TV extra Fiennes lines between dystopia and world after Weinstein

IT’S won countless awards, has prompted conversations about women’s rights and season three is already confirmed, so it’s fair to say that The Handmaid’s Tale has struck a chord with audiences around the world.

The critically acclaimed first series followed life in the dystopia of Gilead – a totalitarian society in what was formerly part of the United States – as depicted in Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel.

We know the second series will go beyond Atwood’s narrative but will continue to show the struggle for survival by women who have become property of the state – the handmaids

– in a world where a rape culture is the norm.

For star Joseph Fiennes, it is difficult to ignore the irony of returning to play Commander Fred – a “predator”, he calls him – in light of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement that has followed.

Fiennes says: “I think the big takeaway from the show is inspirational female voices full of resistance.

“So there are great parallels, great irony. When I pick up a paper where I read about certain males and what they perpetrate, I can’t help but think of Fred, and think about men in high positions of power where they feel they are untouchable.”

For those not sure how Gilead came about, it began with the US facing environmental disasters and a plunging birth rate. A fundamentalist regime took over and decided to try to repopulate the world by forcing fertile women into sexual servitude.

Fred, one of the men in power, has a handmaid named Offred (brilliantly played by Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss) and her purpose in life is to give him

Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy and Joseph Fiennes as Commander Waterford