Madeline Brewer on reuniting with Handmaid's Tale costar Elisabeth Moss in Shining Girls
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Warning: This article contains spoilers about Shining Girls episode 6.
It's a Handmaid's Tale reunion for Elisabeth Moss and Madeline Brewer this week on Shining Girls.
In the latest episode of the Apple TV+ thriller, we're transported back in time to 1918, and finally learn who Harper (Jamie Bell) is and how he seemingly kills women through time. Turns out, he's a bit of a disgraced WWI veteran, who has unrequited feelings for his childhood friend Klara (Brewer), an avant-garde dancer who speaks French and covers herself in radium in order to glow during her act.
When Harper takes Klara to rob a little old lady for old time's sake, he discovers the address of the mysterious house that's been teased throughout the show. Once he realizes that the abode has the ability to transport its "owner" through time, he takes Klara with him to the '90s, where she shares a sweet moment dancing with Kirby (Moss) before going back to the house in 1918, where Harper ultimately kills her for not doing what he tells her to — thus becoming the first (and literal) of his shining girls.
Playing Klara required Brewer to spend extensive time in the makeup chair, speak French, and do some period-appropriate avant-garde dancing, all while embodying a character integral to the entire show, past and present. It's a tall ask for a relatively short amount of screen time, but for Brewer, it was the exact opportunity she'd been looking for. Here, the guest star breaks it all down for EW.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So how did this little Handmaid's Tale reunion come about? Did Elisabeth Moss call you or was it pure happenstance?
MADELINE BREWER: She called me up in August, and was like, "Are you available?" And she was like, "I'm so sorry, is this weird? I totally understand if you don't want to come in and just do two episodes," and I was like, "I would follow you into the sun, so I don't care." And then she sends me this dynamite character, which is exactly what I've been looking for. Just something to really sink my teeth into, and so I went to Chicago. It all worked out, and I had the time of my life in Chicago.
There's so much you get to do in one episode! There's the full body paint, the dancing, the French, and of course the intricacies of the character herself. Let's start with the paint — how was the glowing effect of the radium achieved?
There's that Ben Nye kind of makeup that you're always seeing on set. It was mostly that, but the makeup team was just incredible. And the makeup department head, Stacey Herbert, decided we're going to mix it with stuff, and put a little sparkle here and there, and they highlighted my collarbones and my legs in a certain way. And it looks incredible just to the naked eye [without the glowing effect], but then when you do see it in the show, there is the effect when I'm on stage, where you just really see a glowing hand pop out. So that was an effect that they added later. [The makeup] took us like three hours. I think we had to do it maybe three or four times, where I was in full green. And I loved it. I loved every minute of it.
That sounds messy.
It was! It was amazing. I think I have a photo somewhere in my phone history of, I guess I hadn't gotten all the green off, and I woke up one morning and all the sheets in the hotel were bright green. I guess I hadn't gotten it quite out of my hairline or something. I loved it. Like everything in my life was covered in green for a while, and it is one of my favorite colors. So you know, I was very happy with that.
Your character is supposed to be a WWI-era exotic dancer. How did you go about prepping for that aspect of the role?
So I went to musical theater school, and I've done musical theater my whole life. So while I'm not a super trained dancer, I have been dancing and moving my whole life. So there were elements of that dance that I was like, "You guys could have hired a really, really exceptional dancer. I know several of them." But it was a challenge, and that's what I was really, really looking for. I mean, The Handmaid's Tale is very challenging, but I know the character [of Janine] already. I know her. I'm still discovering her, but I do know her innately and deeply. And this is a whole new ballgame. That dance is so hard. The choreographer and I, we had to do a little prayer before I went up to go do it. And, Daina [Reid], who directed that episode, and Bonnie [Elliott] our DP, were just so wonderful and understanding and wanted to get the perfect moments, and even though I was on the set for not that many days over the course of an eight-episode show, I felt so welcomed. I mean, I knew Lizzie [Moss] and Daina previously, but I felt so supported by so many women, [like series creator] Silka Luisa, who just brought me right in, and it was just amazing.
Elizabeth Sisson/Apple TV+ Madeline Brewer (left) and Elisabeth Moss star together in Apple TV+'s 'Shining Girls'
You said you know Janine deeply as a character but Klara was new for you. So, what did you learn about Klara that surprised you?
There are so many things about me and Janine that are very similar. Klara is my polar opposite. I mean, I love her and I admire her. Just like baseline, if someone had taken me into a house, and I'm in 1920 or so, and that transports me into 1990 or whenever we go to, I would have a full blown panic attack curled in the fetal position in a corner. Klara is like, "This is pretty cool. I think I'm gonna completely embrace this." And that's amazing. I love that about her personality that she's just ready to go and ready to move and ready to just kind of go with the flow, I guess. And for me, I don't know, maybe it's my Taurus nature, but I'm not a go with the flow kind of girl. And I so admire that about her. Also, she's from a difficult life, but there's never a moment where she doesn't sound proud of it. She loves that that's where she is from. And she also wanted to know more about the world. She wanted to learn to speak French, she wanted to be a dancer, and she wanted to make a life for herself in which she didn't have to go and steal things from little old ladies. She accepts all that she is and she still wants more, and I love that about her.
Speaking of the French, was that difficult for you to speak or did you have prior experience with the language?
I took French in high school and it's been a dream of mine to actually learn how to speak French. I've had Duolingo on my phone for 100 years and that little owl is just harassing me. But I feel like I have a good grasp of the pronunciation. Because truth be told, I'm just a mockingbird — I was a classical singer for 11 years. And so I sang a lot in French and worked a lot on pronunciation. So yeah, I have a little bit of training in that.
Your role is not a huge one in the show in terms of overall screen time, as you mentioned, but she's such an integral part of the mythology of the show, and specifically of the killer's backstory. Was it hard for you to just hop into that?
Oh, I remember at any given moment, I was like, "I don't know where I am or who I am? What year am I in?" But like I say, it was exactly what I'd been looking for at the time because I have been getting a little bit like... I tend to talk about my career and my job in a very animalistic way, like I want to rip into it, kind of thing. I guess that's just my insatiable nature. I haven't found anything to really, really sink my teeth into. She's just my little fairy godmother, angel woman, Lizzie is. [The role of Klara is] exactly what I wanted. Also, I said this when I got my sides for The Handmaid's Tale in 2016. I said, "Oh, anything that Elisabeth Moss touches is gold. So this will be incredible." And then I read the character and I was like, "I have to do this, or I will combust." And that's how I felt about Klara.
If you could time travel like Klara does, when would you want to go?
Oh, the answer that immediately comes to me is so pretentious, that I don't even want to talk about it. [Laughs] But the early 1900s, and in Paris with like all of the writers and the painters and those bohemian lunatics, that's where I would want to go.
Like the Moulin Rouge.
Yes, all of them. I want all of them, all of their debaucherous behavior, and all of their genius that they didn't know was genius yet — I want to just look at it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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