“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how meaningful it would be for so many people, globally and the legacy it would leave behind,” Said Yvonne StrahovskiWho plays Serena Joy Waterford in “The Handmaid’s Tale”, during a new interview with IndieWire.
As She is preparing for the last season of the Hulu series to premiere this weekThe Australian actress finds out the Serenas travel over six seasons. While Serena could easily have arisen as a one-listing villain, from the beginning of its term on the series, Strahovski has permeated Serena with a soul that often puts the audience uncomfortable on her side, despite her reprehensible actions.
When the series’ adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel in 1985 landed first on the small screen in early 2017, it was hailed as the first big show in the Trump. Eight years, six seasons, a pandemic, the double authors and actors strike by 2023, and two presidents later, “The Handmaid’s Tale” Book itself by releasing just a few months after President Trump’s second inauguration.
The more things change, the more they remain the same …
Strahovski tries not to let the external noise affect her portrayal of Serena Joy, widow of the commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and former mistress to the protagonist June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss, whose character long ago went by the name “Offred” when Waterford’s ritualist raped her for a long time as a mandate as a mandate as a mandate as a mandate as a mandate as a mandate as a mandate as a long -in -life mandate as a mandate of a mandate as a long -in -ritualist. Waterford’s ritualistically raped her as a mandate for the religious state. Still, she sees the influence. “It is really cool to be part of something that is not just entertainment; it is a point of discussion for so many people for so many reasons,” Strahovski said.
After defying Gilead by reading a Bible verse aloud and getting the finger amputated as a punishment in season 2 (women are not allowed to read in Gilead, even though Serena herself pencils some of the conservative feminist texts on which Gilead was founded) and found himself, Widowed when June and her colleague handled the commander Waterford to the commander of the Cat. -The series on looking at seeing themselves in the Serena series and her sort this season. She is one of the first wives who gave birth to a healthy child and thus she begins to see a new way forward for Gilead, in the form of the enclave in New Bethlehem, where women can read, have jobs and even Witches.
“The ultimate question with this character this season is, she will or will not redeem herself, and will it be so black and white? It never is,” said Strahovski, positioning season 6 who maybe her favorite. In a new trailer for the season we see Serena going down in the hallway in a wedding dress, so she is still looking for refuge in the marriage institution – seems as if new Bethlehem cannot be to Different from Gilead.
Despite Serena’s dependence on men, on better or worse, it is her connection to June that has been the driving force for “The Handmaid’s Tale.” When we last left them at Season 5’s conclusion (all the way back in 2022), June and Serena were at each end of a train car on the way to Vancouver, their children on a trailer: Serena’s newborn Noah and June daughter Nichole (which Serena previously tried to steal).
Strahovski recalled a new panel that she and the role were on, during which the moderator showed early clips from the show, including the Season 1 scene where Serena played with Juny’s older daughter Hannah, taken by Gilead and remains there (a driving factor for June continued return to the country that brutalized her and her friends). June was forced to look at the remote while caught in Waterford’s car. This stunt illustrated to June that if she went out of the line, Hannah would be in even more danger than she already was and grew up in Gilead.
“It was so hard to see it (again), and it threw me back to that moment of remembering, I don’t want to be this person!”, Said Strahovski. “It was just terrible. It was really hard to fight with that scene and be on that side of the stage when I really just wanted to unbutton my eyes in June and what she went through.”
One of the characteristics of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is the strength of their actors to present such reprehensible characters with such compassion and empathy, especially Strahovski. “It has been difficult to put your empathy aside for the other characters, especially June, and just try to lean into a space without assessment with Serena and try to get to (the place for) where her heart is, without the assessment,” she said.
It will be the ultimate test for this last season: can “The Handmaid’s Tale” give a satisfactory conclusion for June, Moira (Samira Wiley), Janine (Madeline Brewer) and all the people made by Gilead? And what about the complicated in creation and continuation?
Will they – including Serena – get their operation, however stressful they can be? Or is there a way forward for Serena who restores justice to June and others she is injured while she admits that she has tried to change her ways? We must see, but Strahovski’s layered performance ensures that we have a lot to observe.
Hulu will premiere for the first three episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6 on Tuesday, April 8. New episodes are released every week.
