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\n \u201cAll he told me was \u2018I wrote something for you. I\u2019m not an idiot. I said \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d
\n Photo: Jai Odell for New York Magazine\n <\/p>\n
Rhea Seehorn has a thing for libraries. As she arrives for our interview at the Philosophical Research Society, a New Agey outfit in a Mayan Revival building in Los Feliz, she tells me she\u2019s excited to discover a new library right here in Los Angeles, where she lives. Seehorn, 53 \u2014 Rhea is her middle name, pronounced \u201cRay\u201d \u2014 has dusty-blonde hair and an athletic, forceful presence. Having just come from the Wrap\u2019s Power Women Summit, she arrives in a businesslike blazer and a full face of makeup, which sharpens her features. She apologizes for her extravagant appearance, then returns to nerdy enthusiasm for her surroundings, suggesting I follow the Instagram account @1000libraries, which features venues like this. We get a tour from an attendant, learning that the place was built around a collection of esoterica by Manly P.\u202fHall, a man who had the very early-20th-century idea of merging many faiths into a cohesive whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sure Vince will want to know about this,\u201d she tells me, referring to Pluribus<\/a> creator Vince Gilligan. We\u2019re here on a day when the building is closed to other visitors, which makes it eerily quiet, as if some semi-mystical force has intruded on normal life and left us alone in the universe. They\u2019re just the right conditions to discuss a show in which, owing to a potentially extraterrestrial message from the stars, nearly everyone in humanity gets combined into a hive mind \u2014 with the exception of Seehorn\u2019s character, Carol, who finds herself alone in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and a few individuals scattered across the globe. The members of the hive, often represented in their conversations with Carol by an emissary played by the ominously serene Karolina Wydra<\/a>, are all very happy to share in one peaceful, collaborative utopia on earth. So, too, are the remaining un-\u201cjoined\u201d humans, who are enjoying serenity with the hive at their beck and call. Carol, a miserable romance writer, absolutely hates them for it and, both intentionally and accidentally, sabotages their project, insisting that everyone else has no idea what\u2019s right for them. The show progresses in a series of sci-fi twists that have been fodder for the 2025 equivalent of watercooler conversation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s Seehorn who grounds the series in real and prickly human emotion. Gilligan and his writing staff construct extended sequences for Carol, whether her activities are mundane, like getting drunk and watching The Golden Girls, or grueling, like trying to bury the body of her wife, Helen<\/a>. Seehorn tells me she maps out every beat. When Carol\u2019s falling asleep watching a sitcom, Seehorn\u2019s thinking about why Carol\u2019s not sleeping in her own bed, what would be going through her mind as she wakes up, how it reflects her relationship to her current waking nightmare. Carol\u2019s feelings are a stew of grief, resentment, terror, and self-righteousness, all of which flicker \u2014 briefly but legibly \u2014 at rapid speed across Seehorn\u2019s face and physical bearing in any given scene. \u201cIt\u2019s a great gift to act on the emotions rather than say them out loud,\u201d Seehorn tells me. \u201cSometimes without even having to make the audience specifically sure of what I\u2019m thinking.\u201d The performance has already earned her a Golden Globe nomination and inspired dozens of Reddit threads debating whether Carol\u2019s attempts to undo the \u201cjoining\u201d make her a monster.<\/p>\n \n In Pluribus. Seehorn first worked with Gilligan on six seasons of Better Call Saul<\/a>, which he co-created with Peter Gould. Her character, a prim lawyer with a perfect ponytail named Kim Wexler<\/a>, was initially meant to provide Bob Odenkirk\u2019s Jimmy, a character spun off from Breaking Bad, with someone to confide in. But Seehorn, working with the slight amount of dialogue she\u2019d been given, found something intriguing in Kim\u2019s reserve. \u201cNot speaking can be a position of weakness, for sure, but it could also be a position of strength,\u201d she says. After trying out a shot in the fourth episode in which Kim smiled, barely perceptibly, while watching Jimmy pull off a stunt, the creators settled into the idea that her character wasn\u2019t a scold but was turned on by Jimmy\u2019s shenanigans \u2014 and could be a surprising and active ally. From there, Kim\u2019s role grew until she was something of a second protagonist. By the end of the series, Seehorn had been routinely hailed in the press as the show\u2019s \u201cMVP\u201d or \u201csecret weapon\u201d and had racked up two Emmy nominations for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n The attention was new for Seehorn, who kept a low profile in her early career. Her father was in naval intelligence, and she moved around a lot growing up, eventually settling in Virginia. In college at George Mason University, she studied studio art but picked up an acting class as an elective and loved it. Thank God, she adds, it was \u201ca technique-driven script-analysis class and not \u2018Let\u2019s talk about our feelings,\u2019\u201d which would have immediately lost her interest. After college, she pursued a stage career in the D.C. area, then in New York; the space Seehorn\u2019s been given to experiment with her choices in Pluribus, she says, has felt very close to doing live theater.<\/p>\n In 2003, she landed a third-fiddle role in ABC\u2019s I\u2019m With Her as the sardonic sister to Teri Polo, whose schoolteacher character dates a famous actor. That series lasted a season, but it set Seehorn on a trajectory of playing comedic supporting roles. In an ensemble, Seehorn saw herself frequently performing something like a Bea Arthur part (one of her idols) \u2014 what she refers to as \u201cbeing the tuba in the otherwise very high-note symphony.\u201d Everyone around her is flitting about, \u201cthen I walk across the back of the stage going oompah-doompah, give a deadpan look, exit,\u201d Seehorn says. It\u2019s a quality you can see in Carol, too \u2014 another lonely tuba of a character who lives on her own little sitcommy artificial street in New Mexico but has no ensemble to bounce off.<\/p>\n Seehorn could feel her lane in Hollywood become increasingly constricted. She tells me she \u201cwould see dramas and think, Gosh, I could have gone in for that,\u201d then discover that those shows\u2019 producers weren\u2019t interested in seeing her because she was known only for her multi-camera roles. She credits casting directors like Sharon Bialy, who eventually brought her in for Saul, for seeing past her most recent roles and retains a detached amusement about the way powerful people in Hollywood tend to do business. Four seasons into Saul, Seehorn went to audition for a comedy film. The casting director called her, laughing, and said the producers had asked for a tape of her being funny. Seehorn delivers the deadpan punch line: \u201cSo that was interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n Photo: Jai Odell for New York Magazine\n <\/p>\n For Pluribus, Seehorn didn\u2019t have to audition. <\/strong>Gilligan presented her with the concept for the series, which he\u2019d been mulling over <\/strong>for about a decade, just after Saul wrapped its final season. \u201cAll he told me was \u2018I wrote something for you,\u2019\u201d Seehorn says. \u201cI\u2019m not an idiot. I said \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d <\/strong>Gilligan initially saw Pluribus with a male lead but so badly wanted to work with Seehorn again that he tailored the concept around her. \u201cHalfway through the first season of Better Call Saul,\u201d Gilligan says, \u201cwe were already thinking, How do we keep working with her when the show is over?\u201d Pluribus reunites the creator and star with much of the crew that worked on Saul and even Breaking Bad and, like those shows, films mostly in Albuquerque. Still, Pluribus signals a remarkable shift in position for Seehorn, who is now, for the first time, the lead and face of a high-profile project. The actress is cautious in ascribing too much power to her position. \u201cShe had such a profound gratitude and awareness of the position she was in, and that isn\u2019t always the case with the No. 1 on the call sheet, or any person with a certain amount of power,\u201d Miriam\u202fShor, who plays Carol\u2019s late wife, Helen, tells me. \u201cI marveled at it, because there\u2019s an enormous amount of pressure on her.\u201d<\/p>\n Seehorn sees it as part of her job to make sure everyone shows up prepared and respectful of one another\u2019s work. She runs me through her immense appreciation for the various departments at work on Pluribus: \u201cI\u2019d like to think they know that I never think what I\u2019m doing is more important than what they are doing.\u201d She invests in wel\u00adcoming the show\u2019s guest stars \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to come straight from a hotel room and jump onto a set where everybody knows each other,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve been there\u201d \u2014 and raves about her ensemble. When she describes how impressed she is with Wydra\u2019s performance, Seehorn tells me she\u2019s purposefully avoiding saying the word proud because she doesn\u2019t think she should take credit for someone else\u2019s work. \u201cI always struggle with that word, if it\u2019s okay to say about someone,\u201d Seehorn says. \u201cI think all scene partners make each other better,\u201d she adds, \u201cbut she has her talent with or without me.\u201d (When I relay that exchange to Wydra, she breaks into a big smile: \u201cShe was always meant to be a leading lady.\u201d)<\/p>\n Given that we\u2019re in a library, I suggest that Manly P. Hall might have bought some tomes on pride we could consult, maybe something Greek, though I insist it\u2019s possible to be proud of something without taking responsibility for it. And as Seehorn finds herself in a position of authority on a set, her character is simultaneously thrust by fate into being the protagonist. There are many possible interpretations of the central metaphor of Pluribus \u2014 maybe it\u2019s about capitalism versus communism, the experience of COVID lockdown, how much we value creativity as a society, veganism (the hive refuses to kill anything, but it does scavenge human remains), or how it\u2019s evil to order <\/strong>DoorDash. Seehorn\u2019s amused by the number of writers she\u2019s talked to who, with the well-being of their own industry on their minds, see the show as a warning against artificial intelligence. The actress tends to read Carol\u2019s actions as a manifestation of her overwhelming grief. She generally takes Carol\u2019s side against the \u201cjoining\u201d \u2014 but \u201cnot always in her behavior,\u201d she says. In that hive mind, though so much suffering would be absolved, \u201cthere will never be surprise. There will never be a new book; there will never be a joke. You\u2019ll never have childlike wonder again. It\u2019s an easy decision, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Since Gilligan gave her the first script when they initially discussed the role, she has learned more about Carol episode by episode. It\u2019s a method that resonates with her. \u201cI\u2019m assembling the jigsaw pieces that are known to me, supplying subtext, but leaving it open to finding whole new ideas on the day,\u201d Seehorn says. \u201cEvery script, there\u2019s another puzzle piece that needs to organically be a part of who she is.\u201d The show has already been renewed for a second season, but Seehorn says with a glint in her eye that she has no idea what will happen next, palpably relieved that she doesn\u2019t have to lie or worry about accidentally giving me a spoiler. \u201cI can\u2019t say I saw any of the stories coming,\u201d she says, reflecting back on what\u2019s transpired so far, \u201cand yet they never feel like a trick.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/b910274680bde62944441406b1d3579c00-Rhea-Seehorn-03.rhorizontal.w700.jpg\")
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