Rhea Seehorn Shares Her Excitement for Working with Vince Gilligan on Any Project

Rhea Seehorn, known for her role in Better Call Saul, has taken a bold step into new territory with her character in Apple TV’s Pluribus. Set against the backdrop of an alien viral invasion that leaves her among the last remaining free-willed humans, Seehorn eagerly agreed to collaborate once more with creator Vince Gilligan, even without knowing much about the series.

Gilligan approached Seehorn with an invitation to join him on this new project. "He told me he had written something for me, if I was interested," she recalled. "And I was like, ‘I am interested.’ But he said, ‘It has a sci-fi element. It has nothing to do with Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul, but I’m not ready to share the script with you and I don’t want to pitch it to you. So you could just wait and tell me later.’ And I said, ‘That’s OK – I’ll just do it.’ Yes. I mean, who wouldn’t just say yes? It’s not like it was going to be bad, but I didn’t know anything."

After a couple of months, the script arrived. "I think I had the experience that I presume a lot of the audience members did, which is like an insane rollercoaster ride," Seehorn explained. "It’s incredible, but you could immediately see the tropes he was playing with—like every time you think, ‘Oh, it’s a zombie movie. Oh no, it’s not.’ He was playing with all these different tropes, but also genres and then tone, which I already knew from doing Better Call Saul that he likes to push the boundaries of tone shifts and genre shifts sometimes within the same scene."

Seehorn expressed her excitement as she delved into her new role. "I was thrilled and I was very, very excited. And then I became terrified because I was like, ‘Oh, I’m doing this. I’m not just reading this. I’m going to do this.’" Notably, due to industry strikes, she received the scripts for the next two episodes in advance, a rarity in the usual release schedule.

Executive producer Alison Tatlock, who joined Seehorn at a recent event, was tight-lipped about details regarding the upcoming second season but conveyed enthusiasm about the project. "We are in the thick of it of season two. I, of course, cannot talk about it all, but we are very excited about it and we’re deep in it right now. So hang in there, because eventually it will be born."

Pluribus is described as a genre-bending original series in which the “most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.” In addition to Seehorn, the cast includes Karolina Wydra, Carlos-Manuel Vesga, guest stars Miriam Shor, and Samba Schutte.

Further insights from the panel are expected to be released Monday.