{"id":41683,"date":"2026-08-12T21:42:36","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41683"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:42:36","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:42:36","slug":"pluribus-carlos-manuel-vesga-on-manousos-fight-against-the-hive-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41683","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Pluribus&#8217; Carlos Manuel Vesga on Manousos&#8217; Fight Against the Hive Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tA game popular in Colombia, a person\u2019s nationality, an icon of the Virgin Mary, spoken mantras \u2014 it\u2019s details like these that gave Emmy-nominated \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/pluribus\/\" id=\"auto-tag_pluribus\" data-tag=\"pluribus\">Pluribus<\/a>\u201d star <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/carlos-manuel-vesga\/\" id=\"auto-tag_carlos-manuel-vesga\" data-tag=\"carlos-manuel-vesga\">Carlos Manuel Vesga<\/a> the foundation on which to build his character, Manousos.<\/p>\n<p>Colombian star of TV, film and the stage, Vesga points out that Manousos is a Colombian immigrant living in Paraguay when the aliens join the entire world in one hive mind, aka \u201cthe joining,\u201d and, like Carol (Rhea Seehorn), is one of 13 people in the world not joined. Also like Carol, Manousos is vehemently, almost violently, opposed to the hive mind \u2014 so much so that he rejects food and other comforts from them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has gone through the process of leaving his home country, severing his roots, leaving behind his old identity, and trying to build another one, in a foreign, unknown land,\u201d Vesga says. \u201cI think that explains and informs a lot on why he reacts the way that he does toward the joining \u2014 he\u2019s someone who has lost before, and now he goes, \u2018You know what? Not again!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Manousos\u2019 work ethic is also important to the character; it\u2019s one that you see a lot in immigrants, he says.<\/p>\n<p>The production department also helped with the details, including a popular Colombian game called frog in the storage facility office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey took the time and detail to build a frog game to put in Manus\u2019 office, and they painted it with the Colombian flag,\u201d Vesgas notes. \u201cThat\u2019s how far they went. So when I walked on set, and I saw that, I can\u2019t describe the feeling. I\u2019m thousands of miles away from my home, and yet this makes me feel like I\u2019m home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though Manousos has a small Virgin Mary symbol hanging from his car\u2019s mirror, Vesga doesn\u2019t think he is religious; Catholicism is just part of who he is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do think that this is a guy who can believe,\u201d Vesga says. Manousos\u2019 goal is to find Carol so they can save the world from the hive mind. \u201cI think he has faith. In this case, he has faith in Carol. He totally believes that this woman out there in Albuquerque is the promised land, and<br \/>he trusts her so much that he goes through everything he goes through to get to Albuquerque.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His journey to Carol is more like a pilgrimage. The determined and hyper-focused Manousos teaches himself English; the beginner phrases become mantras.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can imagine pilgrims in the Middle Ages reciting their mantras, repeating the rosary beads; it allows you to get into this trancelike state,\u201d he says. Manousos keeps focus by repeating the beginner English phrases he is learning: \u201cMonday is today, tomorrow will be Tuesday,\u201d or \u201cThe yellow dog chases the gray cat\u201d or \u201cMy name is Manousos Oviedo. I am not one of them. I wish to save the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The filming locations also helped inform Vesga\u2019s journey. \u201cIt was hard not to feel the solitude in those places. It was really impossible not to feel small and alone, and yet, at the same time, feel the vastness of the world,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Before Manousos embarks on the Dari\u00e9n Gap trail, the \u201cothers\u201d come to warn him of its dangers, particularly the changa tree with its poisonous spikes. The production team researched the area, a treacherous pathway for immigrants trying to get to the U.S., creating a haunting start for Manousos. \u201cThey had used the images that they had researched from the Dari\u00e9n Gap, and how the trail is full of things that people leave behind,\u201d Vesga says, noting the backpacks, clothes and, especially poignant, toys and children\u2019s effects.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s foreshadowing for what befalls him on the trail. Vesga recalls his scream for a scene in which he is impaled on the tree spikes: \u201cWe did it several times, and every time I would scream, my scream would echo through the whole place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That echo underscores Manousos: he\u2019s a loner, driven on a pilgrimage to save humanity. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A game popular in Colombia, a person\u2019s nationality, an icon of the Virgin Mary, spoken mantras \u2014 it\u2019s details like these that gave Emmy-nominated \u201cPluribus\u201d star Carlos Manuel Vesga the foundation on which to build his character, Manousos. Colombian star of TV, film and the stage, Vesga points out that Manousos is a Colombian immigrant&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Carols-Manuel-Vesga-Pluribus.jpg?crop=0px%2C19px%2C1500px%2C844px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}