Rhea Seehorn fans were just over the moon when it was announced that she got an Emmy nomination for Better Call Saul. While the final season of the show has been a magnet for Emmys and critical praise, it's been particularly rewarding for the fans. Many of whom have been following Rhea's career to this very point.
Caution: Spoilers For Better Call Saul Season Six Ahead
While there were many outstanding moments in the final season of Better Call Saul, Kim Wexler's breakdown on the airport tram was easily the most impactful. Here's the grueling way Rhea prepared for this scene and pulled it off spectacularly.
Why What Happens To Kim Wexler On The Shuttle Is So Important
The scene where Kim Wexler has a breakdown on an airport shuttle is easily one of the best in the series. And there's no question that the committee at The Emmy Awards considered this moment from season 6 episode 12's "Waterworks" when deciding to nominate her.
This scene was shot in two or three takes only and required a lot from the actor.
"I didn’t know we’d only do two takes until I arrived. I prepared as best I could to have to do many, many, many, many takes," Rhea explained. "That is not because any of our directors are sadistic, but it’s because the visual vocabulary of the show is many angles on the same thing. So, just technically, that requires you doing it over and over and over and over."
The thought of doing a moment like this over and over again was absolutely terrifying for Rhea.
"For me, [preparing for a scene like this] means not just hoping I can go over to a corner and drum up some painful memory of my real life. I’m all for anybody’s style of working, I just know that I can’t do that for 36 takes. So what I wanted to do was think about the different pieces that she’s crying about here, because it is not just about one moment."
This was Kim Wexler's biggest breakdown to date and a culmination of the conflicts (internal and external) she has been faced with since the beginning of the series.
"She’s crying for the entire Shakespearean tragedy of Jimmy McGill and of Kim Wexler and of their relationship and of Chuck and of Howard and of people that try to be a good person and how hard that fight could be in day-to-day real life," Rhea explained.
"Then there’s the actual 24 hours that she’s had since getting Jimmy’s call. I think she still loves him. I think she’s terrified for him and flew to New Mexico and lied to God knows how many people about where she was going. Didn’t pack a bag. Didn’t get any sleep. And then, there’s a progression of scenes. Being a stranger in a strange land at a courthouse that used to be her home. Looking at everything that she could have had and then letting Hamlin’s widow nail her to the stake and accepting it."
Almost every one of Kim's reactions to these moments is stoic. This is the way that she and creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould designed them to be. But the moment on the shuttle was the opposite.
"I tried to take in all of those things, then build it."
How Rhea Seehorn Nailed Her Emmy-Worthy Scene
Let's face it, Rhea Seehorn had many Emmy-worthy scenes in Better Call Saul. But this shuttle scene required a ton of effort from her.
In her interview with Vulture, she explained her process:
"I do a thing where I ask myself, 'Well, where does that kind of pain live? Where does that kind of shame live? Is it the feeling of throwing up? Is it when you feel like it’s tight under your sternum? Is it when your chest gets real heavy?' We all know that feeling where you’re not sure you can breathe."
Rhea continued by saying, "I just tried to pull all of those things, get on a bus with strangers, which made me feel so alone even though my crew was there, and now try really hard not to cry. Literally, that was my plan because if you go in there and say, 'I hope I can make myself cry for 30 takes,' you’ll fail. That’s too scary. I literally just put the things physically that we have all felt in extreme shame in our lives or extreme pain in our lives and then try to not let them come all the way out."
"As soon as you get fissures and it cracks a little bit and you fight to squash it down harder, it’ll come back at you harder. Those are the takes you ended up witnessing and then Vince said, 'I think we’re good. We’re just going to do two.' And I was like, 'Oh.'"
In fact, Rhea was so ready to do more. But Vince reportedly said, "No, we have it exactly. We have it exactly."
