When Vince Gilligan sold Apple TV on his Better Call Saul follow-up in 2022, we knew it was a genre drama with a two-season order and that Rhea Seehorn attached. And that’s pretty much all anybody knew until the first two episodes of Pluribus dropped last week. 

Turns out, Seehorn isn’t just the star of Pluribus. She plays practically the only character, the bulk of whose interactions are with the survivors of a global event that now share a single, cheery consciousness. They’re terribly polite, albeit a little perturbed as to why Carol (Seehorn) didn’t join the party. As the cryptic teaser states, “The most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.” Seehorn recently guested on The Hollywood Reporter‘s new podcast, I’m Having an Episode (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple), to talk about her new showcase, the tonal tightrope walk it requires and keeping it all under wraps for three years. 

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The premise of this show was kept secret for over three years. Is this the show you were pitched in 2022?

No pitch. The initial conversation was Vince saying, “I wrote something for you if you’re interested.” Which is funny. I just said yes. First I cried and then I said yes. He wanted me to read the pilot but he wasn’t ready to send it until maybe a month later? And as you’ve now seen, it’s its own sort of self-contained film — the night that this event happened. It was bananas. I got really excited, but I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t understand what happens the next day when she wakes up.

It sort of becomes a completely different show.

I got episode two and I was like… this is just gonna keep getting weirder and weirder. The threat switches from a distinctly physical to a distinctly psychological threat between one and two, but it maintains this real slippery relationship with genre and tone. This would be a show I’d want to watch in a heartbeat. I can’t believe I get to do it.

I’m shocked that so much of this show was kept under wraps until the premiere. How did you navigate secrecy?

I’m really happy that my friends and family, including my partner and my stepkids, love Vince’s work so much that they don’t want to know. They know nothing until it comes out. Vince said it was okay for Graham, my partner, to read the pilot script. But that’s about it. And I’m thankful for that because I think it’d be really hard for me if people were pestering. We sign a lot of NDAs, but the bigger threat than legal ramifications is to disappoint Vince. Keeping it a surprise is so important to him, and he knows how hard it is to do.

Rhea Seehorn with creator Vince Gilligan at the world premiere of Pluribus Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

What was Vince’s biggest note on your character?

We found her over the course of the episodes. We had to figure out who this person is in this new world. Her behavioral norms before are not relevant or not working anymore. But I do remember him reminding me that she is a very reluctant hero. Even when she goes to Spain to solicit help, she’s hoping somebody else is going to lead the charge. She was hoping to assist in the revolution, not lead it. The frustration is, “My God, does it really have to be me?” There’s so much drama in that, there’s also so much comedy. We’ve all been in situations where you feel like you’re the only one screaming that the barn is on fire and everyone’s like, “Just have a drink. What is your problem?”

And she is now literally the only one.

We would remind each other about the grief she’s feeling — not just of the loss of the whole world, but her partner and her buffer to the entire world is gone. That needed to have its own weight that isn’t easily shed. Then somewhere deep, deep down, she has this thing where she’s going to fight for what she thinks is right. That is probably the only thing that’s similar to Kim Wexler, the character I played [on Better Call Saul]. Other than that, they’re pretty much polar opposites.

Is it easy for you to find the comedy when you’re the only one in a scene?

Well, my scene partners were brilliant. Karolina Wydra playing Zosia… what a deceptively difficult role. To figure out how to be a sentient being that has compassion and intelligence but cannot mirror Carol. As humans, we mirror each other. As actors, that’s one of your biggest tools. She can’t do that, yet she can’t seem like a robot. She can’t seem just… high. She has to be present. It’s funny, because Carol is such a hot mess right now. She’s so emotional and reactive, and it doesn’t matter if she’s justified in being highly reactive. It’s always gonna be funny to put that person up against somebody who is calmly saying, “Calm down, it’s not that bad.” There were things like that where I knew the comedy was there. There are other times, certainly towards the very end of the pilot, that Vince and I never played for laughs and just became funny. And there are things in the script that are just inherently funny — like what it’s like to talk to a television screen.

The number one question I asked myself watching this show was: If I were in the position of your character, how frequently would I shower?

We had deep dive conversations about it, by the way, with Cheri Montesanto, head of makeup, and Trish Almeida, head of hair, and Jennifer Bryan, head of costumes. Vince and I thought it was imperative that the loss of Helen (Miriam Shor) is a weight that stays with her. It is not like we’re done with that plot point and we move on. It’s there and needs to be present in the way one behaves. She’s in this dystopian nightmare where you’ve lost everyone. Don’t make that person get up and do her hair and makeup. That’s absurd. For all intents and purposes, she’s not really sure anybody’s ever gonna see her again.

Seehorn as Carol with Karolina Wydra as Zosia.

Courtesy of Apple TV

Carol is a romance novelist. Did you read up on any romance to prep for this?

I read some and I also went to Culver City’s own The Ripped Bodice, which is an all romance novel store. I watched people read from their books and do book signings, just observing them. I was blown away. The romance genre is not one I am well versed in. I was blown away by the number of sub genres. I can’t even name them all. There’s space stuff. Historical fiction. Sci-fi. Pirates! I was like, “Is everyone gonna come here dressed as a pirate?” And the answer is no. It’s a wide range of types of people, ages, outfits. It was very, very interesting.

Up until a decade ago, you were very much in the comedy world in television. Did you find it hard to get out from that label?

I did theater for 12 years before I did television. Then I got cast in a sitcom that got picked up called I’m With Her and moved to L.A. When that show was over, I had a bunch of auditions — and they were all for sitcoms. I was like, well, that’s cool. Then I was fortunate enough to get another sitcom. But I started to realize, “I’m only being called in for sitcoms.” And not even just comedies, only multicamps. I didn’t quite understand it. There is a part of me that didn’t want to be pigeonholed. Whatever I was watching at the time, on HBO or something, I would have loved to have been considered for that. The feedback would be like, “Well, they just know her as a sitcom actress.”

At this point in your career, do you feel like Hollywood has a better idea what to do with you?

Well, I won the lottery with Vince. On days when I’m doubting myself — like, “Oh boy, the jig is going to be up today” — he’s always like, “You can do anything.” He’ll just write wherever he wants the story to go, and I couldn’t be more thankful for the challenges he gives me and that I try to rise to. But I do know what you’re talking about. I got a lot of that coming up. It was always: “Not weird enough looking to play the sidekick friend, but not attractive enough to be your leading lady.” All the time. I’d hear, “We don’t know what to do with you.” The good news is I ended up being trained mostly in character parts, because sometimes the girlfriend roles are the ones that get shoehorned into not being allowed to do anything except look hot. That’s a tough position to be put in. So at least I got out of that.

For more of Seehorn, listen to the complete interview on I’m Having an Episode; Pluribus releases new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.