I sat down with the creative team behind Apple TV’s Pluribus at SXSW. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s from showrunner Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad) and stars Rhea Seehorn.
I spoke with a trio of longtime Gilligan collaborators:
Composer - Dave Porter
Previous: Better Call Saul (2015-2022), El Camino (2019), Preacher (2016 - 2019), The Disaster Artist (2017), Breaking Bad (2008 - 2013).
Costume Designer - Jennifer L. Bryan
Previous: Better Call Saul (2015-2022), Halt and Catch Fire (2017), Breaking Bad (2012 - 2013). Wardrobe Supervisor: Jungle Fever (1991), Women’s Wardrobe: Goodfellas (1990).
Producer - Trina E. Siopy
Previous: Supervising Producer on Better Call Saul, assistant property manager on El Camino and stunt double, actress and property manager on Breaking Bad.
These three gave a mini master class on what it means to work at the highest levels of television.
Porter talked about working with Gilligan on the theme song for Breaking Bad:
“You’re trying to expound upon a show that you haven’t seen yet, that doesn’t exist yet… we really wanted to tell the story of who [Walt] is going to become, much more than the milquetoast guy he is in the pilot. It is purposely designed to foreshadow the creature he becomes.”
Porter also gave a deep dive on how he created the harmonic yet slightly cacophonous theme music for Pluribus.
And we got to hear how Siopy pulled off shutting down massive sections of Vegas.
The biggest treat, though, was Bryan’s 5-minute blissful breakdown of the physiological reasons why she chose yellow for Carol’s iconic leather jacket.
See it in the trailer here:
All episodes of Pluribus are now on Apple TV.
