Karolina Wydra may very well be the only person to be nominated by the Emmys for playing 8 billion people at once. That’s one of the many delightful wrinkles that come with being part of “Pluribus,” Vince Gilligan’s wild and existentially probing show for Apple TV.
“It’s truly surreal,” Wydra told TheWrap about her nomination. “I feel so honored and so touched. When it first happened, I was utterly speechless and blown away.”
Specifically, Wydra has been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Zosia. “Pluribus” takes place in a universe where a hive mind species known as the Others has taken control of all humans on Earth, but for whatever reason, not every person has been assimilated. One of the few people left with their individuality is Rhea Seehorn’s Carol, a cynical and disenchanted author who may be the worst person out there to make the case for humanity’s free will. By her side is Wydra’s Zosia, one of the Others who becomes Carol’s guide and confidante. As Carol struggles to adapt to this new reality and Zosia attempts to help her, the two develop an endlessly complicated relationship that contrasts the Others’ desire to assimilate Carol with Carol’s growing romantic feelings toward Zosia as well as her grief over her dead wife.
Like Gilligan’s “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” before it, there are no clear answers in “Pluribus.” That moral complexity has been recognized by Emmy voters. In addition to Wydra’s nomination, “Pluribus” has been nominated for 17 other Emmy awards, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Seehorn, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Carlos Manuel Vesga, Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing for Gilligan and Outstanding Drama Series.
“Because it’s so original and thought provoking, I feel so incredibly grateful to be part of something that makes people talk and makes people sit and actually be present for it. You can’t just scroll on your phone,” Wydra said. Here’s how Wydra is thinking about her out there Apple TV show now that “Pluribus” has breached containment.
TheWrap: What have the group chats been like as you all have been celebrating this success together?
Karolina Wydra: It’s been so fun. There’s one big one, and then there are offshoots of smaller ones, then Rhea [Seehorn] and I have been texting.
[Carlos Manuel Vesga] got the call that he was nominated, but when I called him to congratulate him, he had no idea that the rest of the show was nominated because he’s in Colombia. I said, “Buddy, congratulations.” He’s like, “Thank you so much, I’m blown away by all this stuff.” And then he goes, “Who else is nominated?” So I got to tell him, and we got to celebrate together.
I had the joy of talking to you before the season was fully released. Now that we can talk about everything and you’ve seen the fan discourse, how have your feelings about “Pluribus” and Zosia changed?
I just feel touched and honored that people have had such a strong reaction to the show and how much the show has resonated with them, especially with the LGBTQ+ community. I feel truly honored that people feel seen and feel like their story is being told in a way where they feel honored. I love the fan art. I only have Instagram, so I only see things on that. I know some are on Reddit. Sometimes [other members of the show] would send me things. Seeing how much the show has affected people, it’s truly mind-blowing, and it’s something that you would want for the show to do.
As you’ve seen this great acceptance from viewers about Carol and Zosia’s relationship and their very complicated dynamic, has that changed how you think you might approach their relationship in Season 2? Have you and Rhea talked about that?
I see what you’re asking. The thing about the Others is they love unconditionally. Let’s be honest. Carol put Zosia through a bunch of things: the grenade, then the truth serum, the heart attack and then she asked for an atom bomb. It’s a very a complicated relationship. But they love her unconditionally. So I don’t think that Zosia would be different to Carol than she has been. She loves her the way she’s always loved her, and she would treat her the way she has always treated her.
I don’t know what Season 2 has in store. I don’t know where the storyline is going to go, but I don’t think she would be different towards Carol.
It’s such a hard relationship to talk about because it’s unlike anything else with the hive mind.
For sure. And look, the Others, who Zosia is has never been created before, right? It’s very complex. These beings are very simple, but they’re very complex at the same time. They don’t have the full spectrum of all the feelings that the normal person does. They have all the good, happy, joyous, content feelings that one has, and they experience grief, but they experience grief on a different level than a regular human being. They don’t feel the depth of the same grief, and they grieve for different things.
You can compare it on some level maybe — and I’m not saying that’s what Vince [Gilligan] had in mind — to AI. On many levels, who these beings are today, they don’t have the same emotional consciousness that a normal human being does. But they can perform everything and anything at the best of their ability, actually to the best of all humanity.
That’s a really good analogy. I also don’t know what Vince intended, but we see that a lot where people project their feelings and human attributes to AI. I don’t know why we have to do that. We have this like innate desire to humanize everything.
For sure. The conversation that we did have on set sometimes, as far as like feelings of anger, was that these people have a memory. So if I’m looking at Carol, I have a memory of “I was angry.” But that doesn’t live in my body today. I know that I experienced it at some point, but it’s not living in my body at this moment.
So the Others have a lot of elements of AI, but they are fully fledged human beings. They are not robots, which is really wild to think.
My last question for you is, what was the most challenging scene for you to act out this season?
The scene in episode four with the truth serum. The challenge was that it was the middle of the summer, and it was really hot outside. We were shooting that scene for two days, I think, and we had all the incredible extras who really showed up in such a beautiful way on really hot days and gave everything. Fine tuning and finding the process of what Zosia is going through was challenging, but it was a good challenge. I never had a bad challenge. It was all good challenges.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.