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\n \u201cWeeks before I got my audition, I actually said in an interview, \u2018I\u2019m really interested in the idea of the collective versus the individual.\u2019 So I\u2019m a witch, and I conjured it, is what I\u2019m saying.\u201d
\n Photo: Apple TV+\n <\/p>\n
This interview discusses events from this week\u2019s episode of Pluribus<\/a>.<\/p>\n In many regards, Vince Gilligan\u2019s Pluribus<\/a> is a one-woman show. Cheekily referred to as \u201cthe most miserable person on Earth\u201d in the vague description that Apple TV initially provided, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) is the grumpy hero at the show\u2019s center, a cynical fantasy-romance writer who suddenly finds herself one of 13 fully conscious and in-control humans left on Earth \u2014 the other seven-odd billion having been subsumed into a peaceful hive mind. Carol has lost everyone she has ever known to either death or assimilation, but you get the sense that only one loss really matters: the death of her manager and romantic partner, Helen.<\/p>\n As played by Miriam Shor, Helen shares Carol\u2019s dry sense of humor but possesses an openness and warmth that doesn\u2019t come as naturally to her partner \u2014 as well as an unwavering belief in Carol as a writer and a person, whether or not Carol shares those beliefs. In their few scenes together, you really understand the dynamic between the two, to the point that Helen\u2019s death already hurts in episode one<\/a>. During this week\u2019s<\/a> cold-open flashback to a stay at an \u201cice hotel\u201d in Norway, Carol can\u2019t stop obsessing about her position on the best-sellers list, but Helen forces her to take in the gorgeous view of the northern lights. \u201cHelen does call her on her bullshit but also believes that she wants to witness the beauty of the world, even when she says she doesn\u2019t,\u201d Shor says. \u201cCarol needs that.\u201d<\/p>\n How did this whole process kick off for you? So that sample scene isn\u2019t in the show? When they said, \u201cOh, yeah, you\u2019re the one they want to do this,\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, that is ridiculous.\u201d In the best way.<\/p>\n Had you been a fan of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul? When the hive mind infects people, they start convulsing in this very specific way. How were you directed to do the shaking? It felt like everyone was given the exact same physical directions. Did you have a chemistry read with Rhea? One of my favorite moments in the premiere is Carol silently waiting for Helen to give her book a more favorable shelf spot. And Helen says, \u201cI\u2019m gonna get some gum.\u201d I related a bit to Carol\u2019s reaction to the ice hotel, because I would never choose to go somewhere like that, but as a viewer, you\u2019re almost on Helen\u2019s side because you want Carol to just sit down and try to enjoy herself. She can\u2019t be in the moment. Why do these two very different people connect? So really, if somebody was like, \u201cLet\u2019s go on vacation to the coldest place on the planet,\u201d yeah, there would be a part of me that would be like, Really? We\u2019re not on a beach in the Bahamas? We\u2019re going to sit on a bed made of ice? But what Helen does is say, \u201cShut up, sit down, and look at the northern lights. Look at this thing that is singular, and will take you out of everything that makes a person miserable, and will force you to see the wonder of it all. Yeah, you\u2019re going to keep throwing a tantrum, and I\u2019m not taking that personally, because I know you need to see this. And you need to see it with me.\u201d She\u2019s so good-natured about it. I think there\u2019s actually a part of her that finds it adorable and hilarious. And because Helen does, we can.<\/p>\n What about on Carol\u2019s end? Where was that filmed? On film and TV alone, you\u2019ve appeared in such a wide variety of projects from so many genres. You\u2019ve been in Marvel movies \u2014 Where does your experience working with Vince on Pluribus fit into that? Did it offer something new? There\u2019s a lot riding on this for Vince, and it\u2019s all on Rhea\u2019s shoulders. I can\u2019t even fathom the stress of that, and still, they always went out of their way to ensure that every single person they encountered on that set felt valued. I\u2019m also a director, and as you\u2019re finding your way, you really can still be a kind person and deep-thinking visionary. That\u2019s a wonderful thing to have solidified for you.<\/p>\n
Oh, how the dream-come-true job came about? The audition was super-secret, really cloak-and-dagger. They were like, \u201cDo you want to audition for Vince Gilligan\u2019s new show?\u201d I was like, \u201cYeah. Why would you even ask that?\u201d The scene I got was just something they wrote to approximate the relationship that Helen and Carol were going to have. I had no background, no knowledge of what the show would be, but I knew exactly what the relationship between these two people was from the dialogue. Thank God, because I have gotten scenes before where they\u2019re like, \u201cWe don\u2019t know what this is or who\u2019s doing it, just say the line!\u201d And you\u2019re like, \u201cWhat is happening?\u201d<\/p>\n
They wrote it for the audition only. It was similar to some stuff that was in the show, but it had no information. It was just about a person who is saying to another person, \u201cI think what you have to offer the world is important and valuable, and I know you don\u2019t feel that all the time, but I\u2019m here to tell you, I will always remind you of that.\u201d That\u2019s Helen\u2019s job.<\/p>\n
Well, I\u2019ll go back further. I was a huge X-Files fan. Like, dork of the first order. So I know Vince from that era. Of course, I knew he was a genius from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and don\u2019t even get me started on Rhea, because she\u2019s such an actor\u2019s actor. But the fact that it was going to tap into that world sent me completely over the moon. It was like Vince Gilligan crawled into my brain and wrote the show I wanted to see. Weeks before I got my audition, I actually said in an interview, \u201cI\u2019m really interested in the idea of the collective versus the individual.\u201d So I\u2019m a witch, and I conjured it, is what I\u2019m saying.<\/p>\n
We were. I had some training with a movement coordinator. It\u2019s not that long that I\u2019m doing it onscreen, but that was nights and nights of me doing that for hours and hours. It\u2019s interesting what happens to your body when you put it through that. It\u2019s a total-body workout, shaking uncontrollably. Really works the core. [Laughs] But it actually really does. I was so sore after those nights. There were a lot of times where they\u2019re like, \u201cCould you make your feet shake less? Okay, now make your hands shake more. Don\u2019t make your head shake quite so much.\u201d It gets very, very specific. You\u2019re like, What do I do for a living?<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t. Rhea did watch my tape and okayed it, and everybody seemed to like me from that. When I got cast, Rhea called me just to say hi, because she\u2019s the nicest human on the planet other than Vince Gilligan, and within three seconds, I was like, \u201cOh, this is an old friend I just met. This is my best friend that I\u2019ve just made an acquaintance with.\u201d I think she felt a similar instantaneous connection. That was really lucky, because we had to create this sense of a long, storied history between these two people. When you already have this weird sense that this is someone who I\u2019ve always known, it just makes it easier. And it\u2019s not that hard to be in love with Rhea Seehorn. Masses are shouting in the background in agreement.<\/p>\n
And then I give her a piece of gum, because we probably have some stank breath from traveling. I love that moment, too, because I\u2019m willing to do that as her person professionally, but also as her person in the world.<\/p>\n
They have a language between them that is unspoken. What I love about that scene \u2014 and this is true of all Vince Gilligan\u2019s work and the writers that he brings onboard for his projects \u2014 is that they don\u2019t write a scene about the thing that the scene is about. They write a scene about all these other, maybe seemingly mundane things through which they give you a sense of it. So you\u2019re the detective finding out these things, because you\u2019re looking at human behavior, not because someone is saying a line that describes it to you.<\/p>\n
Carol really trusts Helen, and she doesn\u2019t trust anybody. That\u2019s the shorthand that gets you into that relationship quickly. The fact that Carol even went to this place because of Helen \u2014 we know that bond is strong. Helen does call her on her bullshit but also believes that she wants to witness the beauty of the world, even when she says she doesn\u2019t. Carol needs that.<\/p>\n
We spent a long day in a fake ice palace in way too much clothing for the actual temperature. I lost, like, 50 pounds in sweat that day. I\u2019m not really a purple-crystal, woo-woo kind of person, but this was sort of weird and mystical: We were watching the northern lights over and over and over again, and then left the set very late, and they were like, \u201cThere\u2019s a weird anomaly where you can see the northern lights in the southern part of the United States.\u201d That was the first that I had heard of that. So after watching the northern lights all day, we could see them in Albuquerque. I was like, Is someone up there messing with us?<\/p>\n
Another nerdy dream come true for me.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of tropes around genius artists. Vince would hate anyone calling him a genius, but tough titty, because he is. One of the things this really solidified for me \u2014 and I know this because I have been working for a long time \u2014 is that to be a truly brilliant artist and auteur, you can still be a kind, generous, inclusive human. There\u2019s a narrative out there that pushes against that, and it\u2019s wrong. I would present exhibit A, Vince Gilligan, and exhibit B, Rhea Seehorn, and then you would just have to shut up.<\/p>\n