Pluribus Star Rhea Seehorn Won’t Be Joining the Hive Mind

As a kid, Rhea Seehorn always knew she wanted to be an actor—she just didn’t tell anyone. “Where I grew up in Virginia, it would've been akin to saying, ‘I think I'm a supermodel.’ I would've gotten laughed at,” she says. “So I kept that a secret. But I knew I wanted to be a part of the film and television that I was watching.” And she would, eventually. After starting her career in “industrials”—corporate training videos—she played a series of small parts before landing her big one as Kim Wexler, opposite Bob Odenkirk, in Better Call Saul, Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad spinoff.

The darkly comic drama earned Seehorn two Emmy nominations and a long-running creative partnership with Gilligan, who wrote the lead role in Pluribus specifically for her. In the twisty postapocalyptic sci-fi mystery, Seehorn plays Carol Sturka, an unhappy novelist who appears immune to the creepy act of “Joining” that has made nearly everyone else on Earth blissfully content—a performance that won her a Golden Globe last year. For W’s TV portfolio, the now 54-year-old spoke with Editor at Large Lynn Hirschberg about her own cult obsessions, her cinematic crush, and why Dateline helps her sleep.

When you found out that Vince Gilligan had written the lead part of Pluribus for you, were you worried that you might not like it?

When Vince told me that he had written something for me, he did say, you can wait to agree to take the part until after you read the script. He said, “What if you don’t like it?’ I said, “That’s not going to happen.” And, indeed, I loved it.

The show is about a powerful cult that takes over the world. Your character is firmly anti-cult and manages to resist, but do cults intrigue you at all?

I don't know that I would handle myself the way Carol does. I think she handles things far better than I would. It would've taken me at least a couple more weeks to even get off the floor. But I am firmly in Carol's camp. I would fight for independent thinking. As far as your question “Am I into cults?” I'm very into cult documentaries. I watch all of them. The Duplass Brothers’ Wild Wild Country is definitely one of my favorites. I don't think I've ever screamed at a television more than watching that.

Which movie or show makes you cry?

Everything. I'm a crier. Recently, I cried at The Leftovers. I know that show's older, but I'm still obsessed with it. I started Train Dreams and was bawling. And Sentimental Value got me choked up. The father, daughter—the idea of these relationships where people are doing the best they can, and yet they still can't quite connect because of the burdens they're carrying, some justified and some of their own making. It was very well done.

What was the first acting job that you booked?

I did an in-house training video for restaurant and bar servers on how to deal with a customer who needs to be cut off, and another film on how to use voicemail. My character couldn’t figure out how to end calls. I was very helpful.

Who is your cinematic crush?

When I got to this shoot, they asked me if I would be interested in doing a Marilyn Monroe kind of inspiration. I grew up with tons of books on Old Hollywood, and Marilyn in particular. I was obsessed with her. I really tried hard not to cry when they suggested I be like Marilyn.

Do you have a favorite reality show?

The Repair Shop, on the BBC. It’s set in a beautiful barn somewhere in England, and they have specialists come in to fix things. People bring objects that are broken but mean something to them: a prewar set of boots or an old chair. I find it heavenly. And then, late at night, I watch murder TV and Dateline. My partner says, “How can you sleep after that?” I’m like, “Because bad guy identified, bad guy caught, and then all the world is all right.”

Are you usually right at guessing the culprit?

I learned from watching murder docs and Dateline that as actors, when we're playing people who are lying, we're encouraged to do it very, very well. But when you watch those shows, you realize most people are horrible liars.

Do you think you're more like a cat or a dog?

I'm more like a cat. I'm a people pleaser, the way dogs are, but I think if you were to see me in private especially, I'm more cat-like because I love my interactions with people that I love, and then I also need to go sit in that corner and stare and not talk for a minute.

Where was your first real kiss?

Tony Felt. I was 12 or 13 and had ridden my bike over to his house. For some reason, I had to borrow somebody else's bike. It was a men's bike, so it had the bar. And when I hopped down to try to kiss him, it was not comfortable and I tried to hide it. And so I'm relatively certain that for his experience, I was probably not very good at it, because I was in pain.

Did you stay together after that?

I bought him a gerbil because he really wanted a gerbil and the whole cage. A hamster or a gerbil, I can't remember. That's all he wanted for Christmas. I had to save up allowance and do extra work in my house, because that's what he wanted. We broke up after that. So maybe he was, like, a ninth-grade gold digger.

What’s your go-to karaoke song?

I am not a karaoke person. I enjoy watching other people do it, but when I am forced to do karaoke, the go-to is George Michael's “Careless Whisper.” It makes me very happy that my stepsons both, if they're anywhere in the world and that song comes on, even, like, a remix in a club, they immediately send me a video of them singing it.