“Gilmore Girls” fans may not recognize Alexis Bledel in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” debuting Wednesday on Hulu. Can this young woman in the long red robe and “Flying Nun” headdress really be Rory Gilmore?
“I really don’t know” how fans will react, says Bledel, 35. “It’s hard for me to have perspective on that.”
With this performance as Ofglen, the rebel handmaid in the newest adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s science fiction classic, the Houston-born Bledel formally says goodbye to the goody-goody image she fostered on “Gilmore Girls.”
She plays the doe-eyed agitator in the regime known as Gilead, where women are not allowed to vote, hold a job, read or even use their own names. They are classified as property and called by the name of the Commander to whom they belong — hence “Of Glen” and “Of Fred” (Elisabeth Moss) — and used purely for the purpose of breeding.
In Atwood’s nightmarish society, Handmaids are never alone and are expected to police each other’s behavior. Ofglen is partnered with Offred to do the daily shopping, and that’s when Ofglen takes the opportunity to encourage her fellow Handmaid to help the resistance group she has joined. “There’s an eye in your house,” she says. “Be careful.”
“Ofglen has many layers because she had a whole life before Gilead,” says Bledel. “There’s this wonderful complexity to her that I was excited about. It told me I had to do the role.”
Executive producer Bruce Miller knew Bledel’s work from “Gilmore Girls” and “Mad Men” (she played Beth Dawes), while his daughter loved Bledel’s work on the big screen in the “Traveling Pants” movies. “She has such a light touch,” he says of Bledel. “And that face is so expressive. I was thrilled she was coming to work with us.”
Clothing plays a major role in the women’s subjugation and Bledel’s description of wearing the Handmaid’s headdress conveys the confinement faced by the character.
“There’s a limited field of vision,” she says. “The wings really do block you on the side, so trying to have a conversation with somebody can be tricky. You can’t take many cues from [the other actors’] facial expressions, so you’re clearly going off the sound of their voice and what they don’t say.”
There are also combat-style boots and the crimson robes that conceal the Handmaids’ bodies. When Ofglen’s subversive activities bring her unwelcome attention, she is made to wear a muzzle. “It was made of thick cloth muslin,” Bledel says. “It’s supposed to be a gag. Keeps her from protesting.”
Bledel, born in 1981, was too young to read Atwood’s book when it was first published in 1985. But she consumed the novel when she was offered the role. “I loved the ending. It surprised me in a way that was so rewarding,” she says. “And along the way, there’s so many great characters that you really care about deeply.”
The actress described the atmosphere on the Toronto set as “pretty relaxed and creative and conducive to being focused.” It helped that she wasn’t “actually in Gilead” and “was pretending to be scared,” she says. Bledel filmed one of the series’ most horrifying scenes late at night in a real hospital. “It felt a little bit sci-fi compared to the rest of the shoot, [like] we were in some experimental, futuristic place,” she says. “Ofglen has the feeling of waking up and not knowing what happened to her.
“What she finds out is so much worse.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” Series premiere Wednesday on Hulu