“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine how meaningful it would become to so many people, globally, and the legacy that it would leave behind,” said Yvonne Strahovski, who plays Serena Joy Waterford in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” during a recent interview with IndieWire.
As she prepares for the final season of the Hulu series to premiere this week, the Australian actress is taking stock of Serena’s journey across six seasons. Whereas Serena could easily have emerged as a one-note villain, from the beginning of her tenure on the series, Strahovski has imbued Serena with a soulfulness that often puts the audience uncomfortably on her side, despite her reprehensible actions.
When the series adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel first landed on the small screen in early 2017, it was hailed as the first great show of the Trump era. Eight years, six seasons, a pandemic, the dual writers and actors strikes of 2023, and two presidents later, “The Handmaid’s Tale” bookends itself by dropping just a few months after President Trump’s second inauguration.
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Strahovski tries not to let the outside noise affect her portrayal of Serena Joy, widow of Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and former mistress to protagonist June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss, whose character long ago went by the name “Offred” when the Waterfords ritualistically raped her as a mandate of the religious totalitarian state Gilead that the couple helped bring about). Still, she sees the impact. “It’s really cool to be a part of something that isn’t just entertainment; it’s 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 her finger amputated as punishment in Season 2 (women aren’t permitted to read in Gilead, despite Serena herself penning some of the conservative feminist texts that Gilead was founded on) and finding herself pregnant and widowed when June and her fellow handmaids beat Commander Waterford to death at the cathartic culmination of Season 4, Serena finds herself on a redemption tour of sorts this season. She’s one of the first wives to give birth to a healthy baby and, thus, she’s starting to see a new way forward for Gilead, in the form of the enclave of New Bethlehem, where women can read, have jobs, and even wear pants.
“The ultimate question with this character this season is, will she or won’t she redeem herself, and is it going to be that black and white? It never is,” said Strahovski, positioning Season 6 as perhaps her favorite one. In a new trailer for the season, we see Serena walking down the aisle in a wedding dress, so she’s still seeking refuge in the institution of marriage — seems like New Bethlehem can’t be that different from Gilead.
Despite Serena’s reliance on men, for better or worse, it’s her connection to June that has been the driving force of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” When we last left them at Season 5’s conclusion (all the way back in 2022), June and Serena found themselves on either ends of a train carriage heading to Vancouver, their babies in tow: Serena’s newborn Noah and June’s daughter Nichole (who Serena previously tried to steal).
Strahovski recalled a recent panel she and the cast were on, during which the moderator showed early clips from the show, including the Season 1 scene in which Serena played with June’s older daughter Hannah, who was taken by Gilead and remains there (a driving factor for June’s continued return to the country that brutalized her and her friends). June was forced to watch from afar while trapped in the Waterfords’ car. This stunt illustrated to June that, if she stepped out of line, Hannah would be in even more danger than she already was, growing up in Gilead.
“It was so hard to watch that [again], and it threw me back into that moment of remembering, I don’t want to be this person!,” said Strahovski. “It was just horrendous. It was really hard to grapple with that scene and being on that side of the scene when really I just wanted to bawl my eyes out for June and what she was going through.”
One of the hallmarks of “The Handmaid’s Tale” is the strength of its actors to portray such reprehensible characters with such compassion and empathy, Strahovski in particular. “It’s been hard to put aside your empathy for the other characters, primarily June, and just try to lean into a no-judgment space with Serena and try to get to [the place of] where her heart is, without the judgment,” she said.
That will be the ultimate test of this final season: Can “The Handmaid’s Tale” provide a satisfying conclusion for June, Moira (Samira Wiley), Janine (Madeline Brewer), and all the people wronged by Gilead? And what of those complicit in its creation and continuation?
Will they — including Serena — receive their comeuppance, however remorseful they might be? Or is there a way forward for Serena that restores justice to June and others she’s harmed while acknowledging that she’s tried to change her ways? We’ll have to see, but Strahovski’s layered performance ensures we’ll have plenty to observe.
Hulu will premiere the first three episodes of “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 6 on Tuesday, April 8. New episodes will be released weekly.
