‘Pluribus’ Casting Directors On Their Process For Apple’s Buzzy Hit

Pluribus casting directors Sharon Bialy and Russell Scott were very excited for fans to see behind the scenes about how they cast AppleTV’s latest hit. Here, in an interview with The Contending, they reveal the challenges of getting extras for all the Joined characters. They also talk about the importance of finding actors from different nationalities to make certain the world felt lived in. Finally, they reveal why John Cena was perfectly cast as himself.

The Contending: It is well known that Vince Gilligan wrote this show for Rhea Seehorn. How did she play into the casting of everyone else?

Sharon Bialy: As casting directors  we wanted to make sure that the actors opposite her were not going to get wiped off the screen because she is such a great actress.  But also to make certain she had somebody to play off of really well.

Russell Scott: She did chemistry reads with Karolina Wydra and Carlos Manuel Vesga and they reacted great together.

The Contending: While background actors are always important in any show, in this show we have all these people who are joined together so they have to feel like one individual. What challenges did that give you in terms of casting?

Russell Scott:  I think it was just challenging because nobody knew what the show was or what the plot was. We couldn’t tell them that all their characters were joined, and we had to explain to them in vague terms and not tell them exactly what it is, but try to get them to the performance and get them to play as though they were joined without actually telling them what they were doing.

Sharon Bialy: We did cast a lot of actors with no lines but we also had extra casting directors and our local casting director in Albuquerque was really contributing a lot.  So it was a real group effort.

The Contending: With the extras that had lines, was there something else you were looking for in terms of a tone of voice to get for the Joined, or is it just about getting people you thought were good for the role?

Russell Scott: I think the latter. The joined are 99% of the people on earth so people still had their same voices from the before times. So it wasn’t really a vocal quality or anything like that we were looking for. But  for some of the other roles like Karolina and Jeff Hiller’s role  you needed people who just exuded loveliness  and kindness.

Sharon Bialy: And optimism.

The Contending: Funny you bring up Jeff Hiller because he has a small but very impactful scene with Carol about what Helen thought about Carol’s writing and where they were in their relationship. And as a Joined he’s trying to keep that positivity even while he’s giving this terrible news.  How did you decide on him for this vital role?

Russell Scott: We auditioned a lot of really wonderful actors for that role, and I have just followed Jeff’s career for a long time. And part of the process for us is we really dig and think and try to come up with the best person. It’s not just about who is submitted by the agent. I remember we had already seen a lot of people and I suddenly had the thought of Jeff Hiller and I realized oh, my  gosh, he’s perfect.

Sharon Bialy: With any casting job it’s a process but with Vince it’s a unique process. While you’re seeing people you really are discovering more about the role, and Vince is so wonderful giving specific feedback about actors. We kept notes on actors to keep in mind for episode 7 or for later and Vince always remembers. But that really helps us narrow down what qualities are missing. Because this was also new, we were discovering along with Vince. Then when you hear it, you know right away and Vince knows right away. You can actually hear it.

The Contending: I read you knew Karolina Wydra from years before,  so what was it about her that made you think she would fit for the role of Zosia?

Sharon Bialy: When it’s a Friday night and you’re all sitting at the office and you haven’t cast it and you’ve seen so many people, the beauty of the three of us working together as a team is that we have books that we keep in the office, and we just started going through them and there was Karolina Wydra’s name.

Russell Scott: We don’t even use the books anymore in terms of current projects because it’s all digital now.  But we had gotten to the point where we had thought of everyone, that we had to go back to the books because she had left the business for a couple of years.

Sharon Bialy: We reached out  through her commercial agent even though I had her email because we had booked her for something years before. We wanted to be respectful and  her agent did reach out to her and that’s how we got her.

The Contending: The other big role was Carlos Manuel Vesga as Manousos. How did you decide on him for that role?

Sharon Bialy: We actually hired a South American  casting director to help us with the search. That person sent in Carlos Manuel Vesga  along with other people,  and he was so good and the cream rose to the top. But also what happened was right before the holiday break we knew we were interested in him and he reached out because he was visiting his sister in LA. But Vince wasn’t around and everyone was on break, but we were able to meet him for coffee at Gelson’s. One of the important things for Vince is to really have a group of actors who have a work ethic, a no asshole policy, and know they’re going to be okay with a lot of takes  and finding it.  And sitting and talking with Carlos we got a sense  of the kind of actor he was and how he works. You get a sense of their acting ability from the tape and watching other things they’ve done. But really sitting down and talking with someone you get a real sense of if their work ethic will align with Rhea’s and Rhea has an incredible  work ethic.

The Contending: When it came to the other survivors, what was the process for what you wanted there from them?  Did Vince have a sense of the different nationalities he wanted from them early on?

Sharon Bialy: Vince was very specific about including people from all over the world but also from countries or places of origin that you don’t typically see on television. Also wanting to be authentic to that world.

Russell Scott: He was very specific in the script about all those rules,  Chinese woman, Mongolian man, Peruvian girl. He did change the ethnicity for Diabaté to Mauritanian.

Sharon Bialy: That was a challenge,  but it was all in Vince’s script and his writing is so funny. Even in the script he goes, I know the casting people can do it.

Russell Scott: We did open calls for a lot of those roles.   Darinka Arones who plays Kusimayu had not  really acted before;  she is a student at NYU studying to be a filmmaker.  Amaraa Sanjid, who played Otgonbayar, had not acted before but he had been an opera singer, and was  working as a truck driver for UPS.

Sharon Bialy: Oftentimes we’ll get on Zoom with them and talk and play with it because they don’t have experience doing auditions. So, part of our job is to make them really comfortable. But with Vince’s shows, when you’re looking at actors who don’t have on-camera experience, you are going the extra mile.  Which is really fun for us.

The Contending: One moment where you really had to get the looks down for the cast was the recreating of James Bond at the casino table scene. Can you talk about what went into casting for that?

Sharon Bialy: Oh boy, it was a while ago. I remember eye patch guy. We were hiring seven or eight models and we kept wondering why we needed so many of them. Then when you watch the show you see Vince’s genius about why we needed them. With Vince’s shows you have to hire good actors even if they have no lines because you never know what he’s going to write for the following season so you protect yourself that way.  We knew he wanted to replicate the James Bond experience so we had those visual images that we needed to match; that was the motivation for visually making that work. That was the challenge, not getting exact lookalikes from the Bond movies but tone, and when you watch it you knew exactly what Vince was doing.

The Contending: Speaking of that scene, where did you find Samba Schutte  to play Mr. Diabaté?

Sharon Bialy: It was a long search. We’ve been searching all over the world because the character speaks French, so we had auditioned a lot of actors in Europe.  But something wasn’t working honestly. So we went back to look at the people who read ( that’s why Samba Schutte tells the story that it took months), and  asked him to Zoom an audition with us so we could shape the James Bond scene. The scene is so over the top and Vince likes things to be very simple and honest, so we played with Samba  and shaped the scene while keeping his personality,  joie de vivre and sense of humor. Once Samba became comfortable with that it became more in the Vince Gilligan style, and that’s how we got cast.

The Contending: The show got the actual mayor of Albuquerque to play himself in a quick scene.

Sharon Bialy: We didn’t do that, Vince did.

Russell Scott: They have a relationship because Vince has filmed there for so long on his other shows, and he has a house in New Mexico so they have that relationship.

The Contending: John Cena has a random small cameo as himself  presenting Carol with information. How  was he cast? Were you looking for a celebrity in particular for that scene?

Sharon Bialy: We were looking for a celebrity so that America would buy what they were saying right away. We discussed a lot of ideas with Vince for that role and Russell came up with the idea of John Cena. I had just seen him in two movies and he was really good. Vince thought it was a great idea, and we approached  him and he was amazing. They did have to go where he was filming in Florida, and they had a day to film that and he nailed it in one take. They had done multiple takes but the first one is the one they used. He is such a pro!

The Contending: Final thoughts?

Sharon Bialy: I think it’s nice to be included in the publicity, and for the fans to understand what goes on behind the scenes for actors to get on the screen. So I thank you for doing this.