{"id":818170,"date":"2026-08-18T23:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T23:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/818170\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T23:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T23:38:11","slug":"jeff-hiller-on-the-wild-experience-of-being-on-both-pluribus-and-widows-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/818170\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Hiller on the Wild Experience of Being on Both ‘Pluribus’ and ‘Widow’s Bay’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hardest-working supporting player on Apple TV this year is clearly Jeff Hiller. He\u2019s already an Emmy winner for his work on HBO\u2019s Somebody Somewhere, but he came to even wider recognition by popping up on two of TV\u2019s most recent genre breakouts. On Pluribus<\/a>, he\u2019s only on screen for a total of seven minutes, still managing to make an impression so memorable it scored him another Emmy nomination. And on Widow\u2019s Bay<\/a>, he\u2019s town hall employee Dale<\/a>, a noted violator of the rule about not screaming out, \u201cThis place is a death trap, run!\u201d in a crowded storm shelter.<\/p>\n

Talking to Gold Derby<\/a>, Hiller admitted he didn\u2019t quite understand Pluribus\u2018 hive-mind concept when he first approached his role. Instead of trying to sync his performance with the rest of \u201cthe Others,\u201d he was told to play it as a person who just happens to connect to (almost) every other consciousness in the world.<\/p>\n

As for the backstory on his character, who\u2019s named Larry and appears fully clad in cyclist gear, Hiller came up with some of his own lore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine he was this middle-aged guy who\u2019s trying to get back into shape, and he was maybe on his third bike ride,\u201d Hiller told Gold Derby.<\/p>\n

\u201c[He] was maybe having beers post-bike ride when [the \u2018Joining\u2019] happened, and thankfully he was on the couch, and that\u2019s what saved his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiller wasn\u2019t nominated for Widow\u2019s Bay\u2014though a lot of its other cast was<\/a>\u2014but he\u2019ll get another chance, since Dale is coming back for season two.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that now this show is so beloved, it\u2019s so exciting that I get to go back\u2014I think,\u201d Hiller said. \u201cYou never know on a show like this! They might just open up [season two] and be like, \u2018Poor Dale got eaten by the island.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Hiller has also imagined a bit of Dale\u2019s origin story. \u201cDale is pretty chill and not really one to do anything in his life. I don\u2019t know this for a fact, but, in my mind, he\u2019s been on the island his whole life \u2026 I think he\u2019s just going to go back to work and be like, \u2018I did find out that the island eats people and we need to sacrifice 13 more of them; also, we need a new janitor.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hardest-working supporting player on Apple TV this year is clearly Jeff Hiller. He\u2019s already an Emmy winner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[5896,88,96361,57704,92,292255],"class_list":["post-818170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-jeff-hiller","tag-pluribus","tag-tv","tag-widows-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}