Britt Lower Joins Circus During Severance Hiatus
The Severance actress spent three years as a ringmaster, face painter, trumpeter and more.
Image: Instagram
Britt Lower is best known for her breakout turn as Helly R. in Apple TV+’s Severance, but during the show’s unexpected three-year break, the actress pursued a very different stage: the circus tent. In W magazine’s summer issue, Lower tells Editor at Large Lynn Hirschberg how she traded Lumon Industries for cotton candy and calliope music.
Circus Life Under The Big Top
On Instagram, Lower shared a behind-the-scenes peek at her new role: “i sure am missing this view from the top of the tent! if you like wonderful stuff, do yourself a favor and go see my awe-inspiring friends in the @shoestringcircus this summer!” (https://www.instagram.com/p/DK0OX4MBfcs/). The Portland native joined Shoestring Circus as a “ringmaster of sorts,” leading acts and helping coordinate performers, all while soaking up the surreal energy of the big top.
The photos, shot by Alex Mayes, show Lower surveying the tent’s canvas ceiling, her gaze framed by ropes and rigging. As she explains in the W profile, the circus offered her both a creative reset and a way to hone new performance skills away from camera crews.
Multi-talented Ringmaster
In her W interview, Lower lists off surprising talents she’s cultivated: face painting, trumpet playing and, believe it or not, training a pet betta fish to do tricks. “I’ve been painting little lions and tigers on kids’ cheeks, then switching over to brass,” she says. “The trumpet felt familiar—I was in my high school band—but teaching a fish to flip on command was totally new.”
True to her word, she posted a video on Instagram of herself channeling her high school band days by performing the Severance theme on trumpet for The Tonight Show audience (https://www.instagram.com/p/DH6SiBExjAm/). It’s a whimsical reminder that even television stars keep side hustles—and sometimes those side hustles involve bubble tricks and fish training.
From Page To Big Top And Back Again
Lower studied theatre at the University of Oregon before landing her first TV role in MTV’s Awkward and later earning praise on FX’s Man Seeking Woman. Since joining Severance in 2021, she’s become a fan favorite—so this extended intermission could have felt like a setback. Instead, she made the most of it by perfecting juggling acts, face-paint designs and aquatic illusions.
Her W feature also highlights her playful approach to navigating Hollywood pauses. “It’s easy to get anxious waiting for the next season,” she tells Hirschberg. “But I found that stepping into something completely different kept me curious and confident when cameras started rolling again.”
Lower’s circus chapter even inspired on-set improv during Severance season two. Showrunner Ben Stiller invited her to use her ringmaster voice for one scene, adding a quirky edge to Lumon’s sterile world.
By balancing acting gigs with real-world adventures—whether waving a baton in the ring or coaxing a fish to dance—Lower is expanding her creative toolkit. Fans can look forward to seeing how these new skills play out on screen when Severance returns.
As the summer issue of W hits newsstands, Britt Lower stands as proof that career breaks can be spectacularly productive. She emerged from her hiatus not just ready for more drama at Lumon Industries, but freshly trained in circus arts, musical performance and aquatic animal coaching. It’s a performance even her fish—and her fans—can’t stop applauding.
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