Triangle native Sarah Bock is already making waves on Season 2 of Apple TV’s Severance. The show’s second season opener dropped on January 17, with viewers wondering who the new Deputy Manager of Lumon is.
Two years before her Severance audition, Beltline to Broadway’s Lauren Van Hemert interviewed Bock, then 14-years-old about being a theater kid, Baby Shark, and more. Here is are some excerpts from that 2020 interview.
Beltline to Broadway: Do you remember your first Broadway show?
Sarah Bock: The first show I saw was at DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center). I think it was Annie. I’m pretty sure it was Annie. So that was really cool. That was my first regional show and that was the first show I saw. And all I remember is I waited a very long time to meet the “Annie,” and I don’t think I got to meet her. So I think I was upset after that. But I think seeing all the kids on stage was really cool for me.
Beltline to Broadway: The 2019 North Carolina Theatre regional production of Annie was your first professional stage credit. What did that experience teach you about the business?
Sarah Bock: The adults were so kind. They took time out of their breaks to mentor all of the kids and teach us professionalism and teach us how to act during rehearsals, but also teach us about the industry and what we’re going to face when we grow up.
That was my first professional audition, so I think it was challenging to see after that, that you’re not going to get every audition, you’re going to get a lot of rejections. So that was also something I learned coming out of Annie.
Beltline to Broadway: This is a hard business. So, how do you deal with that rejection?
Sarah Bock: Well, it stings a lot. But then you have to step back and you have to realize I just wasn’t right for this. I wasn’t what they were looking for, and it might not even have anything to do with my talent. It might have something to do with my height or my hair color, stuff like that. And then I realized that when I don’t get something, it happens for a reason, then something comes along that I would’ve never expected. And I’m just really grateful. I think that everything happened for a reason.
Beltline to Broadway: We’ve got to talk about Baby Shark. So, how did you get involved with Ping Fong and doing the voiceover work for Baby Shark?
Sarah Bock: That’s definitely something I never thought I’d ever do. I didn’t even know that that was possible. So, basically my agency, KU talent, sent it to me, and I sent in audio auditions of me singing the Ping Pong songs. And I heard back a couple of weeks later and they asked me to come do a recording session with them. So I went in, and I think I sang about 10 songs for them and recorded those. And how it works basically is you Skype with the people in South Korea who run Ping Pong, and they coach you through it. They coach you through the acting, and if you aren’t getting a rhythm or a note, they help you through that. You do it all the way through once, and then you break it into little sections so that it doesn’t sound run down by the end of the song. Most of the time in the song, I’m singing multiple parts at the same time, so I had to obviously record those more than once.
Beltline to Broadway: Did you think it was going to be a hit?
Sarah Bock: Well, I wasn’t the original. The original girl, she’s from South Korea and in a different interview she said that she didn’t think that would become a hit. But when I started, the videos that got the most views, like four-million and above, were the Baby Shark ones, definitely, so that’s not too surprising for me. What’s more surprising for me is when the songs that aren’t Baby Shark get a lot of hits because I didn’t even know that those existed before I even started working for them.
Beltline to Broadway: So, do you remember the first time you heard yourself singing Baby Shark?
Sarah Bock: Yeah, I just clicked on one of the videos. I was like, okay, this isn’t going to be me this time. Usually it was the other girl up until then. And then I played it and I was like, ‘Hey, kind of sounds like me.’ And then I looked and it said, ‘Baby Shark by Sarah,” and I was like, well, I’m now the voice of baby shark and people are going to hate me now. But it’s, it’s also really cool to hear my voice there, like, wow.
Beltline to Broadway: What advice would you have for other kids, other young performers wanting to get into this business?
Sarah Bock: I would say, I know everyone says this, but never give up. Even when we feel like this is a lot because you are balancing a lot, don’t give up if it’s really what you love. And also it’s easy for us to compare ourselves to one another. I know I have trouble with, I compare myself to a lot of people, but really everyone is so different. So really just know you are your biggest competition and just have confidence, which I know is really, really hard. But know your own worth and take every opportunity, try to take advantage of everything, especially now because there’s a bunch of really amazing opportunities out there, and you’re not going to get every role and that’s okay because eventually something will come along and it’ll just be even sweeter.
Sarah Bock is now a freshman at Northwestern University. The second season of ‘Severance’ can be seen on Apple TV. New episodes drop every Friday.