Is She Evil? Nope, Just Misunderstood, Says ‘Handmaid's Tale’ Star Yvonne Strahovski

Yvonne Strahovski wouldn’t blame you for loathing the version of her you’ve gotten to know.

In The Handmaid’s Tale, the gorgeously grim yet impeccably timely miniseries now streaming on Hulu, she plays Serena Joy, the very joyless wife of the Commander in dystopian Gilead — a barren woman forced to rely on the services of a Handmaid (Elisabeth Moss) to bear a much-coveted child. Critics adore the show, and there’s talk of additional seasons.

The task of humanizing Joy — who spends her days clipping flowers and select nights watching her husband “have sex with another woman,” all in the name of procreation — fell to Australian actress Strahovski. In Gilead, what was once the United States, women occupy very specific positions in society that are denoted by their clothes: handmaids wear red; wives wear green.

But the heaviness of the subject matter actually belies how much Strahovski loved filming it.

“I got to play a lot with the wardrobe. I was one of the very few characters who had variation. I love those silhouettes. It’s oddly freeing, in a way, to be comfortable. They’re not restrictive. That’s what I’m about in my daily life,” says Strahovski.

The same aesthetic applies to Strahovski’s beauty regimen, another thing she loosely has in common with Joy.

“That’s the one thing I can relate to with Serena … the fact that she doesn’t wear makeup,” says Strahovski, 34. “It’s very light. It’s a little layer of foundation and a little mascara. I love it. To be honest, I feel freer. The more gunk I have on my face, the less free I feel.”

In person, Strahovski is warm and earthy. She could be a walking campaign for a skin care brand, so peachy and dewy is her skin. She uses only soap and water, followed by inexpensive oils.

“I don’t eat sugar. I eat fruit. I grew up with horrible skin. I had cystic acne ever since I can remember. I ended up finally listening to those people who say you are what you eat,” she says. “Sugar was the only thing my skin responded to when I quit it, and it’s been six years.”

She filmed the series during her first Canadian winter, and like Joy, she learned how to knit, crafting a scarf that she gave to the showrunner as a wrap gift. Picking up Joy’s hobby helped her connect with her character, in a way. “Because it’s so unrelatable to me, I’ve had a hard time trying to understand her,” says Strahovski. “What made her heart hurt, and what made her heart happy?”

The miniseries explores Joy’s backstory in greater detail then the book, showing her earlier life in flashback scenes, when she had a career as a champion of traditional values, and a platform — and hot, passionate sex with her husband (played by Joseph Fiennes). She’s a former author who, as were all women, was forbidden to read and write.

“I see a woman in Gilead who had been stripped of a lot of her identity,” says Strahovski. “That’s a lot of empty shell. She’s at the top of the food chain, but she’s one of the people that helped create this society.”

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