Canadian with Stage 4 cancer meets Severance cast after sliding into Ben Stiller’s DMs

When Emily Powell-Heaton reached out to Ben Stiller on social media, her goal was to knock another item off her bucket list.

The Markham, Ont., woman has metastatic, or Stage 4, breast cancer, and is a huge fan of the TV show Severance, which Stiller directs and executive produces.

Five days later, she was hobnobbing with some of the cast and crew at a Toronto screening, and later this month, she’ll be heading to Los Angeles for a special screening of the season 2 finale.

“I try and find things that will make my life, you know, fulfilled and enriched. And I really enjoy Severance and Ben Stiller’s work, so I decided to send out the message … and see if anything would come of it,” Powell-Heaton told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

“And it did, so I’m glad I did.”

‘Different and original’

Severance is a psychological thriller created by Dan Erickson that airs on Apple TV. It follows a group of colleagues who have undergone a brain procedure called severance that makes them forget their personal lives when they are at work, and their work lives after they’ve clocked out.

“I have always been a big fan of things that are different and original,” Powell-Heaton said. “When Lost came on TV years ago, I was a big fan … and anything that has that kind of, you know, mystery/sci fi-feel is, you know, right up my alley.”

So on March 1, she went on X, formerly Twitter, to shoot her shot. 

“Hi @BenStiller! Severance is the best show my husband and I have ever seen. I have stage 4 cancer. A great bucket list item to check off would be to meet you and any of the cast and crew from the show. We can fly anywhere. We live near Toronto, Canada. Would this be possible? Thanks for your help!” she wrote.

The post quickly gained momentum, getting thousands of likes and shares. And that very evening, Stiller responded: “Please dm me.”

Canadian connections

A thrilled Powell-Heaton immediately slid into the actor’s direct messages, where he helped arrange for her to meet some of the cast and crew at a March 6 screening at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.

There, she and her husband chatted and posed for pictures with actor Zach Cherry, who plays severed employee Dylan G; actor Tramell Tillman, who portrays security chief-turned-manager Seth Milchick; and Jessica Lee Gagné, one of the show’s directors. 

“[Gagné] went to school in Montreal for film production. I went to school in Ontario for film production, so I like that we have that in common,” Powell-Heaton said. “It was great.”

Gagné, who was born in Quebec City, isn’t the show’s only Canadian connection. Parts of second season were filmed in Newfoundland, on Fogo Island and in and around Bonavista. 

The latter poses as a company town for Lumon, the mysterious and sinister corporation at the centre of Severance.

In an episode of The Severance Podcast, Stiller called Newfoundland “rugged and beautiful.”

Powell-Heaton says she’s glad for her moment in the spotlight, which has allowed her to speak publicly about her breast cancer.

When she was first diagnosed in 2020, she was already at Stage 4, meaning the cancer had spread to other parts of her body.

Over the last five years, she says she’s realized that a lot of breast cancer research, fundraising and and support focuses on the earlier stages of the disease.  

“Stage 4 isn’t as talked about because it is a terminal illness,” Powell-Heaton said. “So that means a lot to me to be able to do that.”

She says she’s starting a new chemotherapy treatment on Tuesday, and is preparing for spinal surgery in April. Nevertheless, her doctor has cleared the way for her to travel to L.A. for the Severance season 2 finale, where she’ll meet even more cast and crew members. 

“I talked to my oncologist today and she was thrilled,” Powell-Heaton said. “She’s telling the whole office and everything.”