From ‘Severance’ to the circus: Emmy-winning actor honored at SLO Film Festival
“Severance” star Britt Lower received an award and screened her newest movie, “Sender,” at the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival on Sunday night.
Lower, known for playing a defiant office worker on the hit Apple TV show, also talked about her career during an award ceremony at the Masonic Lodge in San Luis Obispo.
“I like to say sometimes, as much as I play the character, the characters also play me,” Lower told The Wrap reporter Drew Taylor during an on-stage conversation. “If you’re on a train, and you just let your mind wander, and you can step into someone. It’s kind of like that: I’m stepping into how someone else would look at this vista going by.”
Lower was one of two actors to receive a Spotlight Presentation: Craft in Focus Award at the San Luis Obispo Film Festival.
“The Sixth Sense” star Haley Joel Osment accepted his award on Saturday, April 25, participating in an on-stage conversation at the Fremont Theater. His movie “How to Date Again,” premiered at the Palm Theater that evening.
Who is ‘Severance’ star Britt Lower?
Lower’s screen credits include the movies “Darkest Miriam” and “Mr. Roosevelt” as well as TV series “Unforgettable” and “High Maintenance.”
However, she’s best known as Helly R. on “Severance,” a darkly comedic psychological thriller about a company that “severs” the brains of its employees to separate work life from personal life. She teams up with another employee, Mark S. (Adam Scott), to determine what’s really going on at their workplace.
Lower said she was instantly drawn to the project.
“You read a script like that, and your heart starts breaking because you’re like, ‘Oh man, never gonna get to play this role,’” she said. “It was just so good. ... I fell in love with Helly immediately on the page.”
Lower won a Primetime Emmy Award for the role.
After filming the first season of the hit TV show, Lower joked that she ran off to join the circus. She served as a ringmaster at Circus Flora in St. Louis.
“I played the ukulele. My name was Steven, and I was afraid of tall ghosts,” Lower said.
Then, after wrapping up the second season of “Severance,” she worked as a ringmaster at a separate circus, Shoestring Circus in Bellingham, Washington.
Lower, who grew up working as a face painter in small-town Indiana, even recorded her audition video for “Severance” while working on the road as a circus performer.
Lower even wrote, directed and starred in a short film, “Circus Person,” in 2020.
What is new Britt Lower movie ‘Sender’?
After the award ceremony, festivalgoers were treated to a screening of “Sender,” followed by a question-and-answer session with Lower and director Russell Goldman.
The movie, which is loosely based on Goldman’s short film “Return to Sender,” marks his feature film debut.
Lower stars as Julia, a recovering alcoholic who receives a package in the mail she did not order. When more mysterious packages arrive at her doorstep, Julia becomes more unhinged.
In a red-carpet interview with The Tribune, Lower spoke about what drew her to the character.
“I’m always drawn to characters who have a really complex inner life,” she told The Tribune. “And Julia is really at a reflection point in her life. She’s newly in recovery. And I just felt like Russell had a really fresh take on this chapter in her life.”
Lower said she collaborated with costume designer Sarah Trost and production designer Melisa Myers to create a “new Julia” that felt different from the character in the short film.
“We wanted her to feel fresh, and it can be surprising,” Lower told the Tribune.
“Sender” was shot over just 17 days.
It’s “a dynamic that’s kind of new to me,” Lower said, adding that working with Russell, cinematographer Gemma Doll-Grossman and others felt “really natural.”
“(It was) really all hands on deck. Everybody is grabbing the duct tape and the Band-Aids,” said Lower, who served as an executive producer on the film.
What’s next for Emmy Award-winning actor?
Lower said she’s currently working on a feature film version of her short film “Circus Person.”
“I’m excited to make that and direct it,” Lower said. She is writing the film as well.
Lower is also set to shoot the third season of “Severance,” which is in development with a potential release date in 2027.
The actor didn’t reveal any details about the plot but said, “There is an end point.”
This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 10:49 AM.
