Elisabeth Moss tells ‘The Handmaid’s Tale has terrible truths in it’
As The Handmaid’s Tale makes its Australian debut, star Elisabeth Moss – best known for her role as Peggy Olson in Mad Men – tells Woman’s Day just why the show, adapted from Margaret Atwood’s award-winning novel, has everyone talking…
Tell us about the premise of the show and the character you play...
The story takes place in an alternate world called Gilead, where a fundamentalist regime has taken over. Due to environmental changes, fertility has dropped exponentially in women. I play June, otherwise known as Offred, a woman who is fertile. Any fertile woman is captured and enslaved and basically given to a couple who cannot have a baby.
Can you tell us about the tone and the feel of series as a whole?
It’s interesting… the show is about morality, but it’s also so political. It was very important to us for the show to be relatable on a human level. We wanted it to be real and truthful.
What genre would you say it is?
It’s very hard to put this show in a box. The Handmaid’s Tale has darkness. It has complexities and horror and terrible truths in it. At the same time it has a very dark but also humorous side to it. It has love. It has romance. It has moments that are so inspiring and positive it will make you cry out of hope and inspiration.
Was it a hard role to act?
Given the construction of the story and the fact that June can’t speak unless she says very specific things, it became fun trying to figure out when we show the audience what she’s thinking and feeling and when she’s allowed to say something.
Is there something you’re excited for the viewers to discover?
I’m excited for people to discover how positive and inspiring the story actually is. For me, this girl is a heroine because she’s the handmaid that the tale is about but she’s also just like me or you. If Gilead happened now, I would be a handmaid. That was something that really struck me.