Ben Stiller Asked Barack Obama to Appear in ‘Severance,’ Here’s How the President Replied

The voice of Lumon Industries could’ve been someone wildly different. In the season 2 premiere of Severance, an employee training video is shown with Keanu Reeves voicing an animated talking building. The building explains the events of the Lumon employee rebellion from the season 1 finale, which came to be known as the ‘Macrodat Uprising.’ But the role was almost played by someone with quite a different background.

“There was one person that I asked before [Reeves], and he said no: President Barack Obama,” said series executive producer Ben Stiller on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “I knew someone who knew his lawyer, and his lawyer said I can relay the request if you write an email.”

“So, I wrote an email to him and like two days later I got an email back from President Barack Obama saying, ‘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”… What’s more important than doing the voiceover for the animated building in Severance?” Stiller joked. “It was pretty cool that he responded.”

It’s probably the only recent loss Stiller has taken, given the resounding success of Severance‘s second season—the show is inescapable on social media, and it recently knocked out Ted Lasso as Apple TV’s most-watched series of all time, even with half the number of episodes as that series.

Severance airs Thursday nights at 9 PM EST on Apple TV.