was saying was just hilarious.”
Besides bonding with the cast and crew, Bock has also been accepted by the passionate “Severance” fan base. But she doesn’t seek out the outrageous fan theories on the internet.
“Reddit scares me a lot,” she said. “I actually haven’t gone on there at all. But I get so many texts every day from my friends who see tweets or Reddit posts involving Miss Huang, and they’ll send the funniest ones to me, which is really cool. And I go on TikTok sometimes and I’ll see edits of the show or of Miss Huang, which I think is so funny. People love editing her to Charli XCX songs.”
Last weekend’s penultimate episode of Season 2 revealed that Miss Huang had completed her fellowship as deputy manager on the “severed floor” at Lumon. While Bock couldn’t divulge any details about the fate of her character, she did share her reaction to reading the script for the season finale.
“My jaw was on the floor,” she said. “I kept wanting to turn the pages. I think that [showrunner] Dan Erickson writes an amazing finale. I recently got to watch the episode and my heart was pounding the entire time.”