One of the breakout stars of season two of Severance, the obsession-worthy Apple TV+ series, is Mr. Drummond, the Lumon Industries enforcer played by Icelandic-American actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson. In the wake of the explosive season finale, Ólafsson pulls back the curtain on his mysterious character and breaks down that wild scene
Spoilers for season two of Severance ahead
Season two of Severance, which just wrapped up in a dramatic fashion, featured an ominous, menacing presence in Mr. Drummond. Portrayed by Icelandic-American actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (who goes by Darri), the bearded, suited enforcer at Lumon Industries boasts the sort of simmering energy that screams “you do not want to mess with this guy”. Still, in the season finale, he is taken down in extraordinarily gory fashion; beaten to a bloody pulp by the goat handler Lorne (Gwendoline Christie) and then accidentally shot in the neck by Mark Scout (Adam Scott).
“I would have played a garbage can on the show – I would have played an R2-D2 character,” says Ólafsson, who, at nearly two metres tall, would have been quite an imposing garbage can. “I feel I lucked out.” I wasn’t totally luck; over the years Ólafsson, who was born to Icelandic parents in Connecticut and raised in Reykjavík, has become a go-to guy for executive producer and frequent Severance director Ben Stiller, who cast the actor in his films The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Zoolander 2.
Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Britt Lower, who plays Helena Eagan and Helly R on 'Severance'. Photo: Getty
Though Drummond is undeniably a bad dude, Ólafsson – who has a salt-of-the-earth charisma in real life – managed to find the character’s softer side. “There is humanity in him. The only time we see it is when he interacts with Helena,” says Ólafsson, referring to Helena Eagen, the heir apparent to Lumon. “And that makes me really happy, because that’s the only place he shows any real affection or human feeling.”
For Ólafsson, who graduated from the Icelandic Drama School in 1998, the notion of breaking through in Hollywood – particularly before the era of self-tapes – seemed rather unlikely. But after becoming a regular on stage with the National Theatre of Iceland, he and some friends founded their own theatre company, Vasturport, which gained international notoriety. Slowly, this led to a few international acting gigs before his breakout as the chief of police in the hit Icelandic noir series Trapped.
On the set of one of those early projects, the viking epic Beowulf & Grendel, Ólafsson picked up some advice from none other than Stellan Skarsgård that has shaped his career. “I got to have all of these wonderful conversations about the morality of being an artist and an actor,” says Ólafsson. “And he said to me, ‘I kind of consider the scripts in a way where I think: Can I add something to this? Can I make this story better or make it function’. And that sat with me through my entire acting life.” That advice was with him when he read the final script for season two of Severance, when he saw his character reach his demise. Putting his ego aside, Ólafsson knew Drummond’s epic death was good for the story.
Skarsgård offered one more piece of advice: one needn’t move to Hollywood to have a successful international film and television career. And so, when he isn’t shooting elsewhere, Ólafsson lives in Reykjavík with his wife, renowned dancer and choreographer Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir, and their two daughters. He revels in the low-key lifestyle, in which the most attention he gets is an occasional heartfelt “congratulations” from an older woman at the grocery store.
Much of Drummond’s initial impression is achieved by his look. Imagined by costume designer Sara Edwards, the impeccable suiting was made bespoke for Ólafsson. “I’m so big, so it’s hard for me to buy suits that are nice and I’m lucky enough that when I work on projects, I usually get to keep the clothes,” he says. “So now I have probably 10 or 12 bespoke suits and the difference is amazing. When you’re wearing something that’s made for you, it’s really lovely and that was my entire wardrobe on Severance.” He’s already worn the suits post-filming.
Photo: Apple TV+
Maintaining Drummond’s carefully manicured beard and floppy corporate haircut, meanwhile, required a deft hand from key makeup artist Mandy Bisesti. Due to the writer and actor strike, filming of season two happened over the course of 18 months, meaning Ólafsson needed a fresh cut to get back into character every time he returned to set. “This grows like weeds,” says Ólafsson, grabbing at his hair, which today is much more unruly than it is on the show.
The finishing touch was Drummond’s hand tattoo – the word “Frolic” expertly applied by Biseti (“Honestly, it took her so little time to do it”) and touched up throughout each each shooting day. “We felt that he might have had some sort of background where he was a rougher, tougher version of himself… well, maybe not tougher, but rougher,” says Ólafsson. “He maybe came from a background of someone who would get a tattoo and participated in more than a few brawls.”
Speaking of brawls, filming that brutal fight scene that leads to Drummond’s death was no small feat. “It was intense,” says Ólafsson. “Just going through the fight scene and then into the elevator took three days.” While Ólafsson and scene partners Gwendoline Christie and Adam Scott had the help of some talented stunt people to make everything look “100 times better”, there was still an element of danger whilst shooting. “One of the problems was my character punches Mark in the face and then slams him into a wall,” says Ólafsson. On the very first take, Scott fumbled the choreography and Ólafsson really slammed his head right into the wall. “Basically, Adam got a concussion,” says Ólafsson. “Everyone was like, ‘Oh my god, Adam are you OK?’ And as soon as we saw he was OK, Ben [Stiller] was like, ‘Are you OK? OK we got it. That was great’. And that’s the shot that’s in the show.”
If it wasn’t already abundantly clear that Ólafsson, whose next star-studded project is the Jon Hamm-led series Your Friends & Neighbours, is nothing like Drummond, just look to his reverence for his other Severance costar: the baby goat. “Oh my god, it was so cute. We had three goats and it was really beautiful. All throughout the day you would hear Brrhhh. And the lovely thing is whenever one of them came back to the others, they would talk,” he says. “If for nothing else, the best thing that happened is that Drummond, that damn goat-killer, he gets what he deserved.”