Cast Q&A for 'The Handmaid's Tale' | SAG-AFTRA Foundation Conversations

do you have like your own sort of like dream scenario for how this might play out for them find this question so hard to answer sure well you also probably don't want to give anything away I don't even know if you know anything though I do know actually I did go I did ask them I went in and I asked them what the trajectory you did I never asked I kind of yeah you are a brave tell us everything yeah what happens is it hot between Naomi no I'm just kidding welcome to the SAG after foundations conversations at home program I'm Janelle Riley from variety and now it is my pleasure to introduce the stars of the handmaid's tale Yvonne strahovsky and Dowd and ever Carradine thank you so much for being here thank you for having us absolutely um this is an audience of your fellow sag after actors so I actually like to go back to the beginning and ask each of you how did you get your sag card what was the the job that that brought that valuable card to you um and I think we'll start with ever because she looks like she might remember first I don't know did I have like a lightning bolt moment yeah I love it I got my sag card I was I went to college in Portland Oregon and at the time in the late 90s they were Phil there was a television show up there and there were some films that came up there and I um I got Taft heart lead it on my first film there a film called Foxfire starring someone called Angelina Jolie and then I did a TV show and got a sound card and I had to ask my agent at the time for the money to pay the dues and then I was gonna pay them back once I did the job because I was a junior in college what uh sorry I'm from Oregon so of course I'm here what college you went to I went I went to Saint Clark College show was called Nowhere Man Everett whatever it costs to join sag and then after I got paid for the job my agent let me pay them pay them back he let you pay them that was nice he allowed me to reimburse him the 12 or maybe it's 900 I don't know how much it was in the 90s but it was more than this college student had oh that's fantastic uh Yvonne for you uh I actually I don't even quite remember I think it was it must have been the Chuck uh series that I was on um because I got here and then the next thing you know it was like three days later I had got the job after like doing this Whirlwind meet up to her with all the creators and the director and then and then and then that was it so I uh I I'm sure it was that job uh otherwise I wouldn't have been allowed to do that job right and for you and this is embarrassing because I remember vague details but nothing that would clarify this for all of us I don't know I know that it was a very long time ago I was there did you um forgive me for not knowing did you start off in theater before doing film that's what I thought okay do you remember the first play you did I'd be curious to know uh well um oh God please don't ask me questions no no I don't I don't remember the first play oh I do a different Moon I love the play I did it again years later uh remains a favorite of mine for sure and sorry in some ways this is very unfair because I can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning and I'm asking you all to dig way back but um but thank you that's that's great um so again congratulations on the handmaid's tale we we find ourselves you know coming off of the fifth season and it's just astounding to think about how much has happened um I'd love to kind of know uh to hear from each of you about what it's been like to see your character change and evolve over time is it do you ever think back about where they started and look at where they've ended up most recently and and think about that Arc Yvonne um I mean I guess so yeah I I just actually came across the clip yesterday of the TR I think it was the trailer for um season five and I kind of I just watched it and I was like Oh and it had a little flashback to that very first scene that I ever shot in the pilot where I tell uh Alfred you know if you if you make trouble I will make trouble back and and like little baby face and I thought oh my God we were it was so many years ago wasn't it um that we started the show um and so much has happened since then um but yeah I I the evolution uh I mean at least for Serena I think is has been extraordinary I am um I have been on this journey with her this whole time I it's it's one of the one of the greatest characters I've ever um been allowed to play so it's um it's been such a journey and I think season five especially was was uh special for me and um and all the things that I got to explore with the character you know the thing that she had always wanted was the baby and how close to home in my heart that that was also personally um so yeah I I mean it's it's been a really powerful and an intensely extraordinary Journey all the kind of emotions and things we you know we got to portray or I got to do with that character so far and and what about for you what is what does Aunt Lydia meant you know not only for yourself your career but for your life oh I'm so proud of her for what she's done this season uh the writing has been phenomenal and that she's actually beginning to take the blinders off and for the wall to start to crumble is incredibly satisfying uh and I I just thought this season was so powerful in that regard for her just um realizing too you know uh I've said this before but the fact that she loves Janine when you love someone is as if as though she were my daughter and she is my daughter uh and and to realize you might lose her and what that does to Lily brings her literally to her knees begging for forgiveness and promising to change that's a very powerful journey and I'm I'm very grateful for the writing and the chance to participate as Ivan said that being allowed to play such a an extraordinary character is just a great privilege and ever for you I mean I think that I just think of like season five for Naomi has been the her entire world changed when Warren died and the fact that the writers were able to put her back on her feet again the way that they did it is just it's like you guys said it's just this job has been the gift that keeps on giving but as far as like her overall Arc of the entire series I think it's it's interesting to me being on set and being around everybody and looking at Gilead and like I like to think of the kind of collective toll that Gilead has taken on each of these characters and over these Five Seasons we've watched it sort of I don't know chip away at their Humanity but also you can see what they're longing for from the time before does that make sense like you can see that they sort of long for the freedoms that they helped destroy that's interesting do you know what I mean though and like I just think that I do it's a misery of their own making and they're all in it together and now they have to sort of figure out how to define it in a way where they can find happiness and and the notion of what were they thinking what are they thinking because they really think that women would get half a shot at any kind of a you know free life oh my God it is fascinating because the three of you your characters really began as true believers and seeing that loyalty start to fray slightly has just been fascinating to watch is it is it I don't fun is not the right word but you know to get to play those cracks one is the right word okay the sun is exactly Yvonne and I have no fun at all ever well not last time but we were just Reminiscing on I had to leave the room I was in stitches very inappropriately a very inappropriate scene there was no reason for me to be in stitches but here I was it was one of those Church giggle moments yep or the baby Pound day that was another really hilarious day oh my gosh yeah there was oh my ever and I had a moment too where we were going up and down the corridor when we were doing the the flashback scene oh my gosh and I we were I mean I was in tear I was in legitimate tears that day at the horror of what we were setting up you know it was the day in where they had all the children behind the glass walls and we're sort of walking down the hallway and we're like dude could you see that one at your house I don't know if I liked that I don't know is that one cute yeah and we're both mothers and we're just like oh my goodness how is she gonna deal with it and it was it was like and and Eva was directing as well and we we just really um struggled and in the end we tried to make ourselves laugh and I think I don't know you and I were just making up a silly song or something we wrapped I think there was a lot of rapping yeah but just to like force ourselves to not ball through the scene because it wasn't a scene that was appropriate for either one of our characters to be crying so we were shopping for children it was like it was like going to Walmart so it makes me emotional now to think about himself so there were there are moments of fun but there are also moments where the scene is so um powerful and I'm reflective of you know things that remind us of you know it reminds us of what's going on in the real world sometimes that it really is difficult and also the set to me is so immersive it's so every which way you look you feel you really are there and so as an actor for me if I can just be present and be in the shoes and be with Yvonne it all kind of takes care of itself so I think that those moments in between allowed at least myself to kind of be present in in the scene like I had to shake it up I couldn't live there I could only be there between action and cut I actually wanted to ask about that because obviously you're dealing with some some heavy material um do you all have ways to kind of decompress at the end of the day or you I don't know if you're the kind of actors that take your work home with you or if you're able to sort of shut that off if you have any you know um if helpful suggestions well the the fortunate thing is that you know it's a long day at the end of it I I don't speak for my colleagues but uh most of the time you know the reason we can go home and relax is because we don't take the consequences home with us you know that's the rule uh if if I can put it that way if we if we didn't make believe these circumstances we couldn't really do them uh ever and Yvonne were just discussing things that bring it way too close you know and very difficult to just see from a distance but um except for you know and and when things go well meaning when you've played them in the way that you had hoped to and it works it's a very satisfying feeling to go home and let it go um the scene in which Lydia was begging for forgiveness basically and staring at the possible death of someone she loved so much uh uh that was a very uh I don't know how to say it I was very happy to go home with it and let it go because everything I had to say and do and hoped for was on it was already in that room so there was nothing left to hold on to if that makes the slightest sense anyway I'm sure there's a clearer way to say it until you're acting I mean when you're putting yourself in these situations sometimes your body doesn't know the difference so you might not even be aware of you know how much you're holding on to this uh ever and Yvonne is it is it similar for you I mean I think Anne put it so beautifully it's true like you know it is I mean I think it's it is it's not common that we're that affected by using I mean I speak for myself but there's certainly been a handful of moments where it has but for the most part it is a moment where you know you've spent so much energy and and we're also invested in these characters and invested in in in the quality of of this show and creating these interesting scenes that it is very satisfying once where once we're done with it um I think the only time that I was concerned about what you you just said is when I was actually pregnant in real life and I was then coming to work having to play this woman who has so much pent up emotion and it's just um you know so much ugly emotion you know that that's inside of her and I you know there's a lot of screaming obviously there's a lot of rage there's a lot of crying and I I remember thinking my gosh like I really hope this doesn't affect what I'm doing in in real life and I um I this might sound silly but I ended up every day I decided that I was going to imagine um a bubble around my belly around the growing baby inside of me and and the bubble you it was you couldn't penetrate it with anything it was it was a safety bubble there was no emotion there was no anything that was going to come to the baby and I I just sort of had this problem with my own body um because I think I was a little bit terrified at first because I remember there was that scene at the lake house with Joe and you know he had to put me against the wall and you were pregnant all of that I was pregnant the whole thing in this huge argument that we had and I mean and that was like I mean most of Serena's scenes are a little bit you know rough in terms of her um you know anger issues and stuff so it was um I got you know I was quite protective over that just kind of internally so much sense wow you know I've had a lot of practice now so so I'm I'm good you know sort of referenced early about how this series from the very start has been kind of you know eerily accurate and prescient in so many ways um I'm curious you know how do you sort of find that tone where you can balance how powerful and affecting these stories are with also you know being entertainment um you know I assume a lot of it has to do with the scripts but is it something you you also find on set your directors help you with maybe sometimes it's found in editing do you do try scenes different ways or is there a pretty consistent tone we tend to play I feel like I mean we've always kind of tried the scene mostly I think in various different ways I mean it's kind of fun I mean it's it's not kind of it is fun I think yeah exactly focusing Less on how relevant the show is I mean I I mean obviously that comes up in our discussions or whatever amongst ourselves but when I'm doing this character in The Scene It really just is about that and the bubble and yes I agree it's coming up don't you also feel like it's been time now it's all had time we've we've lived there for for we've lived in Gilead for a long time yeah it has to come from the characters here and that's that's where the show lives in everyone I think you know that's where we created it it is a it is a shock to see how the world uh I'll say just America for the moment the desire to control women um it's just that's just um what is the word insane and is this really happening but as Yvonne said the focus is on our story um and we pretty much stay there and because of that it's a whole lot of fun lots of times do you remember Anne in in season one the scene on the bridge when Maddie takes the baby and is standing yeah remember and we Shot One Direction one day and then the next Direction the next day and I don't know if you remember this but One Direction was the last day of Obama's presidency and the next Direction was the first day of the Trump presidency oh dear wow and that was he's one so that was shocking that that happened shocking amazing I remember texting Lizzy because I I woke up I went to bed the night before early because I couldn't stand it to to listen anymore to what was happening with the results of the election and I got up in the morning and I opened the door and there was the New York Times announcing that Trump had won and I texted Lizzy and I said what are we going to do and she wrote back don't let the bastards grind you down and she sent it in the proper is it Latin the original yeah uh which is the only answer you can give at the moment but oh boy that was a shock remember we marched Avon we all met in my hotel room and we made signs and we did the um the women's March up there and we I've marched a lot in Canada I have to say every time I get to Toronto I feel like something has broken in America it's happened so many times yeah yeah uh I do want to talk about uh something you referenced earlier the rest of this amazing cast um uh in uh season five Naomi married Commander Lawrence um ever I'm curious for you what's it like first of all when you're told you know you're going to be sharing these amazing scenes with Bradley Whitford and then what's it like to do them I mean the whole thing was so surreal it was well I found out from our incredible costume designer she was like I'm gonna have to fit you for a wedding dress and I was like what are you talking about I think we were filming the scene when Stephen died and I thought that was probably it for Naomi in um in season five and then she said no I I think you're marrying Brad and so I sort of snooped around and I saw Brad at work the next day when he was shooting my husband and he kind of had a little twinkle in his eye and I was like did you pick the blonde one and he said so uh it was amazing and surreal and then when I got that script the proposal scene and was that the best most fun was it was it was so it was just and I remember Lizzy said she was like I hope they gave Brad because you know Brad was also directing that day she's like I hope they gave him nine hours to shoot that because there's no way like he's gonna get through it if he gets to be funny and get to be the director yeah uh so it was amazing I don't know I can't even um I don't know just that day that proposal day watching Ann and Brad try to stumble through proposing to Naomi was just like eating an ice cream sundae and all I had to do was just sort of be still and observe them and let let the rest happen naturally because you guys were just insane you were crazy and then you ask in a straight voice is this a marriage proposal once again really win it at the season um we with June sort of the Dynamics have shifted so much um what's it like to play opposite Elizabeth Moss with this new Dynamic I mean I mean is it ever challenging because you know as outside of your characters you probably really love each other but you're really going at it on screen you know the dynamic is something we've always talked about before kind of before each season I think because it's it would be easy to fall into a kind of you know like I hate you well I hate you back too you know kind of thing without the Nuance so we've really wanted I mean the writing is extraordinary and it is on paper but it's up to us to breathe that life into it and and create the sort of the energetic nuances between ourselves so um we have often sort of talked about the layers um you know it kind of I guess in a nutshell you could say that at the beginning it was kind of a bit more between them and then as the seasons go on there's less and less opportunity for them to each other they know each other so well that by the time we shot this season they have to be so real with one another you know both in what they're saying and energetically how they're delivering these lines to one another and how they interact with each other if that makes any sense there there's just it's kind of in season five it feels the most stripped between them it's almost like they they're a couple that's been married for 45 years and you just can't you can't lie there's no there's nothing you know there's nothing to hide behind so I think that was definitely um a driving force uh for me and in the season of sort of where to come from as a as a baseline you know and you mentioned earlier about Bradley directing um and Elizabeth directed episodes as well um I'm curious for all of you uh why do you think actors make such great directors and and what is it like to have your scene partner directing well I'll tell you uh my my time with Bradley was it was very short um he was terrific but I you know it was very short Elizabeth Lizzy um it doesn't come better and that woman was born to direct and she knows those characters so well I've lived with them knows them intimately and it's the the ideas that come from us are just so good uh and things you haven't thought of it's it's really a tremendous pleasure it's it's a wonderful feeling to be directed by her and also Bradley as I said uh just a brief period with him um I I think as to your question uh actors aware being aware of who characters are and what is actually going on between them um is that he is hugely important and I think actors will bring that to any directing situation as to having a visual having ability to tell a story visually I have no idea what that is like it's not a skill I possess and I have zero desire to direct because I think that's essential no and just to piggyback that I think that when actors direct they they know that sometimes it takes a little time to find it and you need a little room to play and you need a little room to make a mistake or be too big or be too small or whatever this sort of moment is they trust that it takes a little time to get to the end result yeah that's a good point do you know what I mean they just let it or or they're able to say do you want to do them you want to just do it back to back and we won't cut like they just sort of understand sort of small shorthands about they know it's going to evolve over time and yeah I that's a good very good point and both the Lizzy and Brad you know they always give you that freebie you know or however many freebies you want you know like okay do whatever you want whatever you want you know which is you know the dream which is what you want you want that space to breathe to do what is in your your soul your mind your heart it was a little still having Brad directing the proposal scene though I will say it was one hun a little surreal a little odd yeah yeah I just I just remembered looking at him thinking are you kidding me the things that were coming out of his mouth you know I mean I don't know how actors step in the place of directing and then step out and play the role I don't know how that's done but they are both certainly beautifully able to do it uh the show features such incredible female Talent on screen but but also behind the camera um I think you know when dealing with such Sunset of subject matter Focus so much on on the rights of women um what's it like to be on a set that utilizes and celebrates so many amazing women you know in front of the camera and behind the camera yeah it's more um a really detailed I think experience um it's uh I don't know how I don't think I'm the right one to answer this but I the first thing that came to my mind was sort of that really thoughtful detailed um experience and and um the allowance to have the the more sort of in-depth conversations um yeah I'll stop there someone else should take over no I think that's a good a very good point um the things that need talking about are clear yes uh which is a very helpful thing and there's a you don't have to explain quite so much um I don't know it's it's what you hope for nothing wrong with our men either um but it's been wonderful to have women very good all right someone else I said it and I forgive me for not knowing I'm not sure if you've already shot season six I I assume you have no oh okay um so with our writers two weeks ago so no we can't go back to work until our writers can go back to work I mean as strange as it may sound I'm sure you have a certain fondness for these characters after all these years of play in them um do you have like your own sort of like dream scenario for how this might play out for them I have one sort of stupid one for Naomi which is that I kind of hope it's like kind of hot between her and the commander do you know what I mean like there's sort of a surprise like they're sort of into each other and maybe that'll just be like deep in my mind and I'll just sort of Play It secretly I'm sure it won't get written but I do Sort of hope it's like I don't know kind of spicy because in a weird way I'm kind of rooting for them it's so insane and it's funny anyone else I'm very curious about what the writers are going to do I I think about how when Lizzy and I finally come together because June and Lydia will need to meet in season six and I'm such a it's such a complicated relationship and that she's been away for so long what's going to happen between them I'm just so I can't wait to find out how that plays out I hadn't thought about that it's been a while since they've been face to face and there's a lot they have to say to one another yeah yeah I'm really looking forward to that for sure Yvonne find this question so hard to answer sure well you also probably don't want to give anything away I don't even know if you know anything though I do know play I did go I did ask them I went in and I asked them what the trajectory you did I never asked you are a brave tell us everything yeah what happens is it hot between Naomi no I'm just kidding uh I mean I like to know I like to know the lay of the land because there's so many twists and turns and there's so many you know ups and downs and I kind of want to know where you know I find the Baseline and all of that um so you know so I can kind of get a better handle on it all and and create that emotional roller coaster but um I don't know I I mean I think I know there's a lot of people who are like oh it's be great to see Serena you know come round and and be on the good side um I don't know I don't know if I feel the same way I not because I want her to remain on the bad side but because I kind of want her to like get what she deserves in a lot of ways and we did touch on that in season five we did touch on that because you know living with the wheelers and having nowhere to go birthing a baby in a barn and like not like that's it was just like almost like end game for her like she really hit rock bottom and she has I mean you know look at her now where we ended off um so I don't know I I think I think I'm a little bit uh I think I would feel satisfied even though you know she's kind of like my best friend because she lives and breeds in me in that way I still want to have her you know have what she deserves which isn't good it makes sense well again I I can't wait to see what happens it's such a fantastic show and on behalf of the SAG after Foundation thank you so much for being here and for sharing your experiences and processing to develop the farmers thank you thank you