“It has been just the most fun ride.”
Rhea Seehorn breaks into a smile as she thinks about the wild reception to the first season of Pluribus.
The Apple TV show — about an alien hive-mind virus that infects almost everyone on Earth, except for Seehorn’s Carol Sturka and a dozen others — became an instant sensation upon its arrival last fall, spawning subreddit rabbit holes and a million memes. Seehorn calls Pluribus‘ high-concept plot “very unique,” crediting the creativity of show mastermind Vince Gilligan, who rose to fame on The X-Files before launching Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the latter of which featured Seehorn.
Pluribus also quickly established itself as an awards force. Seehorn has already taken home the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award for playing misanthropic fantasy-romance author Carol, and is No. 1 in the Gold Derby predictions to earn an Emmy nod for Best Drama Actress. The bid would be her fourth overall, having previously been nominated for Better Call Saul (2022-23) and Cooper’s Bar (2022).
“The work is the work, whether you get the awards nominations or not. But I have loved going down those carpets celebrating with my Pluribus family,” Seehorn tells Gold Derby. “The critics’ and fans’ reception of the show has been beyond our wildest dreams.”
Now, about that Pluribus family… Seehorn declares that Karolina Wydra, who plays Zosia, Carol’s infected chaperone, has become a “sister for life.” After watching Wydra win a Saturn Award earlier this year, Seehorn hopes that an Emmy nomination is next on the list. “I’d be the first one crying for her,” Seehorn says.
“It is such a deceptively difficult role that she is playing, and she has the ability to navigate that and to modulate it with Vince Gilligan, as well as many of the other writers and directors, and find this path,” Seehorn explains. “Everything from fine-tuning the smiles — that can’t look like you’re high on drugs, but they can’t look duplicitous — to trying to find that stasis that she’s got to live in, I’m in awe of what she did and she is incredible.”
Guest star Jeff Hiller recently told us that he doesn’t want Carol and Zosia to get together romantically, because the relationship is built on a lie. Seehorn absolutely agrees.
“I’m very, very excited that it is the topic of conversation for a lot of people who have vehement opinions,” Seehorn says with a nod. “But I gotta say, I don’t quite get the camp of people that hope they get back together as is. If there’s a new world where she is back to her normal self, but we don’t know what that personality would be, but then those two people fall in love, maybe. But when people say that to me, I’m like, ‘Did you see the finale? She stole my eggs!’ It feels like a little more than boundary-crossing, if you ask me.
“I love Karolina. It’s very easy to see why Carol falls in love with her. But Carol knows, even though she’s suppressing it towards the end, that this is not real. These people, they love everybody the same, which inspires very interesting late-night conversations with my crew: ‘If somebody loves you with every fiber of their being, and it’s not unique to you, is that still love?’ But she’s also trying to take away my independent thoughts, so again, I feel like that’s a line crossed.”
Seehorn acknowledges that the ski lodge scene in the Season 1 finale was a “doozy” to film because Carol finally deduces that Zosia’s group have stolen her eggs. “We both had to wrestle with a lot of really big challenges as actors, but because we love what we do, a challenge is a wonderful thing to be asked to do,” says Seehorn.
“I’m trying to figure out, how delusional was Carol? Did she see any of this coming? What is her surprise level? Even the top of the scene when I start asking about if she had exes and where are they now? Carol’s jealous, when she knows that this is not a normal circumstance. These people, all of her exes, they are all living inside her, or they’re dead, or whatever. I’m asking these questions as though it’s a real relationship, and some part of Carol knows it’s not. But then she hits me with this bomb. Meanwhile, Karolina is trying to navigate this horrible thing that they’ve done, but she’s got to stick to believing that this was out of love, that this is indeed for Carol’s happiness.”
The two actors “played a lot of versions” of the scene, says Seehorn. “We took all of our ideas and then director Gordon Smith had ideas, and Vince Gilligan had ideas, and co-writer Alison Tatlock had ideas. And we tried all of them. What is the level of menace? What is the level of vulnerability? What is the level of losing this relationship? And also, Carol knows she can’t scream and yell at Zosia, or she could harm her. Carol has very real feelings for this person as a human and she wouldn’t want to kill another couple hundred thousand people.”
When the Emmy nominations are announced on July 8, Seehorn also has her fingers crossed that Carlos-Manuel Vesga makes the cut for playing Manusos. “I’d like to see him get nominated for his incredible work on the show as well, and that would be a career-first. And Samba Schutte for guest star, as well as Jeff Hiller and Miriam Shor, if we’re really just putting all of our wishes out there to the universe. And the show. And directing and writing. … All of it!”
If Seehorn receives a nomination for Best Drama Actress, her next step would be to choose one episode to submit for consideration. But with so many great episodes focusing on Carol, how will she decide? “Those would be great problems to have,” she laughs. “I’ll probably ask my very trusted team of publicity and agents and managers to help with that one.”
Seehorn praises the show’s “incredible” production design, from recreating Air Force One to transforming an empty lot into Carol’s neighborhood, and shares her hopes for Season 2: “More of the same, but ratchet it up. That’s what [Vince] is doing over in that writers’ room right now with all the other writers pulling their hair out. They suffer the tiniest detail and the largest umbrella of storytelling. I wish I was smart enough to even try to think of things that he should do or would do or could do. I’m going to be on the journey with you guys.”
