Olympia screenwriter Dan Erickson on ‘Severance’ and its long journey to Apple TV+

Screenwriter Dan Erickson’s journey from Olympia to Hollywood has been an arduous one. Rather than allowing his struggles to stifle his creative pursuits, the Western Washington University graduate used them as inspiration.

“I had a series of office jobs when I first moved to Los Angeles,” Erickson said. “At one of them, I found myself wishing that I could jump ahead to the end of the day. I wanted to disassociate for the next eight hours. I thought, ‘That’s a messed up thing to wish for. We should want more time, not less.’”

Erickson recognized that a lot of people do turn their brains off when they’re at work, though.

This propelled him to ponder a lot of other questions, the result of which was the story of “Severance,” out Feb. 18 via Apple TV+. Set at…