But for ostensibly platonic colleagues Burt and Irving (played with such sweet, mature longing by Walken and John Turturro, both of whom received Emmy nominations for their work in 2022), something ambiguous hangs between them – either a romantic attraction that already exists on the outside, or something they want to make real on the inside.
But even though Severance often keeps them apart – Burt retired at the end of season one, meaning his two lives have been reduced to one – it’s the most they’ve worked together so far.
The pair have known each other for close to four decades, first meeting at a party for the Yale Drama School sometime in the early Eighties (Turturro had just graduated; Walken was passing through).
They’ve been kept apart until this week’s episode, which saw the pair finally meeting in the real world and Burt inviting Irving to eat dinner with him and his husband (a cryptic John Noble).
Walken is talking to me from New York, dressed in a black blazer and navy shirt, his hair grey, coiffed and tall, like he’s been electrocuted.
