Why Tramell Tillman was ‘reticent’ about ‘Severance’ marching band scene

Tramell Tillman now understands the brilliant genius that is “Mil-chella,” but it actually took some convincing to get him to do the Severance season 2 finale marching band scene.

Tillman opened up about his character Seth Milchick’s now-iconic Choreography & Merriment sequence during Entertainment Weekly‘s Awardist Drama Actors Roundtable (video above) with Bradley Whitford (The Handmaid’s Tale), Marisa Abela (Industry), Antony Starr (The Boys), and Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters). And he revealed that executive producer Ben Stiller was the one who finally convinced him to do it.

“I was reticent about doing the whole choreography at all, because we did the Music Dance Experience in season 1,” Tillman says. “So I didn’t want to try to recreate this thing. But then Ben told me there’s a marching band, and I can’t say no to that. I’m like, ‘Let’s do it!'”

Tillman reveals that he went to two historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) when he was younger, but he never got to live out the experience of being in a marching band.

“I was always fascinated by the bands, and I never had the opportunity to play in the band,” he says. “I definitely didn’t have the opportunity to direct one. So this was my opportunity and I enjoyed every minute of it.”

While he was hesitant to do the Choreography & Merriment sequence before, he’s now leaned all the way in. Tillman surprised PaleyFest 2025 attendees by dressing as Milchick and leading the University of Southern California marching band in an impressive performance at the Apple TV+ thriller series’ live Q&A panel event at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood just hours after the show premiered its season 2 finale.

The Choreography & Merriment department was introduced in the game-changing season 2 finale when Mark (Adam Scott) finished all of the Macrodata Refinement’s files. Milchick led the marching band throughout the MDR department as a celebration, but his joy turned to rage when he was ultimately locked in the bathroom by Helly (Britt Lower) and Dylan (Zach Cherry) to allow Mark to help free Gemma (Dichen Lachman) from her captivity.

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Lower praised Tillman and the marching band’s performance during a post-finale interview with EW.

“Tramell is a genius,” she said. “That marching band sequence really embodies, for me, the juxtaposition of the show — like this corporate world with this fully established band that they have at the ready. There’s something so wonderfully surreal about that. And at the same time, these characters are on this very human journey inside of this surreal moment.”

She continued, “I feel really proud to be a part of this incredible team, the cast and crew and the designers of our show, who have built and put so much sweat and thought into each aspect of this huge puzzle that we’re all building and solving at the same time.”

Watch the full conversation with Tillman and other Emmys contenders in EW’s Awardist Drama Actors Roundtable above.