Elisabeth Moss Reveals The Toughest Day On Set Of The Handmaid's Tale
Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," an adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian 1985 novel, is nothing short of a horror story. Set in the aftermath of a second civil war, the story follows a theonomic government's establishment of a totalitarian hierarchical regime that is rooted in religious fanaticism. In the state of Gilead, women are stripped of their rights and are enslaved, with the patriarchal government forcing them to surrender to ritualized rape. Whether or not you've seen the show, you've heard whispers of it. The red robes and white bonnets are hard to miss.
Actress Elisabeth Moss leads the series as June Osborne (Offred), a concubine "handmaid" who strives to fight back and retaliate against the systemic injustice and its crimes. Seeing real-world issues tossed around as full-fledged metaphors in "The Handmaid's Tale" is a lot harder to watch than one can imagine. It's safe to say Elisabeth Moss is sure to have had some dark, emotionally taxing moments during the Emmy-winning show's filming. Surprisingly, the award-winning performer — who also served as a director on multiple season 4 episodes — said her most significant moment of hardship has to do with Toronto's unforgiving winters and not the show's sinister plot.
'It was a brutally brutally brutally cold day'
In an interview with Newsweek ahead of the release of her latest thriller series, "Shining Girls," which sees Moss as a newspaper archivist turned serial killer investigator Kirby Mazrachi, Moss touched upon her toughest day on the set of "The Handmaid's Tale." Anyone who has watched the show (including myself) would imagine Elisabeth Moss had a challenging job filming the show's most brutally emotional moments, but it was the harsh weather in Canada that got to her.
Speaking about one of the "toughest" days in her acting career, the actress said: "There's no way that the toughest day would not be on 'Handmaid's Tale' because there's just a lot more episodes to deal with." She further explained that there was one "freezing" day the cast and crew were filming at City Hall in Toronto:
"I think the toughest day on that was one day when — we were so lame but honestly — one day when we were shooting at City Hall in Toronto, and it was a brutally brutally brutally cold day."
The weather affected production on multiple television shows
Elisabeth Moss continued, revealing that Toronto's harsh weather had already disrupted the filming of other television shows:
"And shows were shutting down that were shooting because it was so cold ... That was a tough day. That was hard. I'm not trying to sound weak but it was really cold, I'm telling you it was freezing. That was the hardest day."
"The Handmaid's Tale" will return with its fifth season in September this year after dropping perhaps one of the show's most jaw-dropping scenes of all time. Although unconfirmed, it has been suggested that season 5 will be the end of the series. Hulu is currently working on a spinoff series that will be adapted from Margaret Atwood's "The Testaments," which is set 15 years after the events of "The Handmaid's Tale." Considering the story serves as a sequel, it is unlikely for us to hear more about it until its predecessor wraps up — and that all hinges on whether season 5 concludes the events from the novel. We'll have to wait and watch!