Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross.
Chapter 2: What is the premise of the Apple TV series Pluribus?
One of the most talked-about TV series now is the Apple TV series Pluribus, created by Vince Gilligan. It stars my guest Rae Sehorne. You may know her as the co-star of Better Call Saul, which was both a prequel and sequel to Breaking Bad. Sehorne and Pluribus were just each nominated for a Golden Globe. In Pluribus, Sehorne plays Carol, a writer of best-selling romance novels.
Her life partner, Helen, is her manager. One night, Carol and Helen are leaving a bar when Helen has a seizure and dies. Suddenly, everyone around Carol in the bar and in the ER are frozen in place or have fallen down and having a seizure.
Chapter 3: How did Rae Sehorne become the lead in Pluribus?
And then most of them get up and seem changed. They're talking and walking in unison. Their faces are somewhere between happy and hypnotized. What's going on? Back home, when Carol turns on the TV looking for a news show that might explain, all the channels are blank, except C-SPAN. A man on that channel is at a White House podium talking directly to Carol by name.
He gives her a phone number to call for more information. She calls, and the man she saw on the TV is the one talking to her.
Chapter 4: What themes does Pluribus explore regarding happiness and individuality?
He apologizes for Helen's death. Millions of others have died, including the president. He explains that everyone now has the benefits of an extraterrestrial technology. Through pulsing signals that were sent, everyone around the world is now held together by a psychic glue. Here's part of that scene.
Rest assured, Carol, we will figure out what makes you different.
Chapter 5: How does Rae Sehorne's character deal with loss in Pluribus?
Figure it out. Why?
So we can fix it. So you can join us. Carol? You still there?
You said my life was my own.
It is. One hundred percent.
So what happens when I say no?
Carol, once you understand how wonderful this is... Carol?
As time goes by, Carol learns that everyone has access to everyone else's memories and knowledge. Everyone is happy, and there's peace around the world, except for Carol and a few others. She isn't buying that these transformations are a good thing, and she does everything she can to resist. Ray Sehorne, welcome to Fresh Air. I love this series. I loved you on Better Call Saul.
It's really such a pleasure to have you on the show. Oh my gosh, thank you. It is such a pleasure to be here. Thank you. The premise of this series is sci-fi, but the show itself is asking so many questions about human nature, like what is happiness? Is it happiness if there's no longer a larger meaning to your life?
And is being an individual with your own temperament and thoughts, is that more valuable than this happiness? And is anger lethal or is it good to let out your anger and resist what you think is wrong? And, you know, maybe we'll find out some answers to those questions and many other questions later. But I just want people to know there's some really interesting thoughts in this. Thank you.
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Chapter 6: What was Rae Sehorne's experience on the set of Better Call Saul?
And I was like, we were just laughing.
Thanks. Thanks for the shout out. So your character starts off as a famous romance novelist with this ardent following. And she goes to a bookstore and there's a reading there, which everybody loves. And And it's a romance novel aboard a ship with a pirate. Anyways, the language is full of really typical romance book language. So did you do research and go to readings of romance novelists?
I went to The Ripped Bodice, which is an amazing romance novel store that only does romance novels in Culver City. And just slipped in and looked around. I have to tell you, one of the first things that struck me is the amount of subgenres and the specificity of these subgenres. Yeah.
Chapter 7: How did Rae Sehorne's father's career impact her life?
it's historical, paranormal. It could be romance suspense. Um, then within that, there were sub sub genres of ones that, um, people that want them to be more dialogue, more chatty versus more, um, descriptive. Yeah. And, uh, certainly, you know, those LGBTQIA stuff, there's stuff that people really want to sound, sound period. There's stuff that people want to sound futuristic. Um,
Versus very contemporary slang language. It was kind of incredible. But I also watched a couple people do readings from their books. And I was really surprised at the breadth of people, of fans, listening. There was a lot of people dressed like early Stevie Nicks in a beautiful way. But then there was also like...
You know, just there was some couple that looked like they came straight from a corporate job, a man and a woman in office suits. Young people, people younger than me, people older than me. It definitely it definitely wisened me to how huge this genre is and how much it encapsulates, you know, all the different novels it has.
So the character in Pluribus was originally written for a man by Vince Gilligan, and then he decided to rewrite it for you. How did that happen?
I don't believe there were scripts with a male character, and then he went back and rewrote. I think he said he was—
conceiving it for him?
Kind of kicking around... Yeah, conceiving quite a few concepts he was interested in. I think he said that... And it was during Better Call Saul in season one. I think he said taking breaks from the writer's room and walking around on lunch breaks and stuff and just started... It's just how he works. He just... ideas will pop in his head, sometimes questions without answers.
And one of them was, what would happen if you woke up and the whole world was obsequious?
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Chapter 8: What led Rae Sehorne to choose acting over a career in visual arts?
The whole world was willing to do whatever you wanted to and give you anything you want. And it was a male character. And he has said that it's just because that's second nature to him, that he is a man and he has written male protagonists. And then I don't know the exact, like, shift that happened or where, but I didn't know about it until after we had wrapped all of Better Call Saul.
But he said it was during, I think, towards the end of season one of Better Call Saul that he was just watching me work and talking. Had talked to me a lot about the way I work as well as watching me perform and decided that I'm stuttering because it's hard to say this because I'm floored by the compliment and the flattery. to put it mildly and struggle saying it about myself.
But he said that he, he realized like, I have to write something for her. I have to, I need to make sure that I do a project with her and actually wouldn't these concepts that I'm noodling with, wouldn't they work even better if they were her? And he knew that he also wanted to play with tone and take wild swings as far as like, it could be darkly comedic or it could be darkly psychological.
Sometimes it's going to, you know, go between back and forth. And he was impressed at my ability to do those things. So hard for me to say about myself. Stop bragging. That can be the title of this episode. Ray Sehorne brags about herself. Yeah, I don't know. Listen, I've had to sit next to him in interviews when he's saying it.
And I'm just, I'm just, my face is one giant tomato red ball when he's saying it. But I'm certainly very thankful for it.
My guest is Ray Sehorne, star of the new Apple TV series Pluribus. We'll be back after a short break. I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air. Hi, this is Molly Sivinesper, digital producer at Fresh Air. And this is Terry Gross, host of the show. One of the things I do is write the weekly newsletter. And I'm a newsletter fan. I read it every Saturday after breakfast.
The newsletter includes all the week's shows, staff recommendations, and Molly picks timely highlights from the archive. It's a fun read. It's also the only place where we tell you what's coming up next week in exclusive. So subscribe at whyy.org slash fresh air and look for an email from Molly every Saturday morning. Let's get back to my interview with Ray Sehorne.
She was just nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the new Apple TV series Pluribus, which was also nominated. The series was created for Sehorne by Vince Gilligan. Sehorne also co-starred in Better Call Saul, which was created by Gilligan and Peter Gould. That series was a sequel and prequel to Gilligan's series Breaking Bad.
In Better Call Saul, Sehorne played Kim Wexler, a lawyer who marries Jimmy McGill, an unethical lawyer who gets involved with a Mexican cartel, played by Bob Odenkirk. The series lasted six seasons, and while shooting an episode in that final season, Bob Odenkirk suffered a heart attack and collapsed on set.
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