Barack Obama Rejects Ben Stiller’s Cameo Offer in Severance: ‘Big Fan of the Show, But…’

Barack Obama Rejects Ben Stiller’s: Barack Obama was almost part of “Severance” Season 2. Ben Stiller, who executive produces and directs the series, said during a recent appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (which you can see in the below video) that he asked former president Obama to voice the animated Lumon building in the second season. Despite Obama being a “big fan” of the series, he turned the role down.

On Monday's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Ben Stiller recalled how he initially thought Obama would be perfect for the voice role. “I knew someone who knew his lawyer. And his lawyer said he can relay the request if I write an email. So I wrote an email saying, ‘Hey, we have this show, whatever’,” the actor said.

Stiller added that Obama even responded to the e-mail but added that he could not do the show because of his schedule. He added, “And two days later, I get an email back from Obama, saying, ‘Hey, man! Big fan of the show. Loved season 1, can’t wait for season 2. Don’t think I have time in my schedule to make this happen.’ And like, what? What’s more important than doing the voiceover for the animated filming in Severance? But it was pretty cool that he responded.”

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Obama has long been a dream cast addition for the Severance creators. Exec producer Dan Erickson told The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 that he hoped to pitch an undisclosed role to Obama while at the Emmys at the time.

“If he is [there] I’m going to see if he wants a role on this show,” the creator told THR. “I think he’d be really good, he’d bring some gravitas.”

Keanu Reeves eventually lended his voice for the “Lumon Is Listening” video featured in the show. Stiller praised the actor for having a “warm” and “inviting voice.”

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“I don’t know if when you see the building and you hear his voice, you necessarily think immediately that it’s Keanu, but then I think you have this just innate feeling,” Stiller told Kimmel.

The second season of the Apple TV+ series premiered in January with the finale streaming on March 21

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