Yvonne Strahovski carefully navigated the dark and the light as Serena Joy in Hulu‘s critically acclaimed dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale across six seasons, but it was when she was firmly between these realities that the Australian actress shone the brightest.
Much like Serena being pulled in two directions simultaneously, the fans often found themselves in a similar position. Do they hate this character because of her beliefs, or was she deserving of redemption? On one hand, Serena was part of this world where women were considered less than second-class citizens, and those that were fertile were used by married Gilead couples as incubators for children that were a product of rape, amid a fertility crisis. Not only did Serena support and encourage this lifestyle for her community, but she also practiced it herself.
When she was the loving and supporting wife of Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes)—totally in a Stepford Wife kind of way—the couple was given a human being, June Osbourne (Elisabeth Moss), known as Offred (Of Fred), to serve as their handmaid. Offred was forced to have sex with Fred, with the “encouragement” of his wife, until the act resulted in a pregnancy, a baby that would never belong to the birth mother. Early in their relationship, it was evident that Offred/June and Serena’s fates were delicately intertwined.
From the series premiere to the finale, these women went from being mortal enemies to finding forgiveness. Serena became an integral part of the rebel movement to destroy Gilead. Following the war, May Day secured Massachusetts’s survival to plan another battle to weaken the abusers further and for the former handmaids to be reunited with the children that were ripped from their arms. In the final moments of the series, Serena, now with son Noah in tow, catches a bus to a destination and future unknown, with a bag packed by June with everything Noah would need for the journey.
For her performance as Serena, Strahovski was nominated for two Emmy Awards, one in 2018 and again in 2021, for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
Strahovski shares details about her character’s state of mind the moment when everything changed with a bold and rebellious move, after finding love again with Commander Wharton (Josh Charles), below. In the eighth episode of Season 6, “Exodus,” she abandoned her new husband shortly after their nuptials following his shocking reveal that Serena was to welcome a handmaid into their home. Realizing this is the opposite of what she had in mind for her future, she walks out into the freezing night, never to be the same again.
DEADLINE: Serena was at a turning point when she realized that what her new husband promised her wasn’t how life would play out. What was she thinking as she walked out the door?
YVONNE STRAHOVSKI: It’s so sad because I don’t think she knew she had any other choice but to go back to New Bethlehem and take on this role. I think it’s her safety net. The more public she became, the more safety she had, which was important to her—not just for herself, but for her baby. So when Wharton took an interest in her, I think it’s genuine. Josh and I discussed the relationship a lot, and there’s so much about it that’s genuine. They genuinely have feelings for each other. He genuinely adores her. He genuinely thinks much more of her than Fred did, and she believes that, and so does [Wharton]. What was initially sort of a survival decision slowly blossomed into something that could be lovely for her and work for her, genuinely, with genuine love, at least in her mind. So to have everything all fall apart in this one moment is tragic and devastating, and she suddenly didn’t feel safe at all. Her entire world came crashing down again, and she desperately didn’t want that to happen. She’d lived in a crashed world for so long, ever since the Waterford house burnt down. She’d been here and there and everywhere, so this was devastating for her.
DEADLINE: To take a step back briefly, could you feel Serena’s heart break as Wharton introduced her to their handmaid?
STRAHOVSKI: When she walked into the room, I was shaken and enraged by it. Of course, I’m feeling a lot of what Serena is in anticipation of the scene, so these are my/Serena’s feelings. I hadn’t been in a Gilead household that’s mine for so, so long, and Serena had been rid of that. I don’t think she ever expected to see this red dress and what it represents in her own home again. There was so much betrayal and conflict from Serena’s point of view about that red dress, whether it was June/Offred, or the Handmaid that existed before her, and everything that it represented.
DEADLINE: With everything she had gone through with Fred, with her believing that this time the marriage would be different, her devastation was palpable.
STRAHOVSKI: With the betrayal of Fred, initially, the distrust in their relationship in mind, all of a sudden, there was this Handmaid there again, at the beginning of what was supposed to be this amazing relationship. I think she just flipped. I went with this complete rage reaction, emotional outpouring of, ‘This isn’t going to work for me at all.’ She was brave enough to say this because the stakes were really high. She had her baby that she longed for with her when she went out in the middle of winter, not knowing where to go in such a dangerous situation. Even with that understanding, that choice was better than existing in a dynamic again where they have to live in this weird trio. She’d come to understand it is completely abusive, at least to a point. June personified that, convinced her, and worked with her to get her to see the light of day, and I think she did.
DEADLINE: Why do you think Serena didn’t question Wharton further about what their life would be before the wedding?
STRAHOVSKI: I think she didn’t let herself go there. There were so many things she so desperately wanted to make work, and they were working really well, enough for her not to question it. This blindsided her because they discussed children and wanting a big family. It’s the worst assumption she’s ever made, thinking he meant natural children that are biological only to them, considering all of the celebratory things he said about her: ‘I celebrate you as a spokesperson. I celebrate you as someone who loves to read, and you should keep reading, and you should keep writing, and women should have these rights.’ He said all the right things, and I think they believed them, then she assumed this other thing, but they weren’t on the same page.
DEADLINE: You’ve spent nearly a decade playing Serena in this dark and scary world. Would you say you’re ready to play in a comedy next?
STRAHOVSKI: Oh my gosh, yes, I really am. [Laughs] It would be nice to have some light-hearted material, but I’ll always be drawn to the serious, complex stuff. I don’t know. I can’t seem to help it. It gives us all a place to put our darkness into, whether watching it, playing it, or making it. There is darkness out there, and it’s got to go somewhere.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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