“I’m a total beginner,” said actress Britt Lower.

This happened one evening in mid-December in a warehouse in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Wearing a houndstooth T-shirt and leggings, Lower climbed a ladder to a narrow platform, where an instructor strapped her into a safety harness. Seconds later, Lower was upside down, swinging from the ceiling of the España-Streb Trapeze Academy.

She dismounted, delighted. It was her fifth trapeze class.

Lower (rhymes with flower), 39, has been performing professionally and at lower altitudes for a decade and a half, with roles in a number of shows including HBO’s meditative stoner series “High Maintenance,” Hulu’s spiky dramedy “Casual” and FX’s surreal one Comedy “Man Seeking Woman”. In 2022, she rose to prominence as the star of Severance, the fantastic Apple TV+ show about colleagues who voluntarily underwent a procedure that psychologically separates their work life from their personal life. The second season premieres on January 17th.

Lower, who has a deep voice, big eyes and strong eyebrow acting, begins the show as Helly R., a defiant new member of Lumon Industries’ Macrodata Refinement division. In her “outie” life, as the season one finale shows, she is also Helena Eagan, the daughter of Lumon’s CEO. In both roles she is dynamic, determined and dangerously confident.

In his review for The New York Times, James Poniewozik praised the “nervous intensity” that Lower Helly R. conveyed. Lower has some of that edginess off-screen, although she generally seems looser and less insistent. Helly is the kind of woman you would follow into battle. Lower would give you a balloon on your way.

“I’m a shy person who likes to try to be bold,” Lower said. “That’s why I like acting; It’s that emotional thrill.”

Lower likes to say that she grew up “20 minutes south of normal,” by which she means “Normal, Ill,” and not. Her mother instilled in her the idea that art is for everyone. Dressing up and putting on shows was typical of her childhood. By the time she enrolled at Northwestern, she had decided to study acting. “In the end, it just felt like the scariest decision,” she said.

The terror also drove her to improvise and then to try to make it as a New York actress. She auditioned on weekdays and spent weekends as a face painter. Her career advancement was slow, and she emphasizes that she enjoyed it. “I was able to work comfortably in relative darkness,” she said.

Little by little, she gained a reputation as a comedian who could also act, which is not as common as it seems. Jonathan Krisel, executive producer of Man Seeking Woman, cast Lower before signing one of the series’ leads and was impressed by her courage.

“She’s after the clown,” said Krisel. “She is willing to go to strange places and give performances that are unexpected, interesting and fun.”

Actor Ben Sinclair had known Lower for about a decade (they were, he said, gym buddies) when she was cast as his character’s romantic partner in the third season of “High Maintenance.” He was impressed by the level of realism she brought to the role of Lee, the former wife of a disgraced celebrity. Acting opposite her didn’t feel like you were acting at all.

“I just think she’s pretty authentic,” Sinclair said. “In the characters she chooses, she looks for that point of honesty.”

In 2019, not long after filming “High Maintenance,” Lower wrote the short film “Circus Person,” which she directed and starred in. It’s about a woman who rediscovers her sense of adventure and surprise after a breakup. (Lower loves the circus in real life, she said, for the awe it inspires.) Shortly after she finished, her agents called. They had a script for her. It was a long shot, but she might as well try. So she recorded Helly’s first scene in her bathroom.

Ben Stiller, who directed the pilot of “Severance” and five other episodes of the nine-episode first season, had no idea who Lower was. But he liked her conviction. He had her come to a callback alongside Adam Scott. (Stiller hadn’t seen Lower as Scott’s wife on the short-lived sitcom Ghosted, mostly because no one had seen Ghosted.) There was instant chemistry in the room. Stiller had wanted someone with strong will and energy, someone who could make Helly the driving force of the show. Lower had that.

“She’s really smart as an actress,” Stiller said. “She puts everything into what she does.”

The first table read for Severance took place a few days before the pandemic lockdown began. So for six or seven months, Lower was stuck in Los Angeles waiting for filming to begin and there wasn’t much he could do. But the break gave her enough time to get to know Helly. She created abstract paintings inspired by the character in watercolor and colored pencil, and she curated Patti Smith-focused playlists that Helly found fitting.

When she finally returned to New York (“Severance” films in the South Bronx and upstate), she was completely won over by Helly’s frantic, complete confidence.

Lower shares some of that confidence, but in person she is softer and less assertive. “Helly leads with confrontation,” Scott said, adding, “Britt doesn’t do that. She’s always looking for the good in everything.”

When the show debuted in early 2022, Lower was an instant star. “I couldn’t take my eyes off Lower, who brilliantly portrays her character’s increasingly desperate resistance,” wrote Naomi Fry in the New Yorker.

Another actress might have taken advantage of this semi-stardom. Instead, Lower gave away most of her belongings, packed the rest in a trailer, and drove off to join Circus Flora in St. Louis, where she sang and played the ukulele. (To be fair, she’s also made a few indie films: Darkest Miriam, scheduled for limited release in April, and The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer ” which is also scheduled for April.) At the end of production on the second season, she did something similar and joined the Shoestring Circus in Washington state.

If she doesn’t exactly share Helly’s ambitions, she has become more like the character, and perhaps vice versa. “The way I play Helly, Helly plays me a little bit,” she said. She likes to think that Helly made her more rebellious and confident.

This self-awareness is more complicated in Season 2, as Helena has much more screen time, although Lower has been remarkably reticent to discuss details. (Once asked to confirm a mild plot point, she looked over her shoulder and said, “I have a feeling a poison dart is going to come out.”) The season’s theme, she said elliptically, is: “Who am I?” in relation to the people I love, and how do I show up for those people?” She confirmed that there are more goats this season.

Lower was more fearless – or at least very good at feigning fearlessness – when it was her turn on the trapeze again. She arced back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, then let go and flew freely in the air for a moment before the instructor grabbed her by her outstretched arms.

“I like this edge,” she said after climbing off the mat. Her eyes shone and danced. “I think: If this is possible, what else?”