{"id":133240,"date":"2025-11-14T16:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T16:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/133240\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T16:33:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T16:33:07","slug":"pluribus-secrecy-comedy-and-romance-novels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/133240\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Pluribus’ Secrecy, Comedy and Romance Novels"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Vince Gilligan<\/a> sold Apple TV<\/a> on his Better Call Saul<\/a> follow-up in 2022, we knew it was a genre drama with a two-season order and that Rhea Seehorn<\/a> attached. And that\u2019s pretty much all anybody knew until the first two episodes of Pluribus<\/a> dropped last week<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turns out, Seehorn isn\u2019t 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\u2019re terribly polite, albeit a little perturbed as to why Carol (Seehorn) didn\u2019t join the party. As the cryptic teaser states, \u201cThe most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.\u201d Seehorn recently guested on The Hollywood Reporter\u2018s new podcast, I\u2019m Having an Episode (Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon Music<\/a>,\u00a0Apple<\/a>), to talk about her new showcase, the tonal tightrope walk it requires and keeping it all under wraps for three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tThe premise of this show was kept secret for over three years. Is this the show you were pitched in 2022?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo pitch. The initial conversation was Vince saying<\/a>, \u201cI wrote something for you if you\u2019re interested.\u201d 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\u2019t ready to send it until maybe a month later? And as you\u2019ve now seen, it\u2019s its own sort of self-contained film \u2014 the night that this event happened. It was bananas. I got really excited, but I didn\u2019t have a clue. I didn\u2019t understand what happens the next day when she wakes up.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt sort of becomes a completely different show.<\/p>\n

\n\tI got episode two and I was like\u2026 this is just gonna keep getting weirder and weirder.<\/a> 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\u2019d want to watch in a heartbeat. I can\u2019t believe I get to do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m shocked that so much of this show was kept under wraps until the premiere. How did you navigate secrecy?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m really happy that my friends and family, including my partner and my stepkids, love Vince\u2019s work so much that they don\u2019t 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\u2019s about it. And I\u2019m thankful for that because I think it\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRhea Seehorn with creator Vince Gilligan at the world premiere of Pluribus Nov. 4 in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFrazer Harrison\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was Vince\u2019s biggest note on your character?<\/p>\n

\n\tWe 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\u2019s hoping somebody else is going to lead the charge. She was hoping to assist in the revolution, not lead it. The frustration is, \u201cMy God, does it really have to be me?\u201d There\u2019s so much drama in that, there\u2019s also so much comedy. We\u2019ve all been in situations where you feel like you\u2019re the only one screaming that the barn is on fire and everyone\u2019s like, \u201cJust have a drink. What is your problem?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd she is now literally the only one.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe would remind each other about the grief she\u2019s feeling \u2014 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\u2019t easily shed. Then somewhere deep, deep down, she has this thing where she\u2019s going to fight for what she thinks is right. That is probably the only thing that\u2019s similar to Kim Wexler, the character I played [on Better Call Saul]. Other than that, they\u2019re pretty much polar opposites.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs it easy for you to find the comedy when you\u2019re the only one in a scene?<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, my scene partners were brilliant. Karolina Wydra playing Zosia<\/a>\u2026 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\u2019s one of your biggest tools. She can\u2019t do that, yet she can\u2019t seem like a robot. She can\u2019t seem just\u2026 high. She has to be present. It\u2019s funny, because Carol is such a hot mess right now. She\u2019s so emotional and reactive, and it doesn\u2019t matter if she\u2019s justified in being highly reactive. It\u2019s always gonna be funny to put that person up against somebody who is calmly saying, \u201cCalm down, it\u2019s not that bad.\u201d 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 \u2014 like what it\u2019s like to talk to a television screen.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe number one question I asked myself watching this show was: If I were in the position of your character, how frequently would I shower?<\/p>\n

\n\tWe 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\u2019re done with that plot point and we move on. It\u2019s there and needs to be present in the way one behaves. She\u2019s in this dystopian nightmare where you\u2019ve lost everyone. Don\u2019t make that person get up and do her hair and makeup. That\u2019s absurd. For all intents and purposes, she\u2019s not really sure anybody\u2019s ever gonna see her again.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSeehorn as Carol with Karolina Wydra as Zosia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Apple TV<\/p>\n

\n\tCarol is a romance novelist. Did you read up on any romance to prep for this?<\/p>\n

\n\tI read some and I also went to Culver City\u2019s 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\u2019t even name them all. There\u2019s space stuff. Historical fiction. Sci-fi. Pirates! I was like, \u201cIs everyone gonna come here dressed as a pirate?\u201d And the answer is no. It\u2019s a wide range of types of people, ages, outfits. It was very, very interesting.<\/p>\n

\n\tUp 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?<\/p>\n

\n\tI did theater for 12 years before I did television. Then I got cast in a sitcom that got picked up called I\u2019m With Her and moved to L.A. When that show was over, I had a bunch of auditions \u2014 and they were all for sitcoms. I was like, well, that\u2019s cool. Then I was fortunate enough to get another sitcom. But I started to realize, \u201cI\u2019m only being called in for sitcoms.\u201d And not even just comedies, only multicamps. I didn\u2019t quite understand it. There is a part of me that didn\u2019t 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, \u201cWell, they just know her as a sitcom actress.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt this point in your career, do you feel like Hollywood has a better idea what to do with you?<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, I won the lottery with Vince. On days when I\u2019m doubting myself \u2014 like, \u201cOh boy, the jig is going to be up today\u201d \u2014 he\u2019s always like, \u201cYou can do anything.\u201d He\u2019ll just write wherever he wants the story to go, and I couldn\u2019t be more thankful for the challenges he gives me and that I try to rise to. But I do know what you\u2019re talking about. I got a lot of that coming up. It was always: \u201cNot weird enough looking to play the sidekick friend, but not attractive enough to be your leading lady.\u201d All the time. I\u2019d hear, \u201cWe don\u2019t know what to do with you.\u201d 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\u2019s a tough position to be put in. So at least I got out of that.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor more of Seehorn, listen to the complete interview on I\u2019m Having an Episode<\/a>; Pluribus releases new episodes Fridays on Apple TV+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Vince Gilligan sold Apple TV on his Better Call Saul follow-up in 2022, we knew it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8932,75229,146,85,46,68266,68263,75230],"class_list":["post-133240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-apple-tv","tag-better-call-saul","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-pluribus","tag-rhea-seehorn","tag-vince-gilligan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}