Since Apple TV didn’t want us to know what Vince Gilligan’s new show Pluribus is about until it premiered we had no idea just how unique and challenging star Karolina Wydra’s part was until she walked on screen. The “Pirate Lady” envoy to Carol Sturka isn’t playing a person. She’s playing all people at once. Kind of. Being part of the enjoined is actually much harder than that. How did she get a grip on such a difficult part? How do you portray a worldwide hive mind? What was it like working with Gilligan and star Rhea Seehorn after what those two accomplished together on Better Call Saul? We asked Wydra about all of that and more, including what it’s like to be someone’s literal dream woman, when we spoke to her ahead of the Pluribus debut.
Nerdist: You’re not playing an individual person. You’re playing a being made up of the memories and experiences of everyone on the planet. How in the world did you even go about understanding that role, let alone playing it?
Karolina Wydra: I know, it’s such an incredible concept. How do you tackle it? How do you approach such a massive idea and play it? It’s one of those things that you have to tackle piece by piece, whatever you are handling at the moment. Vince and I had many conversations about who these people are. What this world is. After I read the first two scripts, I just had a gazillion, gazillion questions, as anyone would. The thing that came up, “What does it mean to be happy? What does it mean to be content? What does it mean to be unflappable?”
The things that would be thrown around were the ideas of maybe being an indulgent mother with her child. So a child is having these big feelings and the mother is just holding the space for the child. Understanding them, that they’re having a really hard time, and giving them the respect for their feelings and knowing that there’s a better way. That was one of the concepts of how to handle Carol and her big feelings.
I did a lot of meditation. A lot of meditation to prep for this. I did my normal script analysis and all that stuff, but I did a lot of meditation, body relaxation. These people don’t feel anxiety. They don’t feel fear. They’re not uncomfortable in their skin. They’re very comfortable. So it has to live in your body.
My first few days on set, I definitely had the first back to school kind of jitters, excitement. And normally you could give that to a character. The character could be nervous, the character could be this. And sometimes Vince would come up to me like, “You know, these people are very relaxed. They’re very content.” I’m like, “Right, yeah, I get that. I get that. Obviously it’s not coming out that way.” So we had a lot of fun with that. We had a lot of fun finding those moments and finding who these people are. And for instance, in episode two where I’m flying, I actually got to really taxi the C-130. It’s me taxing the plane. For real.
Wow.
Wydra: Yeah. For real. It’s me, which is…it’s mind blowing. Yeah, mind blowing. These people also have muscle memory of whatever they’re doing. So they’re the best-of-the-best at whatever they’re doing. If they’re performing open heart surgery, they’re the best surgeon in the world that’s performing open heart surgery. I’m the best pilot that’s ever flown the plane. How does that live in your body? How do you work on that? We did a lot of rehearsals. The day before, I met with pilots and learned about what is what on the plane, learning how things work and understanding the fundamentals of the airplane. At first the pilots were not willing to let me taxi the plane, but after the first day of doing all these rehearsals and everything, they actually allowed me to do it. Which was quite incredible.
So we would tackle piece by piece, how to approach these people. At the beginning we were finding who these people are constantly, what does it mean to be all those things.
Then in the scenes, I think what was interesting is not going on an emotional ride with Rhea’s character Carol. Rhea’s a phenomenal actress. As you know, she’s absolutely phenomenal and she gives so much and she’s so present and she’s so there. She’s just such a joy to work with. And it was interesting to have these moments with her where she’s raging at me and having these feelings, and for me to be unflappable. Sometimes it was really difficult. You want to have a reaction, but you can’t. Your body has a natural reaction and you can’t.
Well, you do have a reaction I wanted to ask about. What is going through your head when the enjoined short circuit after Carol is mean to it?
Wydra: We have this wonderful movement choreographer Nito (Larioza) who took me through all these movements for this character, as far as the level of what happens to them where they spazz out. How does it live in the body? What does it look like? Is it a cardiac arrest where your body’s jolting? We would find the tone of that little movement of the hands, how that would look like. From different angles, they would get turned higher. It was just more going with whatever he taught me movement-wise of how they want that to look, of when we’re passing out and going into that state. I wasn’t thinking about it. It was just more rehearsing and knowing what the movement would be.
How much collaboration is there among everyone on the show who plays a member of the enjoined?
Wydra: The conversation would always be these people, again, they’re content, they’re happy, they don’t feel anger, they don’t feel negative feelings. They have a memory of it, that they felt it, but they don’t have it (now). And they’re of service to Carol. They want to do nothing but make Carol happy. All the old schoolers, all they want to do is make them happy and provide them with anything they need. And it’s a genuine need to take care of them.
The conversation was always about coming from that place of being of service, making sure that they feel good, making sure that they feel happy, making sure that they feel content and taken care of. Because we want to make sure that one day they will join us. That they want to join and they want what we have, because we believe so deeply that what we have is so good and it’s worth experiencing.
You’re co-starring opposite Rhea Seehorn on a Vince Gilligan show. Considering what they accomplished with Better Call Saul, was that intimidating?
Wydra: Absolutely. Very. Very. I was a huge fan. Huge, huge fan. I was a huge fan of Vince Gilligan since Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. And Rhea Seehorn was phenomenal as Kim Wexler. When I first met her I was definitely nervous and I was definitely a fan girl. Same with Vince. And they were so welcoming. They’re so kind.
I felt so a part of it. And if I felt a little nervous, I remember Rhea when we were doing a photo shoot and she could tell that I was very nervous and very excited. Because I’m still experiencing that. I pinch myself, “Is this real? Am I dreaming?” Because it’s such an incredible thing to get to work with such creative people. I remember she said to me, she looked at me and she said, “You belong here.” It was just such a reassuring feeling, and it was just such a beautiful feeling to feel so safe and be like, “We got you.” It’s such a gift. Both of them are just incredible.
I almost feel bad after such a nice answer to ask this, but I have to. The enjoined choose Zosia as its representative to Carol because that individual looks exactly like Carol’s fictional love interest in her books. Don’t feel like you have to be modest: is being cast as someone’s literal dream woman the ego boost it sounds?
Wydra: Oh, that’s so funny. That’s so funny. Thank you for saying that. I haven’t….I know this is going to sound wild….I didn’t think of it. I mean, it is that, but I didn’t think of it that way. Do you know what I mean? My mind hasn’t processed it that way. My mind has processed it as, “I’m here to be of service to Carol. I’m here to make sure that she’s happy, she’s content, and I can provide all the things that she needs.” I didn’t think of it that way.
Me as Karolina, I didn’t think of it that way either. It was just for me to do the best I can on the show and to serve the story.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.