The “Pluribus” costume designer almost had a very easy job.
On a panel at SXSW, while discussing his Apple TV sci-fi hit, Vince Gilligan said he considered that the hundreds of characters that make up the hive mind should be naked.
“We talked about [how] they didn’t need to wear clothes at all, but we’re not working for HBO,” Gilligan said, drawing laughs from the audience. “But then we thought, we can’t do that to all these extras. We can’t all be naked.”
Sitting next to him was lead actor Rhea Seehorn, who said, breaking out into laughter, “Oh my God, thank you … Can you imagine … if I had to try to act with 300 naked people?”
“Pluribus” takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which all but 13 people on Earth are taken over by an alien virus that merges everyone’s consciousness into one hive mind. Seehorn’s character Carol is surrounded by creepily friendly yes-people who always speak in the royal we. Theoretically, they wouldn’t be embarrassed to be nude, but Gilligan realized there was also a practical component to their clothing.
“We figured, they strictly wear clothes for protection against the sun and against cold or whatnot,” he said. “But we talked hours and hours and hours about all that kind of stuff.”
Speaking about the costumes of “Pluribus,” Seehorn pointed out that at the beginning of the series, when “The Joining” infects mankind, people are dressed in the outfits they had on at the time, which included work uniforms for characters who happened to be on the clock. (Remember the DHL guy who tells Carol she could probably have an atom bomb, if she wanted one?)
Costume designer Jennifer Bryan, who was also on the panel, explained how, over time, the characters’ clothing became more minimal and functional — in other words, less individualistic. “Eventually days pass, and obviously, people have to change clothes. And then all of those mores for clothing disappear. There’s no reason for them to impress you with their clothes.”
Gilligan, Seehorn and Bryan were joined on the panel by “Pluribus” composer Dave Porter and executive producer Trina Siopy. Katherine Pope, the president of Sony Pictures Television, moderated the conversation.
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