‘Pluribus’ Star Rhea Seehorn in Season 2 and Fan Show Theories
Do you think fan conversations about Apple TV’s ‘Pluribus’ are heated? Try to be on the actual series set. “We have healthy, sometimes tongue-in-cheek debates about different questions that the show brings up, whether it’s your personal view of what you would do or what you think your character would do,” says star Rhea Seehorn. the Variety Awards Circuit podcast.
Of course, this isn’t new for Seehorn at a Vince Gilligan show. She remembers having spirited debates with “Better Call Saul” co-star Bob Odenkirk at the time. “He’d say, ‘well, Kim’s obviously thinking blah blah,’ and I’d say, ‘Yeah, well, I don’t think so.’ He said, ‘Yes, she does,’ and I said, ‘You can’t make me say that’s what she thinks!’ It’s good to have different perspectives on the same scene.
Seehorn credits Gilligan for leaving his stories and characters open to interpretation. “There are times when people tell me their interpretation of what they think Carol is doing, thinking or feeling, and that’s interesting to process,” Seehorn says. “It’s just a facet that I think, ‘oh, that could be interesting for me to explore,’ or sometimes they say something that I was already thinking about exploring. And then there are other things where I say, ‘I’ll just let that be your interpretation.'”
This also applies to viewers who hope that Carol and Zosia (Karolina Wyndra) will get back together. One problem with that theory: Carol has broken out of her crush because she’s reminded that Zosia is actually part of the hive mind that also wants to erase her humanity.
See, complex things! When voting on Emmy Phase 1 comes to an end on Monday, Seehorn will drop by Variety‘s Awards Circuit Podcast to talk about ‘Pluribus’ theories, how her co-stars are nothing like their characters, her anticipation for season 2 and more. She also looks back on her first time inside Variety and takes the 10-question quiz. Listen below!
Considering the huge success Seehorn had as Kim Wexler in Gilligan’s ‘Better Call Saul,’ she admits it was daunting to embark on a new collaboration – knowing the anticipation and expectations would be enormous.
“This not only left me with that world, but with a very different character and sci-fi, although his ‘X-Files’ fans were thrilled to see him return to sci-fi,” she says. “And a female lead, maybe they don’t want that. There’s a lot of factors. And probably what kept me up more at night in the beginning was that I didn’t want to disappoint Vince. He wrote this for me, and Apple took a chance on me to be in charge of it. A lot of factors that kept me awake, but eventually I was able to put that aside pretty well and I realized that the best thing I could do to address all those concerns was to put my head down and do the things that I needed to do.”
Does she have any details about season 2 yet?
“I’ve stopped by the writers’ office to have lunch or say hello, but I haven’t stopped to poke around, and I haven’t asked any of them for details,” she says. “It’s not because I don’t care, because I care deeply. There’s a tremendous amount of trust that their capabilities are far greater than what I would show and offer, but I also don’t want to put them in a position where they’re worried about what to reveal to me and what not to me. One of the reasons we get our scripts one at a time is so we don’t have to manipulate the actors. Because there are things that are just not set in stone. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, on ‘Saul’ told me that they didn’t want to be in a position where they’re like, ‘Oh my god, this huge thing is coming up for you in episode 6,’ and then it changes, and it’s not there.
Seehorn first appeared in Variety on April 26, 1996, via a production slate list for the independent film “Floating.” “I hadn’t moved here yet,” Seehorn remembers. “That’s a real, legit indie. Small budget, self-financed. I remember recording it in Washington, DC”
At the time she was doing theater in the DC area, and every now and then there would be indie films or productions in the area. “I remember ‘Nixon’ was shooting there and Barry Levinson was shooting something in Baltimore, and we all went there,” she says. “I think ‘Homicide’ was still being shot in Baltimore at the time. I think that was my first full-length episode of a television series. And then, as I’ve talked about in the press before, another way for people in the theater community to get experience in front of the camera was making industrials and internal training videos. Because there are so many of them, not just government buildings, but corporate headquarters of different companies, so you would make training videos, which was kind of fun.”
10 QUESTIONS WITH RHEA SEEHORN:
1. Childhood Nickname: “’British.’ I’ve been told that as a toddler I had a habit of running away from home and just running to other neighbors’ houses and playing with their dogs, or going to other people’s backyards for barbecues. People called my parents and let them know where I was, but they ran after me and called me ‘Britches’ because apparently I couldn’t keep my pants up to save my life when I went on a shaky escape.”
2. Something you loved as a kid but can’t believe you were doing it now: “Eating Campbell’s potato soup in its condensed, cold form, straight from the can.”
3. Go-to karaoke or sing-along song in the shower: “I’m not a karaoke person, but if I get carried away or it’s someone’s birthday and they really want me to do it, it’s ‘Careless Whisper’ by Wham.”
4. Give me an alternate title for your show: “Oh dude, that’s so hard. I can’t believe they were even able to come up with a log line. I give them all so much credit. It’s an impossible show to explain!”
5. What is your secret talent?: “The tedious, methodical following of instructions, like everything from a Lego set to building an Ikea piece of furniture, or someone saying we can’t figure out how the VCR works, learning to caulk a bathtub. I’ll sit patiently and start over if I mess up over and over again.”
6. Favorite ice cream flavor: “Peanut butter and chocolate, together.”
7. The one item you couldn’t live without: “My family and my pets. I have two cats, Auggie and Milo. They have their own Instagram account.”
8. What TV show from throughout history do you wish you were a cast member of?: “’Two meters under.’ Or ‘Pen15.’”
9. Fictional character you admire most: “Sarah Lancashire’s character in ‘Happy Valley.’”
10. Your favorite piece of advice: “I think there’s one that I keep coming back to, and I’ve gotten it in different words from different parts of my life, but it’s ‘Keep your side of the street clean.’ If something goes wrong, you can still investigate, what was my side in this, is there anything I can do differently? The things you can’t change, at least make sure your side of the street is clean.”
Also on this episode of the Awards Circuit Podcast: “Matlock” star Kathy Bates.
Bates’ first appearance in Variety was on March 10, 1976 for the play ‘Vanities’. Bates says, “That was the first really cool role I got to play. A friend of mine from school wrote it. We were one of the longest-running plays off-Broadway for a while — five, six years.”
But when the show moved to the Mark Taper in Los Angeles, established stars were cast in the play. “Sandy Duncan played my role, and so we had to be the ‘B team’ competing in the
10 QUESTIONS WITH KATHY BATES:
1. Childhood Nickname: ‘Well, my grandmother called me Dosha when I was bad and Kitty when I was good.
2. Something you loved as a kid but can’t believe you were doing it now: “Canoeing. It was my favorite thing to do. I went to YMCA camp, and a beautiful place in Hardy, Arkansas, and I learned to canoe, and I was really good at it. I was about 11 or 12 years old. I loved it.”
3. Go-to karaoke or sing-along song in the shower: “I’ll see you around.”
4. Give me an alternate title for your show: “Madam Opioid”
5. What is your secret talent?: “I can whistle.”
6. Favorite ice cream flavor: “Depends, there’s a restaurant in New York called Balthazar, and they have profiterole with vanilla and this delicious hot fudge sauce, but my favorite flavor would probably be Salt and Straw, which they have with salted caramel. Oh no, you know what my favorite is? Mint chocolate chip.”
7. The one item you couldn’t live without: “It would probably be some kind of pillow.”
8. What TV show from throughout history do you wish you were a cast member of?: “The first thing that came to mind was ‘The Twilight Zone.’ The other first was ‘Ponderosa.’”
9. Fictional character you admire most: “I wanted to say Scout in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ There was one more, my favorite, but she was a real one… she wasn’t fictional. She was a real woman. She was part of the English underground during World War II, and she had one leg because her one foot was blown off, and she did all these amazing things there.
10. Your favorite piece of advice: “Someone said to me about this profession: ‘You have to have a head like a bullet and a heart like a baby.’ I think that’s probably good advice for life.
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tangcay, Emily Longeretta and also producing Michael Schneider, is your one-stop source for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode features “Awards Circuit” interviews with top film and TV talent and creatives, discussions and debates on awards races and industry news, and more. Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get podcasts.
