US President turned down major role in ‘superb’ $200,000,000 TV show

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Severance director Ben Stiller revealed that this former US President almost played the voice of the building in the hit show.

The second season of the critically acclaimed Apple TV Plus series, which cost $200,000,000 (£155m) to produce, is currently airing episodes weekly as fans share their wildest theories about the next plot twist.

The sci-fi mystery, starring Adam Scott, Britt Lower and John Turturro, follows a group of office workers for Lumon Industries who have undergone the severance procedure, clinically separating their work and personal lives.

As the disillusioned employees start to question their reality, however, things soon start to fall apart as they race to uncover the nefarious secrets at the heart of this workplace conspiracy.

Last month, fans made the shocking discovery that the voice of the Lumon Industries building in an animated sequence on the show was none other than action star Keanu Reeves.

Now Ben, 59, has revealed that the original choice for the role was even more shocking -the 44th US President, Barack Obama.

Former US President Barack Obama almost had the sweetest gig in town… (Picture: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

On Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week, he said: ‘There was one person that I asked before [Keanu Reeves], and he said no: President Barack Obama.’

The Night at the Museum star shared that he sent an email offering Obama the role through a friend who knew his lawyer and received a reply just ‘two days later’ from the man himself.

He recalled that the email read: ‘Hey Ben, big fan of the show, love Season 1, can’t wait for Season 2. Don’t think I have time in my schedule to make this happen.’

He may not have clinched the talent, but hey, at least he has star-studded fans of the show.

The building in Severance (Picture: Apple TV Plus)

The Hollywood star then joked to the host: ‘What’s more important than doing the voice-over for the animated building in Severance?’

Before adding: ‘It was pretty cool that he responded.’

As a prolific audiobook narrator and multi-Grammy winner,this certainly wouldn’t have been the politician’s first rodeo.

As for Keanu, although he is not officially credited on the show, keen-eared fans immediately recognised the warm tone of his voice.

In the end, Keanu Reeves landed the coveted, if not uncredited, role (Picture: Matt Baron/BEI/REX/Shutterstock)

Discussing the voiceover role on the Josh Horowitz podcast, Adam shared: ‘Ben… I guess he just reached out? I remember when he told me on set that he was going to do the voice, and I was so unbelievably happy.

‘First thing I did was text my wife [Naomi] who is just an enormous, enormous Keanu Reeves fan – as am I. I mean, good Lord. So great.’

And reflecting on the decision to pick Keanu, creator Dan Erickson told Collider: ‘We always wanted it to be somebody that people have certain associations with, but also, it had to be a very warm presence.

The show is airing weekly, with the finale arriving later this month (Picture: Apple TV)

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.’

As the show is airing every Friday, there are still a handful of episodes to go before the tenth and final episode, which airs on March 21.

The show has proved itself a streaming hit, with Deadline reporting that it has scored 589 million minutes viewed in the US over all existing episodes.

What’s more, 28% of that figure is for the opening episode of season two.

No doubt, this figure will only increase as the series comes to a close in the coming weeks.

Severance season one and the first seven episodes of season two are available to stream on Apple TV Plus.

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