acted alongside Seehorn<\/a> in several stage productions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In her mind, it wasn\u2019t until \u201cSaul\u201d premiered in 2015 on AMC that Hollywood unleashed Seehorn\u2019s sprawling talents. \u201cI already had seen it, as had many of us who are still here in this D.C. community,\u201d Twyford explains. \u201cBut now everybody was seeing what she could do.\u201d Even the creatives who rolled the dice on Seehorn were surprised. \u201cWhen we hired her,\u201d Gilligan says, \u201cI didn\u2019t know the deep toolbox of skills she possessed.\u201d<\/p>\nBy the time \u201cSaul\u201d concluded its acclaimed six-season run in 2022, the \u201cBreaking Bad\u201d spin-off had morphed from the Jimmy McGill show into more of a Jimmy-Kim double act. As the series wrapped up, Seehorn nabbed two Emmy nominations for her portrayal of a calculating attorney whose unresolved trauma, adrenaline-chasing mischief and haunting guilt added up to one of television\u2019s most complex characters.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was put in these comedies, which she was fine in, but not even close to her skill level and her capabilities \u2014 and she was kind of stuck there,\u201d Odenkirk says. \u201cHollywood is a f—ing a–hole sometimes. In that case, it was a great example of, like: What\u2019s wrong with these people?\u201d<\/p>\n
When the Gilligan-created drama \u201cPluribus\u201d premieres Friday on Apple TV, the high-concept series will mark Seehorn\u2019s first major on-screen lead role. Her character, Carol Sturka, is a surly romance novelist who emerges from a global epidemic unscathed. The nature of this particular pox? Unadulterated happiness.<\/p>\n
Sweeping in scope but razor-sharp in focus, \u201cPluribus\u201d is a star vehicle engineered for Seehorn\u2019s idiosyncratic talents. While Carol is not the perpetually in-control Kim \u2014 she\u2019s outspoken and acerbic, with a mouth that tends to get her in hot water \u2014 there is some overlap. The repressed trauma. The fierce independence. The underlying intensity. Whether she\u2019s playing Carol or Kim, science fiction or kitchen-sink realism, rage or waterworks, Seehorn commands the screen with a humanist quality sharpened over decades of perseverance.<\/p>\n
\u201cRhea would say that when she was younger, people wouldn\u2019t think she was a leading lady,\u201d says Karolina Wydra, Seehorn\u2019s \u201cPluribus\u201d co-star. \u201cThat blows my mind, because you watch this, and you\u2019re like, \u2018You\u2019re nothing but a leading lady.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Visiting Manhattan from Texas, where she\u2019s been filming the hostage thriller \u201cEleven Days,\u201d Seehorn exudes familiar warmth, matter-of-fact ease and, yes, deep-seated self-effacement during our early October breakfast. \u201cIf there\u2019s a way for me to turn everything into \u2018How am I the loser in this?\u2019 I will,\u201d she says. Later, Seehorn chuckles and second-guesses herself. \u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m saying,\u201d she cautions. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t write any of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in Norfolk, Seehorn moved with her parents and younger sister to Japan and Arizona before spending most of her youth in Virginia Beach. (Her father\u2019s counterintelligence career spun the family around the globe.) She was studying art at George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, when she took acting as an elective, explored the regional theater scene and found herself enchanted by onstage storytelling. By the time Seehorn graduated, she was already volunteer ushering at the District\u2019s Woolly Mammoth Theatre, reading stage directions in new play workshops and soliciting her onstage idols for advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were just so many brilliant actors working there, and I was just, like: \u2018How do you make a living at this? I\u2019ve got to do this for the rest of my life,\u2019\u201d Seehorn says. \u201cI would sometimes go to people like Holly Twyford, and I would tell her: \u2018I have $40. Would you do private coaching with me for one scene?\u2019 She would say yes. Nancy Robinette would say yes. All these incredible people just taught me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twyford remembers a tenacious self-starter who turned unremarkable parts into scene-stealers before coming into her own as a lead. \u201cIt was crystal clear from the get-go,\u201d she says, \u201cjust how talented she was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon enough, Seehorn established herself as a D.C. theater stalwart while regularly appearing at Woolly, Arena Stage and Studio Theatre. Although Seehorn had her fair share of side hustles \u2014 she worked at Kemp Mill Music for years \u2014 she got by thanks to the life insurance payout that followed her father\u2019s alcoholism-related death at 52. \u201cAs much as it\u2019s horribly unfortunate how I got that money,\u201d Seehorn says, \u201cI was able to pay for my college in cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a dozen years in D.C., Seehorn moved to New York City and made her Broadway debut in a 2001 production of Neil Simon\u2019s \u201c45 Seconds From Broadway.\u201d Soon after, she booked \u201cI\u2019m With Her\u201d and relocated to Los Angeles. From that point, the television gigs proved steady enough \u2014 a bachelorette in the unaired comedy \u201cThe Singles Table,\u201d an assistant district attorney in \u201cFranklin & Bash,\u201d a sardonic divorc\u00e9e in \u201cWhitney.\u201d Whenever Seehorn tried landing weightier material, however, her comedic reputation proved difficult to shed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe industry definitely pigeonholes comedy people, and then additionally sitcom people \u2014 especially multi-camera \u2014 in a way that is absolutely unfair and unjustified,\u201d Seehorn says. \u201cI even did one audition for something [dramatic], and they really liked me, but the feedback was: \u2018They\u2019re just really worried about her being a comedic actress.\u2019 I was like: \u2018I just did the scene dramatically for you. Do you think on the day I\u2019m going to show up with big red shoes and a ball nose?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When Gilligan and Gould cast Seehorn in \u201cBetter Call Saul,\u201d the co-creators had one line of dialogue for Kim in the pilot and little idea of where the character would go. \u201cMaybe she\u2019ll be a love interest for Jimmy,\u201d Gilligan remembers thinking. \u201cMaybe she\u2019s not. If she doesn\u2019t work out, hell, Jimmy could get a new girlfriend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, Seehorn\u2019s on-screen range and offscreen empathy gave Kim unforeseen staying power. While Odenkirk hails Seehorn\u2019s work ethic \u2014 her scripts, he notes, were always scribbled with annotations \u2014 he emphasizes that \u201cshe\u2019s just one of the best people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe made herself indispensable without even actively trying,\u201d Gilligan says, \u201cjust by being the wonderful actor that she is and the wonderful human being she is.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Seehorn delivered her closing arguments on \u201cSaul,\u201d she felt compelled to find out what Gould and Gilligan were cooking up next. So she carved out time to sit down with the duo while they were in postproduction on \u201cSaul\u2019s\u201d final episodes and probe their plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter Gould said, \u2018Well, I definitely hope to work with you again, but I really think Vince needs to say something,\u2019\u201d Seehorn recalls. \u201cThat\u2019s when Vince said, \u2018Well, I wrote something for you if you\u2019re interested.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat made me laugh: \u2018If you\u2019re interested.\u2019 And then I basically started crying.\u201d<\/p>\n
The concept for \u201cPluribus,\u201d Gilligan says, came to him about a decade ago, when he imagined a man who suddenly finds all of humanity showering him with unconditional adoration. By the time he sketched out the series and penned the first episode, Gilligan had grown so fond of Seehorn that he reshaped his protagonist in her image.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a curveball,\u201d Gilligan acknowledges. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s what she expected, or what anyone expects from her. But I figured it was high time that she was number one on the call sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n
To truly explain \u201cPluribus\u201d would be to rob Gilligan\u2019s head trip of its enigmatic potency. (\u201cMy own family knows nothing about the show,\u201d says Seehorn, who has a longtime partner and two sons from his previous marriage. \u201cI have, like, nine pages of things I\u2019m not allowed to say.\u201d) But it\u2019s safe to state that this dystopian \u2014 or is it utopian? \u2014 series poses Rorschachian questions about happiness, autonomy and the human condition.<\/p>\n
Anchoring this thorny thought exercise is the jaded Carol, whose immunity spares her from the bliss infecting minds from Albuquerque to Italy. For Seehorn\u2019s part, that meant taking on an isolated character whose largely internalized emotions suddenly burst to the surface. One example: a showcase scene early in the second episode, in which Seehorn distills Carol\u2019s bottled-up confusion, anger and grief into one trembling tirade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that she\u2019s unapologetically angry, and that is something in my real life that I suppress constantly,\u201d Seehorn says. \u201cWhen she is exposed to everything and it\u2019s just raw nerves, she has almost no ability to just pull it together and go along with the flow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Seehorn has seized opportunities beyond the Gilliganverse in recent years, including a turn opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in 2024\u2019s \u201cBad Boys: Ride or Die\u201d and an Emmy-nominated performance in the short-form series \u201cCooper\u2019s Bar.\u201d So does this all mean Hollywood has, at last, started to give Seehorn her due?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot make that the headline \u2014 that Rhea thinks she was underestimated,\u201d she blurts out through mortified laughter. \u201cIt\u2019s going to make me seem like I think I\u2019m awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than an hour of traversing her career\u2019s ups and downs, Seehorn still seems allergic to the notion that she\u2019s earned less acclaim and opportunity than she deserves. Mocking the idea, she breaks out her instrument, adopts an egotistical tenor and delivers an Emmy-worthy wisecrack.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally,\u201d Seehorn quips, \u201cpeople can correctly estimate me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Rhea Seehorn takes a minute to think about it. Has she been underestimated? The 53-year-old actress tilts her head, takes a bite of scrambled egg and ponders the notion. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that I thought that,\u201d Seehorn says on a rainy fall morning at the Crosby Bar in SoHo. She briefly entertains […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2029532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[359903,409487,409486,359900,347734],"class_list":["post-2144326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-carol-sturka","tag-holly-twyford","tag-jimmy-mcgill","tag-rhea-seehorn","tag-vince-gilligan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/In-Black-Rabbit-Jason-Bateman-and-Jude-Law-are-brothers.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2144326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2144327,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2144326\/revisions\/2144327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2029532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2144326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2144326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2144326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}