Karolina Wydra Courtesy of Apple TV+ Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text [This story contains spoilers from the two-episode Pluribus premiere.] When the audition for Vince Gilligan's Pluribus came along, Karolina Wydra not only hadn't acted in five years, she didn't even have representation. Bialy/Thomas & Associates - the same casting directors who cast all of the major players on Gilligan's previous hit shows, including Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul - searched around the world until they remembered Wydra from years earlier. They requested a tape through her commercial agent, however she was no longer a part of that agency's roster. But the available information was so outdated, it appeared as if she was. Related Stories TV 'Pluribus' Star Rhea Seehorn Explains the Secret to Playing the Most Miserable Person on Earth TV 'Pluribus' Review: Rhea Seehorn Is a Funny, Sad Marvel in Vince Gilligan's Evasive Apple TV Multi-Genre Original As a devoted Breaking Bad fan, the Polish-American actor had been dreaming for years of landing an audition for Gilligan. Her ambition only intensified when she worked opposite Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston a decade ago on Sneaky Pete, the crime series he created after wrapping the 12-time-Emmy-winning juggernaut. But Wydra soon abandoned her hope of working with Gililgan when no opportunities came her way during Better Call Saul. But then out of the blue, an audition for a highly secretive new Apple TV series came her way with Gilligan's name attached. One would think she'd be doing cartwheels in response to this lucky break, but she initially hesitated, despite receiving the very chance she'd long wanted. After some inner back and forth, she took the plunge anyway, later discovering that a familiar face happened to influence the fact that she was now in contention for a series regular role. "At one point, [Gilligan] said, 'I just spoke to Bryan Cranston about you.' I was like, 'What is happening? Where are the hidden cameras? Is this a joke? Here I am talking to Vince Gilligan, and he's telling me that he talked to Bryan Cranston about me,'" Wydra tells The Hollywood Reporter. Wydra soon landed the mysterious role of Zosia opposite Rhea Seehorn's Carol Sturka, and the two-episode series premiere has already made the case that Wydra is the latest example of Gilligan's unique ability to turn journeyman actors into stars. "To be where I am today, I get emotional about it," Wydra says as she begins to cry. "It's beyond my wildest dreams. Being employed by Vince Gilligan, holy shit." [Spoiler warning.] The sci-fi series begins with the global outbreak of an extraterrestrial "psychic glue" that forms a hive mind among the worldwide population. Carol, who's somehow immune, lost her personal and professional partner, Helen (Miriam Shor), during the apocalyptic melee, so she rejects any and all overtures from the people she holds responsible, especially since they still want to try and turn her. Written and directed by Gilligan, episode two, "Pirate Lady," begins with Wydra's Zosia cleaning up a dead body in Morocco. Suddenly, an impulse leads her to get on a motorbike and ride to an airfield so she can then fly a C-130 military aircraft to Albuquerque and serve as liaison to Carol on behalf of the collective known as "the Joined" or "the Others." The Joined are able to tap into virtually any person's existing thoughts, memories and know-how in order to achieve a task or objective, thus everyone can do everything and everyone knows everything. That includes flying a four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. (In a previous conversation with THR, Seehorn insisted the series is not meant to be commentary on AI.) Carol still doesn't react too kindly to her unsolicited chaperone, particularly because she sees through the Joined's attempts to manipulate her through Zosia's resemblance to an embryonic version of a pirate character she created for her Winds of Wycaro romance book series. Only she and Helen knew that the "haughty corsair" of Raban was originally a female character, leading to the unwelcome revelation that Zosia and the Joined possess all of Helen's memories. She may have died from complications during the transitional event, but not before she joined long enough to have her innermost thoughts accessed. Zosia's offer to speak for Carol's lost loved one is met with fiery rage, causing Zosia to convulse. This turn of events further reveals that Carol's emotions are the Joined's kryptonite. If she gets mad enough, she can potentially kill millions of people around the globe at the same time, just like the Joined did when their outbreak took the lives of nearly 900 million people across the globe. With Zosia, Wydra had quite the tall order in playing a character who personifies practi