Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff talks with star, producer, and director Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6.

Moss discusses the deep history between June and Serena, why she’s so passionate about the television format for storytelling, and how the cast and crew find joy on set.

She also discusses her role as a director, from meticulously planned sequences to creating tension and utilizing confined spaces.

It’s been a long and arduous journey for the cast of The Handmaid’s Tale. To tackle such bleak material for six seasons in the current state of the world is a feat all its own, but star, producer, and director Elisabeth Moss has taken it upon herself to not only embody the ferocity of Margaret Atwood’s on-screen June Osborne but also step behind the camera — and find the joy in doing so!
In the show’s sixth and final season, June is focusing on New Bethlehem. It may be touted as the less extreme Gilead, but the oppressed won’t be fooled. As the resistance grows, new alliances are formed and those in power continue to work tirelessly to build up their new regime.
While talking with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff ahead of the three-episode premiere, Moss discusses the weight of the relationship between June and Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski) and how so many of the moments between the two across all five previous seasons come into play in Season 6. She also shares her vision as director for Episodes 1, 2, and 10, taking us inside the train car and explaining how she crafted a sequence around a Sigur Rós track. Finally, Moss opens up about working on such dark material for nearly a decade, and how she’s maintained joy throughout the process. Check out the full conversation in the video above, or in the transcript below.
Elisabeth Moss on Why Serena and June’s Deep and Complicated History

“You can’t do that in any other format.”

PERRI NEMIROFF: The question I wanted to start with was something that looks back over the entirety of the show. Obviously, June is a compilation of all the experiences she’s had through Season 5, but is there any particular past scene that surprised you in terms of how influential it was and how much it weighed on your mind while working on Season 6?
ELISABETH MOSS: I feel like Serena and June is something that definitely comes to mind. Their relationship is so present. There are so many callbacks to previous seasons. Since you’ve seen all eight, you understand. There are so many moments that happen in Season 6 that relate to things that have happened between them in the past. There’s so much history in there. They probably have the deepest and most complicated history.
Here’s the thing. Here’s why I love television, and I love doing a show that goes for nine years, hopefully: you can’t do that unless you have done five seasons of material. You can’t have certain scenes that have this tension and complexity to them unless you’ve done 50 episodes. Yeah, it takes some time, and it takes some commitment. It’s almost a sort of immersive experience. But now, in the sixth season, you can put June and Serena on a couch in a room, and it’s interesting. You can’t do that in any other format, I feel like, or any other art form. That, to me, is something—it’s really my honest answer—I really love about doing television.
Almost every scene the two of you share together has a multitude of layers, and I feel like that very much speaks to what you are explaining right now.
MOSS: They literally can say hi. At the end of Season 5, “Hi, Serena.” “Hi, June.” That’s all they say to each other. That’s it. That’s the dialogue. But it’s so meaningful. It’s so complicated. You can end a season with, “Hi, June.” “Hi, Serena.”
The way that that one exchange has made the wheels in my head turn for so long now, it’s really something else!
Elisabeth Moss Watched “Every Single Movie” on a Train for This Sequence

She discusses planning the scene for a week with the crew.

Image via Hulu

This season opens with the train material. I wish that we could break down every single thing that happens in this first episode, but there’s one particular sequence in it that I really wanted to focus on. It’s when Serena’s identity is revealed and things get very, very chaotic. From the director’s perspective, when you look at a scene like that on the page, which specific part of it did you think was going to be the most difficult to film, and ultimately, was it or did a different part of that sequence catch you by surprise?
MOSS: I’m so excited that you’ve asked a new question. I can’t get over it. I’m so excited.
That’s always my goal!
MOSS: I’m thrilled. I’m going to sit in this moment for a second. I’m just going to enjoy this. [Laughs] Literally, this is a new question I’ve never been asked. I’m so excited! I don’t even know what to do. I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m thrown. And then I give an answer that I’ve given before to the wrong question.
I think the couple of things that challenged us the most when we were in prep were how to make almost an entire episode that takes place in one train car exciting. You only have so many places you can put the camera. We spent about a week, me and the DP, in that train with no one except for the first AD and someone from the art department, just planning it out and trying to figure out what we were going to do and how we were going to shoot it because we couldn’t do the same thing over and over. We had to escalate the story. We had to make sure that it was going somewhere new. We had to make sure that when you came back to the train for the fourth time, we were doing something interesting. So, that was probably the overall most challenging part of planning that train episode.
The specific part was the mob, how to create that, again, on a train car, which is about half the size of the width of this room, as far as width goes, and about maybe this length, maybe this and a half. It’s not big. How do you create a mob that attacks? How do you make it interesting on camera? How do you create that tension, which is a new thing for me as a director that I’ve never really done as much of before? So, I had to really do a lot of research and a lot of watching. I watched every single movie that’s ever taken place on a train, just trying to figure out how to make it as scary as possible. That was the biggest challenge.
Great success.
MOSS: Thank you!

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Just a heads up, Gilead is not a friendly place.

Was there anything you found in a movie that gave you the clue or the key you needed to spark that fear?
MOSS: Well, the main thing that we discovered was that we needed to have a VR wall. We didn’t want to do green screen or blue screen, and that was a big decision to make because it’s very costly. By the way, sometimes I think people think if you just center an episode in a small environment, that actually is cheaper or easier. It is absolutely not. It is much harder! [Laughs] It is much, much harder. So, we, early on, discovered that we weren’t going to be able to do a blue screen. There was too much material, and we didn’t want to risk it not looking good or not looking realistic, so we decided to have a wall. That was the first time I’ve worked with the wall to that extent, so that was a learning curve, as well. I’m so glad we did it, because it is the thing that makes it feel and look real.
One other thing that I have to mention that I love about the train sequence is the fact that all of your guest actors are top-tier. I love when someone can swoop in for a single episode and deliver maybe only a couple of lines, but you feel their whole world in their delivery.
MOSS: Thank you! It is really important. Exactly. And everyone is also there the whole time. There’s actors that become bigger roles later in the episode that are there in the first shot, that you don’t realize, which is cool. So, they have to also be really open to being there, open to being a part of the process, and they were all, I agree with you, top-notch, the guest actors in that episode.
Elisabeth Moss Crafted an Entire Sequence for That Sigur Ró Track

Everything was by meticulous design.

Image via Hulu

Jumping to the end of that episode, and also the next, one particular thing as a director I’m very curious about is figuring out how to photograph June’s reunion with her mom. I feel like no matter how you shot that, it was going to move me, but there are certain stylistic choices that bring on the goosebumps so strongly because of the way that you and the team put that together.
MOSS: Thank you, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. We did plan all of that out, of course. The bigger sequences are always very, very specifically planned. I’m a big believer in prep, as a lot of directors are, and so the thing that we wanted to do that was a bit different than the script was the reveal of Holly. So, it wasn’t in the script that she… You know how you have those few shots where you see her stethoscope and her feet walking and all of that? That was all designed by me and Nicola [Daley], the cinematographer, to really amp up the reveal, to really make it a stylized reveal, to try to make it as big of a moment as possible. I think that all of those choices really, really helped with that.
Then the other thing is the Sigur Rós song that’s in it. I designed the sequence to that track. I designed all the shots to that track, so it was very important to me that that was the final piece of music in the episode, and thank god they said yes.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Cast Have Nothing to Let Go Of

Unlike the heavy material, the set is a joyful place.

Image via Hulu

I wanted to make sure to end on this particular question. It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, because during a recent interview I did with another actor, they stressed to me that we’re constantly talking about what it takes for an actor to get into a role, but not necessarily out of it. Given the weight of this show and the fact that you’ve been making it for six seasons, it did make me very curious, what was it like getting out of June and moving out of the filming process to now hit this point where you could freely celebrate your work?
MOSS: The biggest misunderstanding about the show, I think, is that it is a dark atmosphere on set. It is one of the most fun places to work. It is so light, it is so creative. We have so much fun. There’s so many laughs. I would say one of my biggest challenges as a director is sometimes getting everybody to settle down so we can do a serious scene. If you get a few of these people in one room, they will not stop laughing. They will not stop joking. I feel, sometimes, like a little bit of a kindergarten teacher, who is like, “Kids, come on!” I’ve been known to say things like, “I will turn this car around.” So, that’s the atmosphere on set. It is so much fun. Our crew is amazing, and they’re a part of that, as well. They create a fantastic environment. So, the filming of this show is not like the watching of it, so there’s nothing to let go. That’s the simple answer. There’s nothing to shed at the end of the day. There’s nothing to want to get rid of.
Then, the other part of the answer is that we’re still working on the show, so we’re still working on [Episodes] 9 and 10. So, no one is saying goodbye to anything yet.
Which is why I haven’t seen them!
MOSS: Exactly.
I’m eager to see them.
MOSS: We were literally working on 10 this morning. So, no, you’re not seeing it until it’s ready!
With you behind the lens of an episode, it ups my anticipation. I’ll stress, you have a phenomenal directing team, but I’ve loved seeing you soar as a director on the show.
MOSS: Thank you! I appreciate that so much. Thank you. Thank you for that.
The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6, Episodes 1–3, are available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu, with subsequent episodes dropping every Tuesday.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Release Date

2017 – 2025-00-00

Network

Hulu

Showrunner

Bruce Miller

Directors

Mike Barker, Kari Skogland, Daina Reid, Reed Morano, Floria Sigismondi, Jeremy Podeswa, Kate Dennis, Richard Shepard, Amma Asante, Christina Choe, Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Bradley Whitford, Dearbhla Walsh, Liz Garbus

Writers

Kira Snyder, Eric Tuchman, Yahlin Chang, John Herrera, Jacey Heldrich, Dorothy Fortenberry, Marissa Jo Cerar, Lynn Renee Maxcy