{"id":1007337,"date":"2026-08-17T22:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1007337\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T22:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:05:16","slug":"vince-gilligan-rhea-seehorn-on-the-mysteries-of-pluribus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1007337\/","title":{"rendered":"Vince Gilligan, Rhea Seehorn On The Mysteries Of \u2018Pluribus’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tPluribus<\/a> creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan<\/a> learned a big lesson about saying too much about a series when he answered questions about the meaning of his first big hit, Breaking Bad. \u201cI was always talking about \u2018this is what this means. No, you\u2019re wrong and don\u2019t interpret it that way.\u2019 And that was a mistake on my part. I want the people who watched the show to tell me what it means. I really think they know better than I do,\u201d he says now.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe make the show. I can\u2019t see the forest for the trees when we\u2019re making it, but I like the idea of other people interpreting it for me. I think everyone else\u2019s interpretation of this thing is way more interesting than mine is.\u201d And indeed it is a rich concept that has viewers wondering if it is saying profound things about the effects of the pandemic, AI, immigration and other topics of the day. The fact is Gilligan came up with the idea 10 years ago and has been refining it in his head ever since. He welcomes every interpretation.<\/p>\n

\n\tGilligan joined his cast for a conversation Sunday at Deadline\u2019s Contenders<\/a> Television: The Nominees Studio to talk about Pluribus, his latest series following massive hits Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. This one is a genre-breaking science fiction drama in which a global virus has turned almost all human beings into a hive mentality of shared bliss. A few have somehow missed catching it and are now fighting back, notably Carol (Rhea Seehorn<\/a>), a novelist who must try to save the world from this newfound happiness.<\/p>\n

\n\tGilligan and Seehorn participated in the Contenders<\/a> discussion with co-stars Karolina Wydra<\/a>, who plays Zosia, Carlos-Manuel Vesga<\/a> as Manousos, and guest star Jeff Hiller<\/a> as Larry. All have received Emmy nominations<\/a> along with the series, which landed 18 nominations overall including for Gilligan in the writing and directing categories.<\/p>\n

\n\tWatch their conversation below and scroll down for photos from the event.<\/p>\n

\n\tOriginally, Gilligan\u2019s thought was for the Carol role to be a man, but when he started actually writing it was Seehorn he had in mind. For Seehorn, who had an acclaimed supporting role in Better Call Saul, and for whom this is her first starring role on a series, it is especially sweet, even being called by her character name on the street.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah, it is my first lead role, and it\u2019s been so much fun. And yes, I got a couple of \u2018Hello, Carol\u2019s now and then in grocery stores, which is pretty funny, but the fans have actually been amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the fact that the show, including what Vince is saying, that it is open to interpretation and has engendered really nuanced conversations and these amazing wild swings that take some tone from having comedy to having deep psychological drama and questions and stuff, just makes people actually come up to me with really interesting opinions about the show, and they feel very invested and they feel very invested in the character. And I feel very lucky that it is something that we made, that we\u2019ve made to the best of our abilities, and so we were all so proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWydra felt an immediate connection with Seehorn\u2019s Carol. \u201cWhat I love about it is that Zosia is there to provide for Carol everything that she needs. I\u2019m there to protect you. I\u2019m there to make you feel seen and good. And it was great to play someone that doesn\u2019t have the full spectrum of emotion, someone that you know is joyous, unflappable, and you know have these beautiful scenes with you where you have these feelings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRhea Seehorn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Avellano for Deadline\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVince Gilligan\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Avellano for Deadline\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKarolina Wydra\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Avellano for Deadline\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Carlos-Manuel\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCarlos-Manuel Vesga\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Avellano for Deadline\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tVesga, the first male Colombian actor to be nominated for an Emmy, plays a man, like Carol, who has not been infected and feels very much alone. It is something he has felt in his own way being someone from another country suddenly in America and playing a role like this. \u201cI would love to say that I was dreaming about this, but I wouldn\u2019t even allow myself to dream this. It wasn\u2019t a possibility. I\u2019m just saying that this doesn\u2019t happen to a Colombian actor, and it did,\u201d he said, praising on Gilligan making it happen for him.<\/p>\n

\n\tJeff Hiller, who won an Emmy last year for Somebody, Somewhere and co-stars in another big nominated show this season Widow\u2019s Bay, also from Apple TV<\/a>, was to say the least surprised by his Guest Male Actor in a Drama Series Emmy nomination for Pluribus since the role doesn\u2019t last more than seven minutes of screen time, and he says he really had no idea what it was about when called in to play it. He gives much credit to Seehorn and some behind the scenes artisans for being so generous.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell, it\u2019s always hard to be a guest star, and it\u2019s especially hard to be a guest star on a show that has this complicated of a premise. And the only way that it worked is because Rhea gave up a Sunday, a very precious day off on this very grueling shoot, invited me over, and we rehearsed for, like, hours.\u201d he said, also noting other women on the team who helped that dya. \u201cIt was the gift of of those three women on a Sunday afternoon that made the performance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pluribus creator and executive producer Vince Gilligan learned a big lesson about saying too much about a series…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1007338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[4964,209296,185,54396,403268,171,123071,209297,31443,86201,209298,111056,67,132,68,176432],"class_list":["post-1007337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-apple-tv","tag-carlos-manuel-vesga","tag-celebrities","tag-contenders","tag-contenders-tv-nominees","tag-entertainment","tag-jeff-hiller","tag-karolina-wydra","tag-novid","tag-pluribus","tag-rhea-seehorn","tag-the-contenders","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vince-gilligan"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117113122227572753","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1007337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1007337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1007338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1007337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1007337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1007337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}