Rhea Seehorn (Veep, Whitney) knew what she was getting into when she took on the lead role in Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan’s (Better Call Saul, El Camino) new sci-fi series Pluribus. The Better Call Saul star acted across from Bob Odenkirk (Nobody, Nebraska) in that series, where she got a sneek-peak at what her own leading role would look like three years before Gilligan would call on her again for his newly acclaimed series, which is streaming on Apple TV.

“Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould (Hope Gap, Too Big to Fail) on Better Call Saul, and their murderers row of writers that are all incredible, they do such deep character investigation and portraiture, and it evolves, so you are going to dig deep,” Seehorn told The Hollywood Reporter after scoring her first ever Golden Globe nomination for lead actress in a TV Drama. “I saw Bob do that firsthand.”

In Pluribus, Seehorn portrays Carol Sturka, one of the few remaining people on Earth who is immune to “the Joining,” an alien virus that has tied every other human being on the planet together into a hive mind, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sturka seeks to save humanity “from happiness,” per the show’s tagline, in order to preserve the individuality that is an essential part of being human.

“I was surprised by the amount of psychological portraiture of a woman who’s dealing with isolation. I didn’t know that element of the story [before starting],” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “When I started seeing those, at first I got a little terrified — ‘OK, how am I going to pull this off?’ But I love those scenes as much as any other scene.”

Pluribus has spawned a lot of discussion among viewers regarding its inspiration and meaning, which is exactly what Gilligan and Seehorn intended for the series, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Many have drawn comparisons to the Covid-19 pandemic and artificial intelligence.

“It’s been very gratifying that people really want to talk about the show, and they want to talk to each other, and they’re making it a show they need to watch with others and discuss things,” she said via The Hollywood Reporter. “I spoke to someone that thought the entire thing is a metaphor for grief and depression. … Vince wasn’t trying to tell anybody what to think or to preach a certain topic. He started writing this before the pandemic lockdowns — another person [I spoke to] thought that’s what it’s about.
Well, sort of. It’s about everything. Another person thought it was only about AI, but AI wasn’t the debate topic [that it is now] when Vince started writing this 10 years ago.”

Seehorn also expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming Golden Globes ceremony, though says she’s not looking forward to one thing.

“I’m so excited that I get to do this for a living, that I get to do really incredible work for a living, and I love all the people I work with. And then I’m getting invited to the prom for it as well? I’m not jaded at all about it,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. “My only thing, if I’m honest with you, is the red carpet part, I fall apart on. I’m no good at still photos. I feel OK about my physical being in the world in motion. As soon as I’m told to be very still, and I feel like my whole job is to try to look as pretty as possible, it crumbles. I sweat, and then I worry that I have pit stains, and then I freak out, then I do the photos and I go back to having fun.”