00:00Hi, this is Mariah Gullow from The Hollywood Reporter, and this is Meet Your Nominee,
00:04and I have Emmy-nominated actress, Yvonne Strahovski.
00:09How are you?
00:10I'm good, how are you?
00:10Congratulations on your Emmy nomination.
00:13How does it feel to be nominated?
00:15It feels really good, I'm really stoked, actually.
00:20I woke up in the morning very late to a lot of missed calls on my phone, so it was
00:25a good
00:26morning that day.
00:27And you were in an unusual place when you got the news, correct?
00:30No.
00:31Oh, you...
00:32I was home.
00:33Oh, you were at home?
00:34Yeah.
00:34Oh, did someone say...
00:35Well, no, I just noticed on your Instagram that you were doing a lot of traveling.
00:39Oh, no, yeah, sometimes I post like a couple days later of where I've been.
00:42No, I've been traveling a lot, but no, I was home actually on that morning.
00:46Oh, that's wonderful.
00:48Yeah.
00:48So, Emmy night, you will be attending?
00:52It depends on this guy.
00:57Yes, I am supposed to be there.
00:59I am planning on being there.
01:00Yeah.
01:01Do you have any other nominees that you're rooting for?
01:04Oh, like all my friends and my cast.
01:08Right.
01:08You have 20 nominations for Handmaid's Tale.
01:11I know, right?
01:11It's so great.
01:12It's so amazing.
01:14I don't know.
01:15You know, I haven't really thought that far ahead.
01:17I'm so inundated right now with baby stuff and prepping for that.
01:22And, yeah.
01:24And...
01:24So that's just next on the list.
01:26It's next on the list to think about, yeah.
01:28Who would you like to dance with at the after parties?
01:33Well, provided that I'll be in a state to dance, I'm probably going to be the size of
01:37a house.
01:37So, I don't know.
01:38I don't know.
01:39I mean, you know, my husband will be with me, so...
01:42Yeah.
01:42My husband.
01:43That's sweet.
01:44Yeah.
01:45So let's talk a little bit about your character, Serena Joy, because I want to know what you
01:49think about Serena really resonated with the Emory voters this year.
01:55You know, I think this season was different from last season in that I really... the ride
02:01has really allowed me to take a deep dive into her emotional psyche and her vulnerability,
02:06and to break down the iciness that we had seen in season one with Serena.
02:13So I really think that, you know, having a lot of those emotional scenes and humanizing
02:20her even more made her more relatable and allowed people to have a little bit more sympathy
02:26for her, even though she's evil and one of the bad guys.
02:31So it's been a really interesting, tumultuous ride for me, and I think as well as audiences
02:36to go on this up and down journey of following someone who was, you know, essentially a creator
02:41of this horrible place that, you know, that is Gilead, but then to also see her have these
02:47human moments and break down and be affected by things around her, as she should be, as the
02:53audience is kind of wanting her to be.
02:55Right.
02:56It's really a testament to your performance as an audience member who watches The Handmaid's
03:01Tale, the emotional ups and downs from episode to episode.
03:05You're wondering, are you in her corner for any of the, you know, conflicts that she has
03:10with her husband and with Offred, and it's, it is like, it is a very unusual thing to be
03:19like, wait a minute, I feel sorry for her now.
03:21Now I'm confused.
03:22Yeah.
03:23And then, and then the next episode, you just pull the rug right out from under us.
03:27Yeah.
03:27There's a lot of those moments.
03:28And, and I mean, I thought, you know, we had a lot of those moments pre the big rape scene
03:33that we did in that one episode.
03:35And I wondered personally, once that rape scene had aired, what would happen after that?
03:42Would she still have redeemable qualities about her?
03:46Was there any way to win audience members back after something so heinous and awful as,
03:53you know, the big rape scene that we did?
03:55Even though every ceremony is a rape scene, but this one was even worse.
04:00Right.
04:00Yeah.
04:01Right.
04:01Tell me a little bit about filming that scene.
04:03Like, how did, how did you prepare to go into a role like that?
04:07You know, I always say I always feel a little bit dirty playing the actress who has to justify
04:11all the reasons why Serena does what she does because ultimately I'm on team audience, you
04:17know, who, who loads and hates her and wants her to be a better person.
04:21So, you know, it feels super icky to step back and kind of go, well, you know, this is why
04:27Serena does these things.
04:28And I totally understand why, why she would, but this was sort of one of the harder moments.
04:34But in, in essence, I think the relationship between Alfred and Serena is so tumultuous
04:40this season and they're mean to one another that I think it's, it's that awful concoction
04:47of Serena having the last straw, like the last, it's the last moment of, you know, before
04:53she does something like that where Alfred has just cut her down yet again with the fake
04:57birth and, and, you know, being so smug about it in the moment and, and everything that's
05:02happened, all the, the accumulative effect of, of their relationship as well.
05:06And, and Serena just wanting her out of the house and wanting the baby and for everything
05:11to be done and dusted and that's it.
05:14So, you know, but that's not to say I don't think that, I don't think she's not aware
05:20of what she's doing.
05:21I think in the moment, you know, she realizes that she's forcibly holding somebody down,
05:27you know, during a rape.
05:28And I mean, you can see that.
05:29So it's, there, there's so many things going on and yeah, I mean, it's an, it's an awful
05:35scene.
05:36All right.
05:36Yeah.
05:37And you had a couple of scenes yourself where you've were put in the position of being
05:43injured or tortured.
05:44Uh, what was it like to go through those scenes, especially being that you were pregnant at
05:50the time?
05:50You know, thankfully we got the beating scene at the end of episode eight, uh, out before
05:55I got pregnant.
05:56That was, that was right out before I got pregnant.
05:58So the rest, uh, the rest, yeah, the rest were, uh, that's sort of, you know, cause you,
06:04you don't tell people when you're pregnant for the first few weeks.
06:07And so I was holding onto my secret for quite some time until the rape scene came around.
06:12And I remember, uh, I told Bruce Miller and Lizzie at the same time, because I was worried
06:19that Lizzie in her struggling, you know, against my arms is going to punch me in the uterus basically.
06:25And I really didn't want that to happen.
06:26And so that was a conversation of course.
06:30And, uh, and with Joe as well, when we shot, um, episode 11, when we go to the house where
06:36Offred is hiding and we have that huge argument and he shoves me against the wall.
06:40So, um, there was, you know, it's obviously quite a dramatic moment where he pushes me against
06:45the wall and I, I can't do that, you know, when you're pregnant.
06:49So that was also a bit of a negotiation.
06:52Yeah.
06:52The episode where Serena goes to Canada, um, that was a very interesting episode and
06:58that really displayed kind of her intelligence and more depth and layers to her than you've
07:04seen before.
07:05Uh, can you speak a little bit, uh, about that episode?
07:09Yeah.
07:09It was one of the more challenging episodes purely because she makes the decision to then
07:14go back to Gilead afterwards, after she's presented with an alternate option.
07:19I love the fact that it was so confronting on so many different levels.
07:23There was, she's not only environmentally confronted by a modern world and a world that she was once
07:30a part of, you know, she's watching women who are on their phones and being independent
07:34and going about their work days and in clothing of their choice.
07:38And then you have the little girl at the elevator, you know, calling her a princess and her feeling
07:43alienated.
07:43And even the guy who offers her an alternative, uh, escape, um, Sam Yeager, uh, who, who played
07:51that role, you know, there was a, there was an element of flirtation going on there as well.
07:56The, there was a chemistry between the two people of something that Serena, I don't think has
08:01felt in a really long time.
08:02I don't think she's ever felt another man's eyes on her in that watchful kind of a way.
08:07And I thought it was really compelling as I read it to, you know, to imagine what it
08:14would be like playing it where there's all these different things and how you digest
08:19all of that when it's like a blast in your face after you haven't been used to any of
08:25that kind of thing in the past.
08:26So it was a wonderful episode to work on.
08:29Did you appreciate getting, uh, more flashback stories about Serena this season?
08:35Yeah.
08:36I, I always loved the flashbacks.
08:38They feel always really foreign to me because, because it is going back until, so I'm way more
08:47familiar with Gilead Serena than flashback Serena, but it's, it's always really fascinating
08:53to, to see how the, then those scenes in particular with the, you know, screaming and yelling, it
09:04was a really, really intense day.
09:09Yeah.
09:10They were announcing the, um, the marriage equality, uh, vote that day, which was, I always thought
09:17it was interesting, you know, kind of a juxtaposition of, you know, Australia, you know, voting yes
09:23and then being this amazing moment.
09:25And here I was being screamed out for being a, a Nazi.
09:30And then I won't say the one that came after it, but you know, but it was interesting.
09:34Yeah.
09:35Um, tell me a little bit about your scenes with Elizabeth Moss.
09:39I mean, she's your most intense scene partner.
09:41Yeah.
09:42Um, how, how did you, how did you guys work on, you know, keeping, keeping the intensity
09:48of the scene, but not losing yourself in all of that intensity?
09:53I mean, I think, well, we're, we're both pretty kind of, I guess, uh, like we, we don't, we don't,
10:01like once we call cut, we are like, we're cool and we're, we're fine and we're like normal people.
10:05So, um, it's not all doom and gloom.
10:08So that's, that's great that, you know, we get to have that play in between takes or in between scenes.
10:14Um, but yeah, I, you know, it's like having like the greatest aspiring partner ever.
10:20You're, you're in between action and cut.
10:22It's like anything can happen.
10:24The, the way that, um, there's so much room for nuance and improvisation.
10:31And it's so fun to be able to go there with her and, and bounce off of each other and,
10:36and find these new elements in these scenes that you don't really even find reading it.
10:41I mean, there's so much already in, in just reading the scene, but when you're putting it on its feet
10:46and you get to work with someone like Elizabeth, it's, it's just so much fun to discover the rest of
10:53it.
10:54Yeah.
10:54Uh, how has working on Handmaid's Tale informed you about what kind of mother you're going to be?
11:01Oh, yeah.
11:02It's, I've, I mean, I've tried to sort of really separate the two things.
11:08Uh, you know, I, I try more to just step back and laugh about the irony of the situation
11:13and how funny it has been to go through all these weird motherhood themes on the show
11:20and, and, you know, strange fake birthing scenes and all this crazy stuff while I'm going through this myself.
11:26It's been, it was really important for me to sort of energetically separate my own personal experience from,
11:33from the Gilead Serena one.
11:35Do you think you'll be more involved in politics as, in, in the future, now that you've worked on a
11:41show
11:41that is so much about looking at what could happen or what will happen, um, politically in, you know, in
11:51this country?
11:51Yeah, I think the show has definitely made me more, uh, political.
11:57I was never terribly political growing up, and I was never really familiar with American politics either,
12:03having grown up in Australia, so it's always sort of on the peripherals.
12:06Um, but, I mean, it's, it's, it's hard to turn away from politics now anyway, even if you're not political.
12:14It, it seems like such, I mean, oftentimes a circus, even though there's incredibly serious issues being talked about,
12:22it, it, it does sometimes seem so far-fetched in what's going on, but the show has definitely been enlightening
12:29and empowering as well.
12:31It's, um, I mean, aside from just being an incredible professional journey, just personally,
12:36it has really empowered me, especially as a woman, you know, with all the themes that we address on the
12:42show,
12:43and how they parallel, often accidentally, with, with real life.
12:48Mm-hmm. Yeah.
12:49Yeah. Well, Yvonne, thank you so much for being here.
12:52Uh, congratulations on your nomination, and we'll see you on Emmy night.
12:54Yeah, thank you. Hopefully I make it.
12:56Yes, you will, you will. Bye.
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