Welcome to dichenlachmandaily, a fanblog dedicated to the amazing Dichen Lachman!
Dichen is an actor and producer known for her roles in Neighbours, Dollhouse, The 100, Agents of SHIELD, Altered Carbon, and so on. She is currently starring on Severance (AppleTV+).
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villa_di_geggiano_london: Thank you so much to everyone who joined us at yesterday's Hat Event with our resident artist Monica at @mariamonicalondon. It was such a lovely afternoon, and we truly appreciated your support and enthusiasm.
Stepping into the shadowy world of Vampires of the Velvet Lounge, Dichen Lachman is embracing a role that blends intrigue, character depth, and genre storytelling.
The world of vampires is not new for her. She previously played a vampire in the 2011 BBC series Being Human, but this time sheās an undercover vampire hunter. This new Adam Sherman horror comedy also stars Mena Suvari, Stephen Dorff, and Rosa Salazar, along with others, and is based on the 16th Century Hungarian countess, Elizabeth Bathory, who was rumored to have bathed in the blood of virgins to stay young. The story combines a mystery of the past with the contemporary concept of online dating.
In the film, a glamorous coven of vampires in the Deep South prey on lonely singles found through dating apps, seducing and slaughtering them to preserve their youth. But when they swipe right on the wrong profiles, a sharp undercover vampire hunter named Cora (Lachman) takes the story into fun and horrifying chaos.
In this conversation, the Nepali Australian actressāwhose other credits include Severance, Jurassic World: Dominion, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apesāshares what drew her to the project, the layers behind the character she portrays, and how her Nepali heritage continues to inform her perspective as she navigates an evolving Hollywood landscape.
The Apple TV standout plays a monster hunter in āVampires of the Velvet Lounge,ā which hits theaters March 20.
Dichen Lachman is very well known to sci-fi fans, with roles in Dollhouse, Agents of SHIELD, Altered Carbon, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World Dominion, and more. But her most high-profile turn to date is Ms. Casey, also known as Gemma, in Apple TVās dystopian office drama Severance.
While the world waits to see what Gemma will do now that sheās finally free of the Lumon basementāalbeit heartbroken that the āinnieā version of her husband, Mark (Adam Scott), decided to stay behindāio9 got a chance to talk to Lachman about another genre project sheās got coming up.
Itās a horror film called Vampires of the Velvet Lounge, which imagines that the ancient but still alluring Elizabeth BĆ”thory (Mena Suvari) has lately made her home in Savannah, Georgia, running an absinthe bar and picking up fresh victims over dating apps. Her new potential prey includes a character played by Stephen Dorff, bringing the Blade veteran back into the bloodsucking fold.
Lachman is Cora, a vampire hunter tasked with keeping close eyes on Elizabethāto the point that the two women form a sort of forbidden attraction, even though they ostensibly loathe each other. Lachman played a vampire years ago on Being Human, but writer-director Adam Shermanās new movie gives her a whole new entry into the horror genre.
io9: Cora is a vampire hunter with what seems to be a harrowing military past. What backstory details did you imagine for her, to help get you into the mindset sheās in when we meet her in the movie?
Dichen Lachman: I thought maybe she was an ex-Marine or in the Army or something else in that world. Not a Navy SEAL, but definitely in that world. I think that one of the things that I just loved about Adamās work here was just these really strong, badass womenāwho also struggle with this duality, that line [between] light and dark. So it was really exciting to take it on.
io9: Cora is both repulsed and fascinated by the vampiresā world. Do you think sheās aware that sheās being drawn in, or is that something sheās too walled off to even consider?
Lachman: I think thereās an awareness there but also a denial. I think that we as humans often suffer with that just in our day-to-day lives. Living in this world is not always easy, and weāre always oscillating between the right thing to do. And sometimes, [you] cross that line into the darkness, and maybe itās about getting back on [the other side of] that line.
Even though she feels the pull, I think she wants to believe that she is strong enough to fight it, just like we all are with certain things in lifeāstrong enough to fight that bad wolf in our brain or in our heart. So I think itās awareness and denial. I think thatās why people really are intrigued by vampires because, in a different way, we all experience that.
io9: Vampire movies are having a huge moment, especially thanks to Sinners. What are your favorite vampire movies (or TV shows)?
Lachman: I loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was amazing. And Angel. I loved Interview with a Vampire, and I loved Blade. When I saw the trailer for that movie many years ago, I could not wait to see it. And for [Vampires of the Velvet Lounge co-star] Stephen Dorff to come back and do a vampire movie, this little vampire movie, I was just so excited.
io9: Looking at your filmography, itās full of sci-fiāKingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Jurassic World Dominion, Altered Carbon, Agents of SHIELD, The 100, Severanceābut not a ton of horror until now, with Vampires, and you also have Other Mommy coming up. Is this new embrace of horror a deliberate choice or just a coincidence?
Lachman: I think itās just accidental because I think the market is really responding to movies like that, and so people are making them. Itās one of the things that happens in your career: the audience responds, and then Hollywood tends to give them more of what they want. I enjoy it so much. I did do a vampire thing many years ago called Being Human, and I really enjoyed playing in that world, and Iāve always wanted to get back into it. So I was excited to do this. I mean, who doesnāt love vampires?
io9: Switching gears here, but your character was such a crucial part of Severance season two. What was it like for you when you realized Gemma/Ms. Casey was going to be so pivotal to the storyline, including that flashback episode?
Lachman: I was very excited, but I also felt a tremendous amount of pressure to deliver because we only had one episode for the audience to really fall in love with Gemma and Mark and really make that conundrum for him have a lot of weight. But I couldnāt have been in better hands. I think when youāre working with people who are so detail-oriented and so committed, it makes it an easier journey for sure. It was such a wonderful episode, and Iām just really grateful that we got to have that because I think it really makes Markās journey all the more painstaking. [Laughs]
io9: Severance became an obsession for so many viewers. Have you had any memorable fan encounters as a result of that?
Lachman: Sometimes people will come upāIāve been in some remote places recently, like in grocery stores, and I think they were like, āIt couldnāt possibly be Gemma from Severance.ā And they were quite like blown away, like, āWhat are you doing in this place?ā So thatās been quite sweet. And I absolutely love fans of anything that Iāve done. I mean, without them, thereās no audience. So Iām always grateful when people have watched stuff that Iāve done or my husband [Maximilian Osinski from Ted Lasso and Agents of SHIELD] has done. Sometimes they see us together and they get like a double whammy, which is really exciting for them.
I come from a space, because of Dollhouse, where the fandom was just so pivotal to us getting, for example, a second season. It was because of the campaign that the fans went and got behind our show. And so because of that experience, Iāve always been [grateful] and felt like thatās a very sacred space.
io9: What are you most looking forward to about Severance season three?
Lachman: I mean, just like you, Iām excited to see what happens next. I donāt know what it is, but I completely trust in the creative team there. Theyāre so committed and dedicated to delivering something that the fans are going to absolutely lose their minds for. And I respect that theyāre just taking their time to perfect thatāso that, you know, you guys have an incredible journey on season three.
io9: Is it hard keeping those spoilers under wraps?
Lachman: It is, once I have them! And even now there are people who have not yet discovered the show, and itās very hard to talk about my experience of it because I donāt want to give anything away. So yeah, I always still try and keep things on the down low if someone hasnāt experienced the show.
io9: Sci-fi and horror have long been genres full of powerful roles for women. What does it mean to you to be a part of that legacy?
Lachman: Oh, I think itās so incredible. And Iām so grateful that for some reason, Iāve always just naturally fit into that space. When you want to be an actor, you feel like, āOh, I can do anything; I can do any role,ā but the industry kind of tells you what youāre allowed to do for a little while. Iām just really grateful and lucky thatās where they saw me, my archetype, fit in because I have such a blast playing all these roles. I love the physicality; I love playing with the duality and the psychology of it. And itās awesome to see women kicking ass on the big screen.
She also reassures fans frustrated with the long wait. "Anything that's good takes time."
The second season of Severance wrapped up way back in March of 2025, but we're still mulling over all of our unanswered questions. How long can Mark S (Adam Scott) and Helly R (Britt Lower) remain together now that they've decided to defy their corporate overlords at Lumon Industries? What are Lumon's long-term goals for the severance technology? And what will Mark Scout's wife Gemma (Dichen Lachman) do now that she's free of Lumon's control?
MovieWeb asked Lachman about what might be coming up, and while she couldn't share many details, she did hint at a world of possibilities on the horizon. "Oh my gosh, there's a world we don't know," Lachman said. "I am so excited to see where they're gonna take this."
Every season has taught us more about Gemma. In season 1, we mostly knew her as Ms. Casey, a "wellness counselor" who worked in the bowls of the Lumon building alongside the other "Innies," people whose personalities have been severed. We had no idea who Ms. Casey might be outside the Lumon building, and neither did she. It ends up that she was actually Gemma Scout, Mark's wife whom he believed had died; her "death" was one of the reasons Mark was willing to sever himself and work at Lumon in the first place.
Lachman found out there was more to Ms. Casey than meets the eye very early in the casting process. "I found out on a Zoom call with [executive producer Ben Stiller] before I'd been given the part, and I hadn't read the scripts, but it got me really excited," she told MovieWeb. "Because initially I thought, 'Oh, she's just sort of this office person. Maybe the role wouldn't be as exciting to play.' I didn't know, because I hadn't read anything. I just had these really weird lines. But when I found out how important she was to the story and what she meant to Mark and the story overall, I felt like, 'oh my gosh, I couldn't be more excited to play this part.'"
In season 2, we found out that Lumon had faked Gemma's death and was keeping her on a sub-floor of the Lumon building where they were doing experiments on her, seemingly to push the limits of the severance technology. At the end of season 2, she's finally freed and is back to her old self, but now her husband Mark ā or rather, Mark's Innie ā has decided to stay in the Lumon building with fellow Innie Helly R.
Where does that leave Gemma? Will she try and bring down Lumon from the outside? Will she try to infiltrate the place like Mark did? Will we learn more about what her life was like before all this drama started? It's very hard to predict where Severance might go at any given time, which is part of why we named it one of the 10 best shows of 2025.
Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait a while to find out more; shooting on Severance season 3 is due to start this spring, which means we very likely won't see any new episodes until 2027. Fans are surely frustrated with the long wait, but Lachman has some soothing words for them: "I know it's a little bit of waiting, but anything that's good takes time. And it is such a masterpiece. I feel like they're just tweaking and making it everything it could be, the best It could be."
In the meantime, if you want to see more of Lachman, she's playing a vampire hunter in the new movie Vampires of the Velvet Lounge, which is due out in theaters on Friday, March 20.
