Spoilers below for The Handmaidās Tale season three.
Yvonne Strahovski had been getting roles as silly spies (she played CIA Agent Sarah Walker on Chuck for five seasons) and serious agents (Hannah McKay on Dexter in 2013 and Kate Morgan on 24: Live Another Day the following year), when the chance to play āthe woman behind the manā with 2015ās The Astronaut Wives Club came along. While the ABC show didnāt take off and was canceled after one season, perhaps it was a glimmer into the role of 1950s-housewife-on-steroids Serena Joy that Strahovski would land less than two years later for The Handmaidās Tale.
Now, three seasons complete, Serena Joy has strayed as far from the path of Good Wife as is possible, betraying her husband and her country in order to be the mother sheās always dreamed of being, and possibly going down in the aftermath for the crime of forcing June and Nick to have sex to give her a baby. And Strahovski thinks that punishment would be 100 percent fair.
āSerena doesnāt think itās fair, but I do, for sure,ā says the actress who garnered her first Golden Globe and Emmy nominations in 2018 for the role. āShe was in a position of power and authority and she took advantage of that. She essentially made Nick rape June and she was there to see it.ā
While Serena has gone through a lot this season and audiences still love to hate her and hate to love her, Strahovski has been on her own personal roller coaster, albeit a much happier one. She was giving birth the week before they went into production on season three and had just under six weeks to get back to set, where her husband, Tim Loden, brought their baby boy so that she could feed him in between takes. āI knew it was going to be the biggest shitshow of my life,ā she says, referring to playing Serena and becoming a new mom herself.
Strahovski talked with Vulture on the eve of The Handmaidās Tale season finale about Serenaās fate, where she thinks the story might go in season four, and exploring a more psychoanalytic approach to her characterās faults.
Every season, Hulu does a red-carpet screening of the finale. How was that experience this time, considering Serenaās fate lies in the hands of Tuello, the guy who we thought would be her ticket out of Gilead?
Itās amazing to see [the audienceās] reaction, and it was pretty funny to see the mixed response when Serena got arrested because people were like, Oh, yay, sheās getting what she deserves! But wait a second, I kind of still like Serena. People hate her, but they still canāt help loving her a little bit.
Itās always a struggle when she does evil things. Itās weird to talk to journalists [and] justify her actions because I have to go back and play her, but at the same time, I feel bad whenever I do it because there really isnāt any excuse and I feel like I give so many excuses for her behavior. At the end of the day, I think all of us as humans are rooted in our past and our emotions, and all of that triggers the inner child that we each carry around with us at all times. And anytime Serena acts out, this is her inner child acting out. The beauty of playing Serena and what makes it completely worth it ā despite the horrible set of circumstances that everyone is living under in Gilead that she herself has contributed to āĀ is that sheās so complicated. There really isnāt ever one clear answer to anything, and there isnāt ever a clear answer to why she does what she does. Itās like an amalgamation of a ton of different emotions boiling underneath her.
In episode 11, where Serena and Fred are on their road trip to get baby Nichole back, we see a lighter side of the Waterfords. What was it like performing and filming that side of their relationship?
Thatās really only been touched on in the flashback episodes, so it was weird to have that with Serena and Fred in present day. I also think it was warranted. If youāre in Serenaās position and you know whatās coming āĀ you know what youāve done and youāre about to throw [your husband] under the bus ā itās like the final hurrah. Itās almost like you donāt care. Well, you care, but your actions have no consequences anymore because something so powerful is happening at the end of it all anyway. Thatās how I felt when Serena and Fred walk through the forest and she brings up her book and speaks to him about the past. She would have never had the courage to bring it up before that moment, but what else is there left to talk about at this point in her mind? She knows that itās over, so she may as well get it all out now, including a final intimate moment. It doesnāt matter how much she hates him. The fact that she loved him once,Ā and probably a part of her still does, sheās honoring that part of herself.
Serena went through a lot of hot and cold phases with Fred this season, and she was almost on and then definitely off with helping June fight the resistance. What were the clues as to whose side she would end up on?
The biggest clue for me is the end of episode five, when she sees Nichole at the airport with Luke and it triggers a whole new set of emotions and a whole new set of manipulation. I think she probably decides on the plane back to Gilead that she wants Nichole back no matter what. She lets Fred come up with that idea when he meets her after the plane touches down and she says, āItās finally over,ā to which he replies, āIt doesnāt have to be.ā Once she knew that she had him in her court ā because he wanted their relationship to work again and heād do anything for that to happen ā thatās when she started plotting.
Serena is thoughtful; she marinates and comes up with her own narratives of how things are going to go down. Though, if the audience had been in on that journey of hers, they would have seen her be more conflicted about it. The episodes in between, before they go to D.C., it seems like maybe Fred is genuinely remorseful, but then he shows that he was never really going to change and that politics will always come first, family second, and love last.
Speaking of family and babies, you were a brand-new mother while filming season three. In light of whom you were playing, how did you mentally prepare for that?
I knew it was going to be the biggest shitshow of my life, knowing how tough the role would be [and] not knowing what to expect as a first-time mom. I remember reading this book called The Motherhood when I was in Australia, six months pregnant, shooting Angel of Mine. Itās a book about all of these womenās accounts of being first-time moms. Everyoneās experience was so different. This one essay said it might not be peachy and it might not be easy, and you might go through some horrible things, so I basically decided to be happy no matter what. No matter what comes my way, no matter how bad it gets and how challenging it is, even if Iām crying, Iām just going to enjoy the moment because everything is temporary. Iāll get through it and I will learn something from it. So thatās how I went into the season.
As a new mother yourself, does Serenaās line in the finale ā āI didnāt surrender my rights; I traded them for my daughterā ā take on new meaning?
When you become a mom ā or a dad ā you really do suddenly understand the true meaning of the concept of doing anything for your child. I did use a lot of those new emotions that I was experiencing through motherhood, and they really did inspire me with Serenaās emotions and the potency of her need to be a mother and her claim to the baby.
Many are looking at Serena as delusional, though, in thinking that she has any claim at all to Nichole.
It is delusional. Itās not her baby. The only reason sheās sticking to that is, by law in Gilead, not thinking about how the baby actually really did come along, that is her baby. But when we look at what she did with June and Nick and how she forced them to have a baby, it really isnāt her baby. Sheās totally obsessing over being a mom. Itās awful. Itās so sad.
When we see Serena holding Nichole, it might also call to mind the picture of Melania Trump holding the El Paso baby who was orphaned in the recent shooting.
I donāt blame you for seeing similarities there. Anyone who feels the same way about the presidency and everything that brings up, theyāre going to look at that picture and think of Serena immediately. I totally get it.
Do you think that Serena isnāt leaving Gilead because she inherently disagrees with it, but because sheās leaving for a man who can metaphorically give her a child?
Itās all about the child for her. The fact that Fred was so shitty to Serena, itās like, Well, this makes it easier to make that decision, but sheās not thinking too much about the politics of Gilead at all.
I donāt know what the writers would say, but I really do feel like this whole season has been purely about this massive emotional turmoil that has taken over her body and her brain. The true ramifications of Gilead, what itās done politically and socially, and the effect that it has had on her or June or anybody else, I hope we see more of that in season four. I donāt know where theyāre going with the next season, but now that she has been arrested, Iām assuming that she is going to face a lot of those [consequences].