Vince Gilligan Interview on ‘Pluribus,’ International Production

If you have plans to become a time-traveler, you needn’t bother going back 20 years to tell a younger Vince Gilligan about the success of “Breaking Bad.” Not only is he convinced that he wouldn’t believe you, but you might send some serious ripples out into the time-space continuum — Vince Gilligan thinks his past self wouldn’t believe that he’s been able to shoot three TV shows and a movie in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

And yet, as Gilligan preps Season 2 of “Pluribus” and looks back on the first season of the Rhea Seehorn sci-fi series, he and his team have been able to do exactly that. 

“It’s in large part because of Christian Diaz de Bedoya, our location manager. He and his wonderful team of location scouts and various folks in his department continue to find new places to shoot in this kinda medium-sized city. We’ve been doing it for 20 years now,” Gilligan told IndieWire on a recent episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast. “[You might worry] how’s it going to double for all these different places we’re going to want to use for? And lo and behold, it does.” 

“Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” were both locked into ABQ as a setting since 2008, but “Pluribus” needn’t have been. Prickly romantasy author Carol Sturka (Seehorn) really could have lived in a lot of different places before an alien virus transforms most of the rest of humanity into a chipper hivemind that wants to spread its particular species of happiness across the stars. And yet, it’s through leaning into the years of specificity and connection to New Mexico that has helped allow Gilligan and his writing to ground the ambitious, high-concept premise. 

“If you’re gonna climb Mount Everest, it’s better not to do it with an anvil on your back,” Gilligan quipped. “I love this crew so much, so we could have shot the show [in Albuquerque] but set it, story-wise, in another city. But that would’ve been a mistake. Don’t make it harder for yourself than you have to. Call Albuquerque, Albuquerque. That helps us out a lot.” 

It helps what is, at this point, a well-oiled creative team continue to do great work together and push each other, of course. But it also helps in terms of the texture, the colors, the character of the world that Carol inhabits. 

In leaning into New Mexico as a home base, Gilligan and his team visually impact the kind of protagonist that she is — flummoxed, cantankerous, self-loathing, and yet dogged and sly and, on occasion, startlingly inventive. By building almost the whole of Carol’s house — nearly twice, interiors and exteriors, thanks to production designer Denise Pizzini — Gilligan and his directing team are able to craft a felt visual sense of both her darkest moments and the moments when, like the vibrant art and plants defying the New Mexico desert, she’s able to make something out of the impossible situation she finds herself in. 

The clear visual language at home has also meant that Gilligan and his team can flex what they do abroad. “Pluribus” does have a pretty full passport in terms of traveling around the world in-show, and the production shot internationally in Spain and the Canary Islands, a first for Gilligan. “It was nice to learn that this film community that I’m lucky enough to be a part of, it feels like a fellowship that stretches across oceans. I really enjoyed learning that,” Gilligan said. 

And it took a fellowship for some of the most ambitious sequences in the show, including montages of global travel by plane, car, and through deadly jungles, as well as the “Last of Us” level mayhem that breaks out at the end of the “Pluribus” pilot, when the alien virus is unleashed. 

“Our UPM on ‘Breaking Bad’ back in the day, Stu Lyons, he would always say, ‘Montage is French for over budget,’” Gilligan joked. But the process montages of “Pluribus” are where the show gets to be huge, and they are a huge statement of purpose for the humanity-wide (also sometimes goats) story that Gilligan and his team are telling. 

“There are writers who love writing dialogue and, to me, that’s great for plays. But then there’s cinema. TV and movies. When you can tell a story without dialogue, when you can practically read a character’s mind, or conversely when in their silence they’re more of a mystery, and that is intriguing and pulls you in deeper as a viewer? That’s what I love about cinema,” Gilligan said. “Some of my proudest moments are whole scenes, page after page going by, without a word of dialog in it. To me, that’s cinema.” 

It helps, then, that “Pluribus” is building on an established cinematic language Gilligan has spent two decades developing, and that he only wants to push even further in the seasons to come. “All these Emmy nominations, they were just the cherry on top. And I’m so happy for Rhea,” Gilligan said. “And I hope we don’t disappoint in Season 2. I have no intention of doing that; I’m very excited about Season 2. I’m sorry for the long wait, but we’re so excited about the stories we’ve got coming up for you guys in Season 2.” 

Season 1 of “Pluribus” is on Apple TV.