Margaret Atwood Interview

Transcript

00:00Do you think that the show, Handmaid's Tale, would be as successful if Trump were not in office?

00:05It would be very different.

00:07It would still be a very good show, but it wouldn't be so creepily prescient as it is right now.

00:15And as we go into season two, because they have situated it in the present time rather than in 1985,

00:25they're able to write in elements of our reality that we are living.

00:30So it gets even closer to what we like to think of as real life.

00:37And tell me, do you think that your book and your show are helping mobilize women to fight back for their rights?

00:45It's become an international protest method.

00:50So people dress up as handmaids, and they're simply there.

00:55They're there in legislatures, they're there outside legislatures where people are making repressive laws and trying to move the clock back.

01:03And they can't be thrown out because they're not making a ruckus.

01:08They're quite silent and modest, but everyone can look at them and see what they mean.

01:15And that has gone around the world.

01:17And tell me, how involved were you in shaping this next season of Handmaid's Tale?

01:24So I'm what is called a consulting producer, which means that I get to read the scripts and comment and talk to the showrunner.

01:34But I don't have a veto.

01:37I don't have a veto.

01:38But I get to participate.

01:43And your movement that you're here today for is After Me Too.

01:48So, love that.

01:50So tell me a little bit, what comes After Me Too?

01:53Okay, so what comes After Me Too is, I think, built-in structural support for women in the workplace.

02:01And a fair investigative process.

02:07And that's what After Me Too is aiming for.

02:09A safe way of reporting.

02:12And also guarantee that everything will be investigated by professional third parties.

02:22So they've thought it through.

02:25And they're quite serious about it.

02:29And they started in the entertainment business like Time's Out.

02:33But now they're building out to include workplace safety in all areas.