Patricia Arquette

Patricia Arquette plays Harmony Cobel in Severance. Her controlled delivery makes even routine instructions feel uncomfortable. The role reunites her with Ben Stiller after Escape at Dannemora, in which she plays prison worker Tilly Mitchell.

Arquette's film work includes True Romance, Ed Wood and Lost Highway. She won the Academy Award for Supporting Actress in 2015 for Richard Linklater's Boyhood, playing a mother across a production filmed over twelve years.

Television has given her several substantial leading roles. She plays Allison DuBois in Medium, winning an Emmy in 2005, and Avery Ryan in CSI: Cyber. Ryan also appears in the original CSI. Her other credits include Sally Wheet in Boardwalk Empire and Dee Dee Blanchard in The Act, which brought her another Emmy in 2019.

Cobel is a different kind of authority figure from those earlier parts. Arquette gives her a precise, watchful presence: a conversation can feel threatening before the words themselves provide much reason for it. That restraint suits Severance better than an openly theatrical villain would.