'The Handmaid's Tale': Yvonne Strahovski Understands You Want Serena Joy To Die - But She Doesn't

Elle

2 days ago

For nearly a decade, Yvonne Strahovski has portrayed the complex, morally grey Serena Joy in The Handmaid's Tale. And much like the entire fanbase, Strahovski herself has a complicated relationship with her character
As the show's audience knows all too well, Serena has evolved from a high-strung advocate for Gilead to a deeply conflicted and broken woman who has suffered at the hands of the misogynistic and oppressive system that she has massively contributed towards.
Yet, in between the Australian actor's hectic schedule, she sits down with ELLE UK and admits that she had no issue with the idea of her character Serena meeting an early end - and that it could've happened as early as the start of the final series.
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'There were definitely discussions about Serena being dealt a different ending,' Strahovski says. 'There was talk about her getting killed off at the start of season six.'In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, The Handmaid's Tale creator Bruce Miller revealed his original vision for the character.
'I wanted to kill her,' he confessed. 'Because I think she was such a horrible person and being dead on the side of the road completely anonymously [after she was pushed from the train during the first episode of the season finale] would have been a fitting end. I had to be convinced not to throw her off that train, along with the kid.'
However, for Strahvoski, the idea of Serena dying in such a way, lost and nameless, felt unworthy of the character she'd spent years inhabiting. From an actor's perspective, she appreciated Serena being kept alive, however, the viewer inside of her could have easily lived with a more dramatic exit.
'Naturally, I am tied to her as a character. She's so multi-layered, and she's one of those characters that is the epitome of the grey area, due to how nuanced she is,' she explains.
'I think I would have been okay with her going out in some kind of tragic blaze of glory kind of way. It would have been fitting, and even satisfying for the inner audience member within me.'
Yet, Strahovski's feelings on this aren't entirely black and white, just like the nature of the character that she plays.
'I don't think I would have been as okay with her just dropping dead, anonymously, in a ditch off the train,' she admits. 'That would have felt pretty anti-climactic after all that's happened with her over the seasons.'
While Strahovski could envision a more action-filled exit for her contentious character, the decision to keep her character alive does, in many ways, offers Serena another possibility of redemption - a question that Strahvoski grapples with. Does Serena deserve that?
'I'm not sure that she does,' the actor answers. 'Deep down, Serena believes she's good and does good, even though she doesn't, she's a bit of a narcissist.'
As the series draws closer to its finale for UK audiences, Strahvoski debates whether Serena's actions can ever be truly forgiven. 'It's such a two-sided experience, this forgiveness thing... I'm not sure she deserves it.'
In more ways than one, Strahovski's relationship with Serena can, at times, mirror the audiences own feelings of frustration and tension towards such a conflicting character. Whether Serena does die a tragic death or is offered redemption from the other characters, one thing is certain - not even a woman in Serena's position is free of the horrors of Gilead.
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