‘Severance’ cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné eyes erotic thriller after making Emmys history

Jessica Lee Gagné has been learning to surf in Los Angeles, letting the waves test her limits.

It’s a pursuit she took up after making her directing debut on Season 2 of “Severance,” a leap she’s avoided for years. 

“I promised myself ever since I had that directing experience to put myself in situations where I didn’t feel comfortable. And surfing has been a part of that. I’m just trying to get my body used to the discomfort,” she says.

For the Quebec-born cinematographer, that same instinct helped her make Emmys history, and now fuels her foray into directing and writing her own projects.

Earlier this month, Gagné became the first woman to win the Emmy for best cinematography in a series for the Apple TV Plus hit “Severance,” the Ben Stiller-directed workplace thriller about employees who undergo a procedure to sever their work and personal lives.

Gagné says she’s eager to upend presumptions about women behind the camera.

“There’s this subconscious belief we have about the role of women in these fields. Even though there’s amazing women directors and cinematographers out there, there’s still this bias, like, ‘Oh, can women really be as good as men at this thing?’” says Gagné, who won for the Season 2 premiere, in which Adam Scott’s protagonist Mark races through the endless, sterile hallways of the shady corporation he works for.

“I’m all about changing that mindset.”

Gagné was also up for a directing prize for helming the episode “Chikhai Bardo,” which explores Mark’s relationship with his wife Gemma, played by Dichen Lachman.

Now, she’s wading into uncharted waters by directing a feature film: “It’s an erotic thriller that kind of has a ’90s flair to it. I want to reappropriate the genre a little as a woman.”

She’s in the middle of financing and casting the project, which she says will have a “Hitchcock feeling” and “explores Carl Jung’s theory of the assimilation of the shadow.” 

She grew up surrounded by movies thanks to her father’s video store chain in Quebec, and cites steamy neo-noirs like 1987’s “Fatal Attraction” and “Basic Instinct” as formative.

“A lot of the directors were men making these films, and I just want to take a stab at it with a different perspective,” she says.

“There’s something about the ’90s erotic thriller that I thought was very entertaining and captivating when I was younger. Not necessarily the eroticness of it, but that thriller, more American-style. I haven’t seen a movie with that kind of touch recently.”

After graduating from film school at Concordia University, Gagné worked as the cinematographer on 2013’s “Sarah Prefers to Run,” directed by Quebec’s Chloé Robichaud.

Her work on 2017 thriller “Sweet Virginia” caught Stiller’s attention, and he tapped her as cinematographer for his 2018 Showtime limited drama series “Escape at Dannemora.”

Gagné says collaborating with Stiller felt fluid and “like destiny,” leading to “Severance,” though she was initially hesitant to shoot an office show.

“It’s every cinematographer’s nightmare: white walls and ceiling lighting. You’re like, ‘There are no windows. I can never change the lighting. What am I supposed to do?’”

What won her over was a close collaboration with the production design team, and inspiration from photographers including Lynn Cohen and Lars Tunbjörk, whose work captured the ennui of office life.

A key to her visual language, she says, is maintaining a sense of “paranoia and surveillance” both inside the office and in the world outside despite how different they may look.

Gagné says she long had an “unconscious desire” to direct but buried it after finding work as a cinematographer. When the opportunity to direct “Severance” came up, she initially refused. But then she read the episode delved into Gemma’s backstory.

“I wanted to make sure that episode was done right. I felt like I was the person to do it, especially also being a woman. It felt like if I didn’t do it, a guy would do it.”

At first, she felt nauseous assuming director duties, but then she found a new power: “I feel like I’ve unlocked a dragon inside of me. There’s a lot of stuff I want to work on and do.”

Gagné can’t say whether she’ll direct again on Season 3, as the team is still writing with no shoot scheduled.

She’s begun writing her own feature, which she describes as an exploration of consciousness and reality.

“I’m trying to operate in worlds that are questioning time, questioning what we’re doing here and how the world works from my own perspective,” she says. 

“What’s real, what’s not real? The human experience is so complicated, and the stories are never-ending.”

In pushing into writing and directing, she sees a chance to shift who gets to ask — and answer — those questions on screen.

“People still tend to associate certain projects for women. Why can’t we consider more women for action-oriented projects or bigger-budget pictures?” she says.

“There still is this question of, ‘Can she do it?’ I don’t want that to ever be the thing we think about when we think of women.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2025.