Alexis Bledel and Elisabeth Moss open up about how their “The Handmaid’s Tale” characters survive in a horrid world
Even if you haven’t read the book, you know from teasers that the characters played by Elisabeth Moss and Alexis Bledel in The Handmaid’s Tale live in a terrifying world. The two actresses spoke about their new series in the April edition of Marie Claire and gave some insight on how their Handmaid’s Tale characters survive in the new Hulu series — and the lessons are pretty universal.
The official trailer for Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale was released on March 23rd and if you haven’t seen it yet, you’re gonna want to ASAP. Actually, we’re going to require it of you before proceeding. We’ll wait . . .
Chill-inducing right?
The trailer helps paint a picture of Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s book. It takes place in modern America where a dictatorship has taken away women’s rights. Because infertility is a problem in Gilead, fertile women are forced to bear children for the leaders of this regime. That’s where Moss’ Offred and Bledel’s Ofglen come in.
These two handmaids are partners — which is kind of cute considering Bledel was on Moss’ show Mad Men and married Pete Campbell himself, Vincent Kartheiser. But what’s not cute is that Offred and Ofglen must have sex with leaders and then produce children for them.
When Marie Claire asked Moss and Bledel how their characters manage to survive in this toxic environment, Moss responded with the age-old wisdom of:
“That’s what we do as humans. In the darkest of times, we find something we can believe in, and we find some light.”
While some handmaids may accept their assigned path in life, Bledel said her character Ofglen is not one of them:
“Ofglen is definitely somebody who fights back. So many of the handmaids do in small ways every day, which is inspiring. Ofglen just decides to take it many steps further.”
When the series premieres on April 26th, we’ll get to see exactly how Bledel’s character displays her resistance. But, in the meantime, we’ll leave you with Moss quoting Atwood about how a person can persevere — even when you live in a horrifying dystopian present:
“Offred finds herself totally alone, but she still finds one person she can help or save,” Moss said. “Margaret Atwood writes, ‘You can mean more than one. You can mean thousands.’ In the end, we’re individuals, but grouped together, we can be thousands.”
