Adam Patla
“The more I think about Manousos I keep discovering new things but I keep changing my opinion.”
This statement can be applied to just about every detail of Pluribus, AppleTV’s latest hit series from Vince Gilligan, the creator of behemoths like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. In Gilligan’s latest outing, Carol Stark (Rhea Seehorn) finds herself isolated after an a virus turns the rest of the world into a peaceful alien hive mind. The series dives deep into the moral dilemma it presents, refusing to provide scenarios and characters that are neatly drawn.
One of the series’ most interesting characters comes in the form of Manousos Oviedo played by Carlos-Manuel Vesga. Like Carol, Manousos is also immune to the virus and finds himself isolated and opposed to the hive mind. Eventually, this leads him on an international journey to find Carol and join her cause.
“It’s interesting that he’s actually willing to become a martyr in order to save humanity,” Vesga muses. “It’s actually not really about him claiming his life in the storage facility back. For him, it’s that there’s something wrong that was done to humanity and that needs to be corrected.”
While Manousos is firm in his opinion on the Joining, Vesga has mulled over it time and time again.
“I watched the show a couple of times and I keep thinking about the whole thing and I have to say that at this moment I think, on the one hand the Joining is the end of humanity….” he says. “On the other hand it’s the best thing that could happen to the planet. If you could ask the other species in the world what they think about the Joining they’d probably say, ‘We love it!'”
The particular magic of Vesga’s performance is how much he achieves internally. So much of Manousos’ initial screen time and journey to Carol is spent alone. Yet, Vesga fully inhabits Manousos and while we may not be privy to his exact thoughts and feelings, we’re still able to empathize and be with him in this experience. However, because of the solitary nature of the arc, there wasn’t really a way to rehearse, a unique challenge for Vesga.
“I have to say I’m the kind of actor who likes to get to set with things prepared,” he says. “I like to get to set with solid ground. Of course, you have to be open to new things coming up and new things being found. But I do like to come to set with the music sheet learned. In this occasion, I could only rationalize it and understand it in my mind…. So you were saying the other option is enjoy the fact that you don’t have anything prepared and just let it flow. I think I was forced into that scenario and it ended up being lovely. It ended up being a wonderful exercise to just to come over to set and just be available for the director and available for what the scene would call for and just go for it and not think too much about it….”
Another unique challenge came in the form of one of the show’s most talked about scenes, which also happened to be Vesga’s audition scene. When Manousos finally arrives and meets Carol, they attempt to discuss a plan beneath an umbrella to avoid surveillance. The other added layer is that Manousos speaks Spanish and Carol speaks English, so the entire exchange occurs via a translator app.
“When I was auditioning, we didn’t have the third actor speaking into our ears,” he explains. So we tried with the actual translator, the app. And then we also tried acting the interruptions. I certainly remember thinking, ‘Wow this is a tricky scene.’ This is a tricky scene because I guess you can choose two ways of doing it. You can actually improvise the interruptions and have the actors really react to unexpected interruptions or you can script it really tight and have people perform the interruptions. But either way, for the actors, it’s going to be a huge challenge. You really have to be present and you really have to listen to your partner if you’re gonna play a third party interrupting both of you.
When the time came to shoot, that ability to be presence guided the whole scene.
“We started playing it with the scripted interruptions but then we had the third actor,” he continues. “Sometimes, because we didn’t rehearse with her before, sometimes she would interrupt a bit later or maybe sooner and so we started sort of tripping over the scripted lines. I remember we were getting a bit frustrated and Vince came over and said, ‘You know what…if you don’t hear the voice, there’s no interruption. If you hear the voice, it doesn’t matter if it’s not scripted, you’re going to react to it.’ And that was the immediate solution to what we had. That’s when things started flowing.”
The scene struck a cord because of how intricate it is with all the various shades it carries, a facet that was apparent to Vesga immediately.
“The first time I read the scene I was like, ‘I see the comedy going on here’ because you have a somewhat sort of tragic scene going on,” he says. “There’s an urgency, there’s a pressing situation going on, but you have a problem, you have an obstacle. And that’s the secret to comedy. Find the problem, milk it, don’t solve it straight away, let it stretch, and then you have comedy. If you find the problem you have comedy…. For me it was clear we were dealing with a very special scene in which you have tragedy, drama, you have suspense, but also you have comedy.”
The myriad tones and ideas is what makes Pluribus such a unique experience and it’s only bolstered by performances such as Vesga’s. There’s a profound sadness and desperation at the center of these characters. But their dryness and stubbornness creates space for a unique sense of comedy to come forth. Vesga manages to shoulder everything with a grounded sense of truth and honesty that, despite how guarded his character is, makes you really fall in love with.
You can watch all of Carlos-Manuel Vesga’s work on Pluribus. Season 1 of Pluribus is now available to stream on AppleTV. Be sure to check out our full interview with Carlos-Manuel below!
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