Think the fan conversation about Apple TV’s “Pluribus” is heating up? Take a ride on the actual series set. “We have healthy, sometimes tongue-in-cheek discussions about the various questions the show raises, whether it’s personal views on what I would do or what I think my character would do,” star Rhea Seehorn said on the Variety Awards Circuit podcast.
Of course, Seehorn appearing on Vince Gilligan’s show is nothing new. She remembers having a heated discussion with her Better Call Saul co-star Bob Odenkirk at the time. “He’d say, ‘Well, obviously Kim thinks blah blah blah,’ and I thought, ‘Yeah, well, I don’t think so.’ He said, ‘Yes, she thinks so,’ and I thought, ‘You can’t make me say she thinks that!’ It’s good to have different perspectives on the same scene. ”
Seehorn credits Gilligan with leaving his story and characters open to interpretation. “People sometimes tell me their interpretations of what Carol is doing, thinking, and feeling, and it’s interesting to understand that,” Seehorn says. “It’s just one aspect where I think, ‘Oh, that might be interesting for me to explore.’ Or sometimes they say something that I was already thinking of exploring. And then there are other things, and I’m like, ‘I’ll leave that up to your interpretation.'”
That includes some viewers who are hoping that Carol and Zosia (Karolina Windra) might get back together. There are problems with this theory. Carol snaps out of her daze, remembering that Zosia is actually part of the hive mind that also wants to erase her humanity.
Look, it’s complicated! As Phase 1 of the Emmy voting ends Monday, Seehorn stops by Variety’s Awards Circuit Podcast to talk about the “Pluribus” theory, how his co-stars don’t resemble their characters, his expectations for Season 2, and more. He will also look back on his first appearance on a variety show and take a 10-question quiz. Listen below!
Given Seehorn’s huge success as Kim Wexler in Gilligan’s Better Call Saul, she admitted that starting the new collaboration was tough because she knew the expectations and expectations were so high.
“It wasn’t just a departure from that world, it was a completely different character and a departure from science fiction. But his ‘X-Files’ fans were excited to see him return to science fiction,” she says. “And the female protagonist, they probably don’t want that. There’s a lot of factors. And the thing that probably kept me up at night at first was I didn’t want to let Vince down. He wrote this for me, and Apple didn’t want me to do it.” I took a chance on being the star of this piece. There were a lot of factors that kept me going, but at the end of the day, I was good at putting it away and realized that the best thing I could do to deal with those worries was to put my head down and do the work.”
So does she have any details about season 2 yet?
“I’ve stopped by writers’ offices to have lunch or say hi, but I’ve never stopped to take a peek. And I’ve never called anyone to ask for details,” she says. “It’s not because I don’t care, it’s because I care deeply. I have immense trust that their abilities far exceed what I was going to show up and offer, but what they reveal to me and what they don’t reveal. We also don’t want to put them in a position where they’re worried about what’s going to happen. One of the reasons we take the scripts one at a time is because we don’t manipulate the actors. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. “Soul” said we didn’t want to be in a position where we said, ‘Oh my God, this huge thing is going to come out in Episode 6,’ and then things changed and it wasn’t there. ”
Seehorn first appeared on Variety on April 26, 1996, through a production billing list for the independent film Floating. “I hadn’t left here yet,” Seehorn recalls. “It was a true, legit indie production. It had a small budget and was self-funded. I remember shooting it in Washington, D.C..”
At the time, she was doing theater in the D.C. area, and from time to time indie films and productions were shown in the area. “I remember ‘Nixon’ was filming there and Barry Levinson was filming something in Baltimore and we all hustled there,” she says. “I think ‘Murder’ was still being filmed in Baltimore at the time, and I think that was my first full episode of a TV series. And as I’ve said before in the press, another way people got experience in front of the camera in the theater community there was to shoot industrial in-house training videos. There’s a lot of different corporate headquarters, not just government buildings, so you’d end up shooting training videos. It was kind of fun.”
10 Questions for Rhea Seehorn:
1. Childhood Nickname: “‘Britch.'” As a toddler, I was told that I had a habit of running away from home and running to the neighbors to play with their dogs, or going into backyards to join other people’s barbecues. People called my parents to let them know where I was, but they called me ‘britch’ and followed me. Because apparently I couldn’t keep my pants up to save my life as I stumbled away. ”
2. Something I loved as a kid and can’t believe I’m obsessed with now: “Eating Campbell’s Cream of Potato Soup in its cold, condensed form straight from the can.”
3. Song to go to karaoke or sing in the shower: “I’m not a karaoke person, but when I’m being dragged or someone has a birthday and I really, really want to do it, it’s ‘Careless Whisper’ by Wham.” ”
4. Give us another title for your show: “Oh, dude, that’s so hard. I can’t believe they even came up with a logline. I have so much respect for them all. This is a show that’s impossible to describe!”
5. What is your secret talent?: “Following instructions in a boring, methodical way, from building a Lego set to building IKEA furniture, or learning how to caulk a bathtub or learning how someone doesn’t know how a VCR works. No matter how many times you fail, you still sit back and persevere and try again.”
6. Favorite ice cream flavor: “Peanut butter and chocolate together.”
7. Item I can’t live without: “Family and pets. I have two cats, Auggie and Milo. They have their own Instagram accounts.”
8. What TV show in history do you wish you were a part of?: “Six Feet Under.” Or something like “Pen 15.” ”
9. Fictional character you most admire: “Sarah Lancashire’s character from Happy Valley.”
10. Your Favorite Advice: “The quote I always think of, and I think I’ve received it in many different ways at different times in my life, is ‘keep your side of the street clean.'” Even if something doesn’t work out, you can consider what your side of the matter was and if there’s something you could have done differently. What you can’t change, at least make sure your side of the road is clear. ”
Also featured on this episode of the Awards Circuit podcast is “Matlock” star Kathy Bates.
Bates first appeared in Variety magazine in the play “Vanities” on March 10, 1976. Bates said, “That was the first really cool role I got to play. It was written by a friend of mine from college. We were in one of the longest-running plays off-Broadway for a while — five or six years.”
But then, when the show moved to Mark Taper in Los Angeles, established stars started appearing. “Sandy Duncan did his part so we could be the ‘B team’ going to the finals.
10 Questions with Kathy Bates:
1. Childhood Nickname: “Well, my grandmother used to call me Dosha when she was bad and Kitty when she was good.
2. Something I loved as a kid and can’t believe I’m into now: “Canoeing. That was my favorite thing. I went to a camp at the YMCA and learned how to canoe in a beautiful place in Hardy, Arkansas. And I was really, really good at it. I was about 11 or 12 years old. I loved it.”
3. Song you’d like to sing at karaoke or in the shower: “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
4. What is another title for your show: “Mrs. Opioid”
5. What is your secret talent?: “I can whistle.”
6. Favorite ice cream flavor: “There’s a restaurant in New York called Balthazar, and they have profiteroles that have vanilla and this amazing hot fudge sauce. But my favorite flavor is probably Salt and Straw, the flavor that has salted caramel in it. Oh, and you know what my favorite is? Mint chocolate chip.”
7. The one item you can’t live without: “It’s probably some kind of pillow.”
8. Which TV show in history do you wish you were a part of?: “The first thing that came to mind was “The Twilight Zone.” Another first was “Ponderosa.”
9. Fictional character you most admire: “I was going to say Scout from A Tale of Alabama. There was another favorite of mine, and she was real. She wasn’t fictional. She was a real woman. She was part of the British underground during World War II, and she had one leg blown off and only had one leg, and she did all these amazing things there.”
10. Favorite piece of advice: “Someone once told me about this business, ‘You have to have a head like a bullet and a heart like a baby.’ I think that’s probably good advice in life.”
Variety’s “Awards Circuit” podcast, hosted by Clayton Davis, Jazz Tunkay, Emily Longeretta and Michael Schneider, who also serves as a producer, is your one-stop destination for lively conversations about the best in film and television. Each episode’s “Awards Circuit” features interviews with top film and TV talents and creators, discussions and debates about the awards race and industry headlines. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you download your podcasts.
