“No. 1 on the call sheet” is an old saying in Hollywood that basically means “star.” For the first time ever, Vince Gilligan brought together his three stars — Rhea Seehorn from Pluribus, Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad, and Bob Odenkirk from Better Call Saul — for a fun and informative roundtable discussion, filmed not long after Pluribus received 18 Emmy nominations.
To prepare for her first leading role, Seehorn received secondhand advice from Odenkirk, who originally heard it from Cranston: “Ask for no bigger than a double banger, and that nobody else can ever have larger than you.”
For those not in the biz, a double banger is a trailer with two dressing rooms. Simply put, if the main star has something fancier, then the people below them will also want bigger ones, and so traveling from location to location “takes too long — and you’re gonna want to get home on time.” Watch:
Odenkirk’s other key suggestion that he learned from Cranston was rather simple: “Just study your lines all the time … and work all the time.” The Better Call Saul star compared it to being an athlete, adding with a chuckle, “Except we don’t get to take drugs.”
“Some do!” Seehorn jokingly interjected.
Seehorn was able to get through the first year of Pluribus thanks to her “amazing crew and amazing producers and EPs that all really, really helped me to get enough sleep and prep for the next day.” She also found it necessary to invite her scene partners to “do their lines with you at least once before we get to set” because “it makes for a better environment.”
“It also puts them at ease more,” Cranston noted. “If the star of the show appeals to them and says, ‘Anytime you want to run this,’ and you make yourself available to them, happier people work better.”
He learned while working on Breaking Bad that “there is a natural need for leadership from the cast, and if you’re No. 1 on the call sheet, it should be you.” Cranston added, “If you refuse it, it’ll be taken care of some other way, and it might not be the best way for the show.” If all goes well, the lead performer can help a production become “a well-oiled machine.”
“Mutual respect, know your lines, and be happy,” Cranston proclaimed. “Look how lucky we are! And if actors come in and don’t realize how lucky we are, then that’s gotta change.”
When the performers praised Gilligan for his method of writing himself into a corner and then challenging himself to get out of it, the showrunner laughed, “I do not recommend [that]. I don’t think it’s courage, I think it’s stupidity.”
They all agreed that Gilligan “taught the audience that every detail matters and that it was worth paying attention to those things,” Odenkirk said. Now, with Pluribus, fans “don’t know where it’s going, but they have faith in it and watch every detail.”
Gilligan revealed that he originally wanted Pluribus to have a “male protagonist” because that’s his natural default as a writer. But after filming Better Call Saul and seeing Seehorn in action and how the crew responded to her, he decided to flip the script and make the main character a woman.
With Cranston’s Walter White and Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill both being anti-heroes, he wanted Seehorn’s Carol Sturka to be the opposite. “You look at the world now and you think, ‘Maybe we need some more good guys,'” he said. “So, it felt like time to write a good character who was not doing for themselves, but trying to do for the world.”
When Cranston joked about appearing on Pluribus, Gilligan responded, “We gotta figure that out. How great would that be having you guys on the show?” Hey, Vince: the Season 2 writers’ room is open now, so let’s stop hoping and start casting.
Pluribus Season 1 is available to stream on Apple TV. The 2026 Emmys take place Sept. 14 on NBC, with Seehorn nominated for Best Drama Actress, and Gilligan up for Best Drama Series, Best Drama Directing, and Best Drama Writing. See all of its 18 nominations.
