Speaker 1: Welcome to Amy and TJ. And we are very excited
Speaker 1: about this edition of our podcast because it is season six,
Speaker 1: the final season of Handmaid's Tale. Every woman I know
Speaker 1: is obsessed with it. We have discussions about each episode
Speaker 1: after they're over, and Wow, this season has already begun
Speaker 1: with a bang. But I want to make sure everyone
Speaker 1: knows who's listening. We are not going to give away
Speaker 1: any spoilers in case you haven't started the new season yet,
Speaker 1: but the first three episodes dropped on April eighth, and
Speaker 1: then there are new episodes that roll out every Tuesday.
Speaker 1: So this is exciting. It only gets sad when they're
Speaker 1: all gone. So we still have so many more to
Speaker 1: consume and so many plot lines to follow. And we're
Speaker 1: going to assume that if you're already listening to this episode,
Speaker 1: you're likely a fan of Handmaid's Tale. But if you
Speaker 1: don't know it's premise, let me give you just a
Speaker 1: quick synopsis. The series is set in a fictional community
Speaker 1: we can call it that called Gilead. It's a society
Speaker 1: that has basically taken over the United States after an
Speaker 1: environmental disaster has left most women unable to have children,
Speaker 1: so it takes the few remaining fertile women and forces
Speaker 1: them into sexual servitude to have children for childless couples. Essentially,
Speaker 1: women are property of Gilead. And we have one of
Speaker 1: the stars from Handmaid's Tale with us. She plays Rita,
Speaker 1: who at the beginning of the series plays a Martha,
Speaker 1: which is basically a maid or a domestic worker for
Speaker 1: these Gilead families. And she is the Martha for a
Speaker 1: very prominent Gilead family. And I want to say here
Speaker 1: that TJ wanted to be with us on this podcast,
Speaker 1: but he's feeling a bit under the weather, so he
Speaker 1: sends his regards because he was very excited as well
Speaker 1: to be talking to the one and only Amanda Brugal.
Speaker 1: So Amanda, thank you for coming on the podcast, and
Speaker 1: thank you for talking with us. I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: have you on.
Speaker 2: You're welcome. I'm so excited to meet you and to
Speaker 2: discuss all that is Handmaids.
Speaker 1: Wow. I mean, do you have these same conversations with
Speaker 1: your girlfriends even though you know what's coming and you
Speaker 1: know what's about to happen. Do you still find yourself
Speaker 1: having debriefs with the women in your life.
Speaker 2: Yeah? I know, not really. I mean, I think because
Speaker 2: they're with me throughout it. It's got every week, they
Speaker 2: were together almost every day, so they know what's coming up.
Speaker 2: What I do love is having conversations with complete strangers
Speaker 2: on the street, Like it's the one thing I found
Speaker 2: in my life, the one job that suddenly all sort
Speaker 2: of weird social contracts are out the window and suddenly
Speaker 2: I'm hugging people in the street or bonding or telling
Speaker 2: really intimate stories with complete strangers. And it's the thing
Speaker 2: I love about art, but specifically this show. It just
Speaker 2: just throws all of the formalities to decide and we're hugging.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: You know what? That is so interesting? That makes so
Speaker 1: much sense because this is a show that touches on
Speaker 1: so many I would say, deep seated fears or maybe
Speaker 1: not that deep seated among women about our role in society,
Speaker 1: and especially given today's political climate, perhaps even more so
Speaker 1: over the last several years, certainly since Handmaid's Tale has
Speaker 1: come out, there have been so many eerily similar things happening,
Speaker 1: parallel things happening in politics that I think the show
Speaker 1: even probably had more significance and more prominence than ever
Speaker 1: before because all of a sudden women are thinking, my god,
Speaker 1: could that happen here? Or are we on a path
Speaker 1: where that could one day in the future happen. What
Speaker 1: do people say to you when they come up to you.
Speaker 2: I mean people ask me how It's almost like they
Speaker 2: want my advice, like will this happen? Is it close?
Speaker 2: What should I do? And so I have to sort
Speaker 2: of feel like sometimes a therapist to sort of say
Speaker 2: to them that were, although it seems close, we're not
Speaker 2: quite there yet. I too, am just as afraid. I
Speaker 2: don't really have any secrets of how to navigate fictitious gilliad.
Speaker 2: A lot of people talk to me about watching it
Speaker 2: with their children, not children, but the sort of teen daughters,
Speaker 2: how to navigate conversations with them, and just really people
Speaker 2: looking ultimately for my advice and how to navigate gilliad,
Speaker 2: How to navigate if this were to happen, and then
Speaker 2: what would I do?
Speaker 1: That is wild. I did not expect you to say that,
Speaker 1: But then when you say it, I guess it makes sense.
Speaker 1: But were you prepared for any of that?
Speaker 2: No, not at all. I mean I did. What's interesting
Speaker 2: about the book is that I'm Canadian, and so I
Speaker 2: read the book when I was fifteen, was obsessed with
Speaker 2: the book. In love with the book. I wrote my
Speaker 2: thesis on it to get into university. I didn't know
Speaker 2: if I was waiting to stop children a writer. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I didn't know an actor or writer. And to get
Speaker 2: into the writing program, I chose the Handmaid's Tale. I
Speaker 2: chose to write it on the book, but I chose
Speaker 2: to write it on Rita.
Speaker 1: This was in Night You've got to be kidding me No.
Speaker 1: Nineteen ninety six, nineteen ninety six, and so Rita has
Speaker 1: been with me for a long time.
Speaker 2: So I do feel a little bit like a Handmaid's
Speaker 2: Tale expert, but not so much so where I can
Speaker 2: help others navigate their lives.
Speaker 1: That is such a full circle moment, crazy. Can you
Speaker 1: take me back to the moment when you first auditioned
Speaker 1: and were you auditioning specifically for this role that you
Speaker 1: wrote your thesis around.
Speaker 2: I was, well, you know, the casting director in Canada,
Speaker 2: I talked so much about the book. It's like I
Speaker 2: had shares, like I was trying to push the book
Speaker 2: on people, had copies in my pocket. The Canadian casting
Speaker 2: director knew for years how much I loved the book,
Speaker 2: and she said, oh, the book that you like, I
Speaker 2: I'm casting for it, and she said, I'm not. I'm
Speaker 2: going to bring you in so you can speak the lines.
Speaker 2: You're not going to get it. It's going to go
Speaker 2: to an American, but just just so you can come
Speaker 2: in and audition. And so that first audition I was
Speaker 2: there and Bruce Miller, our showrunner, and Read Morano, our
Speaker 2: director who started this whole ball rolling, were there and
Speaker 2: we just talked openly about the book, and I gave
Speaker 2: my advice and how I thought what I thought some
Speaker 2: mistakes were thinking I wouldn't get the job, but I
Speaker 2: think it's they felt my passion for it, and so
Speaker 2: I got the job.
Speaker 1: What was it about Rita that spoke to you for
Speaker 1: all these years?
Speaker 2: You know? I think Martha's are really interesting. I really
Speaker 2: feel like they are not unlike a lot of black
Speaker 2: women in this world in which we are asked to
Speaker 2: be seen and not heard or people of service. In
Speaker 2: the book, Rita is not a woman of color. But
Speaker 2: I just felt such a kinship with her, and she's
Speaker 2: quite mysterious, and I made up all sorts of backstories
Speaker 2: for her even before this became a television show. I
Speaker 2: just felt like she was a kindred spirit.
Speaker 1: Wow. And yes, the Martha's due take on this other role.
Speaker 1: They're not the ones that are providing children, and yet
Speaker 1: they're having to provide everything for the family and almost
Speaker 1: be of service to the Handmaid's Tale. Sorry, the Handmaids
Speaker 1: as well. You know from what I've I have not
Speaker 1: read the book, but obviously I've watched every single episode
Speaker 1: of every single season of Handmaid's Tale, and the Martha's
Speaker 1: kind of have to do it all. They are the
Speaker 1: unsung heroes in the story.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's what I call myself, especially for this season.
Speaker 2: It's I've always thought of her as the secret weapon
Speaker 2: or sort of the silent unsung hero, providing emotional support,
Speaker 2: providing sometimes physical support, and the many times she has
Speaker 2: helped June escape, although June keeps coming back. Yeah, they
Speaker 2: are the women who fight without weapons who women like
Speaker 2: that are always the most interesting to me. They have
Speaker 2: a very very large impact with a very small sort
Speaker 2: of verbal bite. They don't make a lot of noise,
Speaker 2: but they make they influence the world greatly.
Speaker 1: Wow. That's that's incredible and such a good way to
Speaker 1: put it. So this is the final season, how do
Speaker 1: you feel about that. Are you ready to move on?
Speaker 1: Are you ready to you think it was time for
Speaker 1: it to be over?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean I want to say, and I don't
Speaker 2: want to all for it to be mistaken. I said,
Speaker 2: I want to get the heck out of here. But
Speaker 2: like it's almost been ten years amy, and you know,
Speaker 2: in television we don't get that, Like it's I feel
Speaker 2: so lucky to have been a part of something for
Speaker 2: almost a decade. All of us have changed, We've been
Speaker 2: through like personally, marriages, children, divorce separately outside of our characters,
Speaker 2: we have navigated life together for almost a decade. So
Speaker 2: to have that and to grow with these people who
Speaker 2: I love, I feel so lucky. But also the fact
Speaker 2: that we get to end the story on our terms,
Speaker 2: Like it's not like something for two years we loved
Speaker 2: and suddenly the chord was yanked and it was we
Speaker 2: had to finish the show. So it feels like the
Speaker 2: perfect ending that we can control and that we've taken
Speaker 2: everything that we can and now it's time to move on.
Speaker 2: And we're all quite frankly, just thrilled, thrilled that we
Speaker 2: got the chance and thrilled to move on.
Speaker 1: I love hearing that It makes me feel better being
Speaker 1: over knowing that you all are also like you're like,
Speaker 1: you know, it's good. It served its purpose, but now
Speaker 1: there are other projects and other things to do. How
Speaker 1: would you describe this season compared to the others? I know,
Speaker 1: I said, and certainly anyone who loves the show wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to know anything about what's coming, But how would
Speaker 1: you describe this season compared to the others?
Speaker 2: You know? I think to me, the season the moment
Speaker 2: I started really reading it and getting into the scripts.
Speaker 2: It's a love letter for fans. It is to me.
Speaker 2: It unfolds in all of the ways that fans have
Speaker 2: been wanting it to unfold. Passion. There is such an
Speaker 2: inertia towards a sort of a rebellion, and I know
Speaker 2: there are Handmaids has twists and turns, but there really
Speaker 2: is so much more action, and the action pays off
Speaker 2: without soiling it in a way that fans have been
Speaker 2: wanting it, been needing it to. And so I really
Speaker 2: feel like it's the season for the fans, and people
Speaker 2: can come back to me and question me afterwards, but
Speaker 2: I promise it's going to pay off.
Speaker 1: That is very exciting. I love hearing that did you
Speaker 1: have a favorite episode in this stretch in this season?
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh so many, Amy, Yes, Yes, I have to.
Speaker 2: I have too.
Speaker 1: I have you have said it.
Speaker 2: I have two. I have the there Oh gosh, I've
Speaker 2: almost spoiled it. I have the second to last and
Speaker 2: then the last. There's just it's like the everything falls
Speaker 2: apart and then hopefully it comes back together. And those
Speaker 2: are my favorites.
Speaker 1: That is very exciting because there's something to wait for,
Speaker 1: right The second to last and the last episode are
Speaker 1: the big payoffs, and they were your favorites. All right,
Speaker 1: that's exciting. That makes me even more anticipatory of Tuesdays,
Speaker 1: like Tuesday Nights. How difficult is it? I mean it
Speaker 1: sounds like you're feeling really good about everything and you're
Speaker 1: excited about new projects and all of that. But is
Speaker 1: it hard? Was it hard to say goodbye to Rita?
Speaker 2: Yes? And no. I mean it was on the last day, luckily,
Speaker 2: and this is not spoiling anything. On the last day,
Speaker 2: I wasn't by myself. I had other cast mates with me,
Speaker 2: and I had had the pleasure of wrapping out and
Speaker 2: out aunt Lydia, I saw Ot and so I had
Speaker 2: had the pleasure of sort of being able to be
Speaker 2: there with my people and say goodbye to them as well.
Speaker 2: So when it was my turn, it didn't feel strange.
Speaker 2: It just felt we were all just slowly, one after one,
Speaker 2: jumping off the cliff and saying goodbye. And so that
Speaker 2: was that was It was sad because it was it's
Speaker 2: you take for granted that I just don't get to
Speaker 2: do this every year. So that was that was sad.
Speaker 2: But Rita is so much a part of me now
Speaker 2: that I feel like if I miss her without sounding insane,
Speaker 2: I can just I can just talk to her like
Speaker 2: she's with me, And so I don't feel like I
Speaker 2: feel like I've become so close to her and my
Speaker 2: relationship with her before. I feel like I just always
Speaker 2: have her with me, which I love so much, so
Speaker 2: that I have to be careful not to have her
Speaker 2: sort of sneak out into other performances. I'm in another
Speaker 2: television show right now, currently working on the second season
Speaker 2: of Dark Matter at an Apple show, and I played
Speaker 2: Jennifer Connolly's best friend. We were doing a scene the
Speaker 2: other day and I kind of went back into just
Speaker 2: instinctively went back into sort of a Rita like physical
Speaker 2: stance and my mannerisms, and I had to be like, wait,
Speaker 2: wrong universe, wrong show, wrong person, And so that's something
Speaker 2: I have to make sure I'm careful of. But she's
Speaker 2: always with me.
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense. And Jennifer Connelly love her.
Speaker 1: We ran the New York City Marathon with her. She
Speaker 1: is a blast. She killed it, by the way. She
Speaker 1: was amazing in that marathon. She just it was her
Speaker 1: first one. She got up and she blew past me.
Speaker 1: She was rocking it.
Speaker 2: She's amazing. I feel this is another thing that I
Speaker 2: feel so lucky, and this is why I'm excited, not
Speaker 2: excited to leave, but excited to go off and do
Speaker 2: other things. I feel so lucky in my career at
Speaker 2: you know, forty eight years old, that I get to
Speaker 2: meet and experience friendships and like a deep relationship with
Speaker 2: all of these phenomenal women and out Elizabeth Moss, Jennifer Connelly,
Speaker 2: Alici Braga who's also in Dark Matter. It's been such
Speaker 2: a treat to get to know her because she really
Speaker 2: is a force.
Speaker 1: I love hearing women also just rally, and that's part
Speaker 1: of what Handmaid's Tale is all about, just seeing that
Speaker 1: female sisterhood. You know, we talk so much about how
Speaker 1: we pit each other, pit ourselves against one another, and
Speaker 1: cat bit's not. It's so awesome when you hear genuine
Speaker 1: stories about just genuine people supporting one another and making
Speaker 1: brilliant art together. I love hearing about that, and we
Speaker 1: need to hear more about that. I'm I'm curious about
Speaker 1: you take on such heavy topics. I mean, there is
Speaker 1: a lot of death, there is rape, there is I mean,
Speaker 1: you name it. You guys have portrayed it and acted
Speaker 1: through it and done so brilliantly. But what is it
Speaker 1: like in the breaks when you're dealing with such heavy,
Speaker 1: heavy material, Like I'm just wondering on this set, you
Speaker 1: don't want to necessarily break out of character or get
Speaker 1: out of that mood. But I'm just curious how you
Speaker 1: hand and navigated through all of that darkness with so
Speaker 1: many awesome bright lights of beautiful women and actors and
Speaker 1: actresses there on the set.
Speaker 2: You know, you said it perfectly. I think because specifically
Speaker 2: the casts are all such bright, warm lights because we
Speaker 2: do trust one another and have such good relationships. But
Speaker 2: also each individual personality is so funny. The actors on
Speaker 2: the show are the funniest some of the funniest people
Speaker 2: I've worked with, and I've traditionally had worked on comedies
Speaker 2: before Handmaids that those moments that you're talking about in
Speaker 2: between the takes were sometimes so light, so funny, so
Speaker 2: filled with levity and laughter that we had to remind
Speaker 2: ourselves that were on the set of The Handmaid's Tale.
Speaker 2: Because we do get along, and because none of us
Speaker 2: are really that hard core into method, we would almost
Speaker 2: use those breaks as moments to lift one another up
Speaker 2: through laughter, through humor, and then because we know the
Speaker 2: characters so well, it was an easier transition to slide
Speaker 2: back in. But I will say they are the happiest,
Speaker 2: lightest moments that I've ever had on a set. We're
Speaker 2: on the set of The Handmaid's Tail, which is so strange.
Speaker 1: I get it, though you have to let the air out.
Speaker 1: I can only relate in a little bit just as
Speaker 1: a journalist when we are at worst case scenarios. You know,
Speaker 1: terror attacks, school shootings, all of that, and you've got
Speaker 1: all of us together that we know the different stations
Speaker 1: and different folks, but you're on the scene of this
Speaker 1: horrible tragedy, and yet somehow you got to take a
Speaker 1: break from it. You got to be able to go
Speaker 1: to lunch and decompressed. You got to be able to
Speaker 1: have a beer and have a laugh or something, because
Speaker 1: you can't live in that darkness the whole time. So
Speaker 1: that actually makes sense to have that relief, for that release,
Speaker 1: to then go back into some very dark but important
Speaker 1: subject matter. That makes a whole lot of sense for me.
Speaker 1: How did it feel, Obviously you all had to have
Speaker 1: talked about you were as you were doing the show,
Speaker 1: and you've been acting it in the middle of a
Speaker 1: lot of political upheal here in this country. How did
Speaker 1: it feel to maneuver through what was happening in this
Speaker 1: country versus specifically, you know, even Roe v. Wade being overturned,
Speaker 1: those sorts of things where women genuinely, legitimately feel fear
Speaker 1: that somehow they're not going to have control over their
Speaker 1: own health. How did you navigate that as an actress
Speaker 1: and as a person, as a woman.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, at the beginning, it felt, I don't
Speaker 2: want to say surreal, but because I feel like that's
Speaker 2: sort of downplaying it, but it was sort of surreal.
Speaker 2: It was something that was strange at the time, but
Speaker 2: it wasn't as serious. We had no idea this was.
Speaker 2: We started filming this in twenty sixteen, we had no
Speaker 2: inkling of where we were headed, and so we would
Speaker 2: comment on how strange it was or how odd it
Speaker 2: felt that there was still a bit of a separation.
Speaker 2: As the years went by, and as we got closer
Speaker 2: and closer to the narrative of the story being the
Speaker 2: narrative of our real lives, that's when conversations started to
Speaker 2: turn a lot more serious. We felt a considerable amount
Speaker 2: of pressure to ensure that we tell the stories accurately,
Speaker 2: but also separately in our personal lives, a considerable amount
Speaker 2: of pressure to become just more politically outspoken. Not to
Speaker 2: say that I wasn't proud. I didn't even really like
Speaker 2: the word feminist, because I just feel like that's just
Speaker 2: the idea of being a woman, but just not. I
Speaker 2: was quite verbal in my beliefs before, but suddenly as
Speaker 2: the seasons went by, I feel and have felt a
Speaker 2: responsibility to speak out against oppression of women, to speak
Speaker 2: out against things that I thought were getting out of control.
Speaker 2: I'm Canadian, so in Canada especially a pressure to feel
Speaker 2: just more politically outspoken.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that makes a lot of sense. And
Speaker 1: how did it play? I mean, did it affect you
Speaker 1: at all? Being Canadian versus American? Did you feel like
Speaker 1: you could say more because you were you were watching it,
Speaker 1: you weren't maybe you weren't experiencing it, you weren't subject
Speaker 1: to what was happening, but you could actually from an
Speaker 1: objective point of view, almost being Canadian, and say things
Speaker 1: maybe perhaps that even an American might be a little
Speaker 1: worried about saying.
Speaker 2: Hesitant to say. I certainly did, but I also felt,
Speaker 2: What's interesting, and no one's ever asked this, I felt,
Speaker 2: and I still feel, quite protective over Americans. Half of
Speaker 2: my cast are Americans. Were telling a show that takes
Speaker 2: place in Boston, although it was written by a Canadian,
Speaker 2: and I love America. I love Americans, and so I
Speaker 2: felt a protectiveness when, particularly speaking to Canadian journals of
Speaker 2: my American counterparts to sort of suggest that we can't
Speaker 2: paint everyone with the same brush, and just feel a
Speaker 2: very sense of protectiveness against America in general.
Speaker 1: Huh, that's very cool. And something else that's very cool.
Speaker 1: You got this role, and I'd imagine this is one
Speaker 1: of those roles for you, especially having written about written
Speaker 1: her thesis about Rita is a dream role, a dream job.
Speaker 1: You got it at the age of thirty seven? When
Speaker 1: did you start acting and how did you like? Can
Speaker 1: you give me an idea of how you got from
Speaker 1: graduating from college to thirty seven landing the role of
Speaker 1: a lifetime and for a woman that's not very typical.
Speaker 1: You usually need to hit it hot early on or
Speaker 1: you've aged out.
Speaker 2: Girl, girl, I know I'm good to do? Are you? Oh?
Speaker 2: My us Amy tell it to the world. Holy well,
Speaker 2: I uh well, then you probably know and can relate.
Speaker 2: It's I had made peace with the fact that I
Speaker 2: was doing okay in Canada, and peace with the fact
Speaker 2: that I was just sort of going to be a
Speaker 2: really hard, boots on the ground working actor and I
Speaker 2: was happy doing that. It's a difficult job, and so
Speaker 2: I was happy just being able to make ends meet
Speaker 2: and make a life a living for myself. So suddenly
Speaker 2: getting this and then it changing the course of my life,
Speaker 2: changing everything about my life was sort of a miracle
Speaker 2: and something that it took me a while to accept,
Speaker 2: if that makes sense. It took me a while to
Speaker 2: believe it, to settle into myself, to allow it to happen,
Speaker 2: to allow myself permission to have success at a late age,
Speaker 2: to allow myself permission to also enjoy that, to not
Speaker 2: sort of apologize for it or shrink away. I earned it.
Speaker 2: A lot changed for me. Right around the time I
Speaker 2: got Handmaids, I got divorced, so I left a marriage
Speaker 2: that wasn't working for me. I had two young children.
Speaker 2: I was able to buy a home, and so suddenly
Speaker 2: it felt like the life that's supposed to happen at
Speaker 2: twenty two, the one that everyone tells you. You land
Speaker 2: the job, get the house, and you start this crazy life.
Speaker 2: I started it as my second chapter and it was
Speaker 2: is has still been the most beautiful, wonderful journey that
Speaker 2: I've gone on and that I'm the most proud of.
Speaker 2: Because I'm older, I was older, so I was able
Speaker 2: to navigate it.
Speaker 1: Differently, and that's incredibly inspirational for all of us women
Speaker 1: who are, you know, older, we're not in our twenties.
Speaker 1: It's a different feeling and a different perspective to get
Speaker 1: a job like that later, or even having to start
Speaker 1: over or to keep looking. But I think that's a
Speaker 1: huge reminder to everybody that we shouldn't put limits on
Speaker 1: ourselves and we in age is just a number, but
Speaker 1: we do. I in my mind, I am like I
Speaker 1: only have this many years, or I'm I'm not valuable anymore.
Speaker 1: I don't have a market anymore. I can't do what
Speaker 1: I love anymore because I'm too old. That is in
Speaker 1: so many women's heads. It's certainly in mind. But I
Speaker 1: love love seeing someone like you do what you've done
Speaker 1: as brilliantly as you have, and to inspire other people
Speaker 1: that it's never too late, and you never know. As
Speaker 1: long as you work hard and you're prepared, you never
Speaker 1: know what's down the pike. But you fought for it.
Speaker 1: You fought for you went in there when you were
Speaker 1: told you weren't going to get it, when you told hey,
Speaker 1: this is just a let's have some fun. But you
Speaker 1: knew this role. You knew this character, you knew the story,
Speaker 1: and that passion paid off.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I knew if there was going to be
Speaker 2: any chance to get anything, it was going to be
Speaker 2: this role, so I did kind of. I'll tell you.
Speaker 2: I was looking around and a lot of my friends
Speaker 2: who will listen to this were in the room with me.
Speaker 2: But in my head, I wanted to say to them,
Speaker 2: go home, go home. This is that I'm not like
Speaker 2: that at all. Is an ask I always mine, you know,
Speaker 2: if the role will come and if it's meant to be,
Speaker 2: it's meant to be. I was like, go home, I will,
Speaker 2: I'll pay your parking for you. It's not yours, it's
Speaker 2: not your time. It's the only time I done. I
Speaker 2: know we have to do that. But back to your point,
Speaker 2: I still do. I still I find myself doing that.
Speaker 2: I find myself talking out of plans that i've you know,
Speaker 2: I'm making for the future, of thinking oh I'm too
Speaker 2: old and oh I don't have the time. But the
Speaker 2: thing that helps me is I feel a sense of
Speaker 2: responsibility for the women coming up to sort of rewrite
Speaker 2: the narrative so they don't put those limits on themselves.
Speaker 2: I feel like we I had at least a couple
Speaker 2: women sort of whisper in my ear and say, don't
Speaker 2: believe that, don't buy into that crap. And so I feel,
Speaker 2: now being forty eight, a sense of responsibility to turn
Speaker 2: around to the people coming up behind me saying, oh gosh,
Speaker 2: don't do that, and if I can, I did it,
Speaker 2: you do it. I still have twenty five more years
Speaker 2: to rediscover myself and then then I'll discuss. But right now,
Speaker 2: you and I we have time, plenty of time.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, And I just love reminding other women and
Speaker 1: myself of that as much as possible. So you mentioned
Speaker 1: you are. What's that behind you? By the way, for
Speaker 1: people who can't see, if people are just listening, You've
Speaker 1: got a chalkboard behind you with how many here? And
Speaker 1: I see a numerical fraction behind you? Can you can tell?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm so distracted to you. We are currently
Speaker 2: teaching my youngest son fractions. It's actually my partner who's
Speaker 2: doing it. I don't know fractions. Math was not my specialty.
Speaker 2: It was literature and English, and so this is our
Speaker 2: h this is our breakfast area, and so we just
Speaker 2: we eat breakfast and learn fractions. I'm joining class too,
Speaker 2: I'm learning fractions. Well, so that's what we do.
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. So tell me about
Speaker 1: the show you're on now again, Dark Matter, and what
Speaker 1: else you have brewing right now in your booming career
Speaker 1: at the age of forty eight.
Speaker 2: Thank you well. Dark Matter it's the second season of
Speaker 2: an Apple show, also based on a book I think
Speaker 2: that's just now my destiny. I'm just going to go
Speaker 2: from places to places and sort of make books into
Speaker 2: art that are already art, into moving art. It is
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, how do I talk about dark matter? Essentially,
Speaker 2: it's a world based on the idea that if we
Speaker 2: were to go into different universes but as the same person,
Speaker 2: but different different timelines, who would we be? Who would
Speaker 2: we meet? Would we have the same people in our lives?
Speaker 2: Would we have the same relationships someone you've always had
Speaker 2: a crush on. Maybe that's your husband in one world,
Speaker 2: and in another world it could be a person just
Speaker 2: passing you on the street. So it's just really examining
Speaker 2: relationships just in different timelines, which is the best I
Speaker 2: can describe it, Jiel. That's very cool, Yeah, Jennifer Connolly.
Speaker 2: It did really well the first season, and now this
Speaker 2: season I'm a regular because I have time to do it,
Speaker 2: and so it's we have a lot of things brewing
Speaker 2: this season. It's really exciting.
Speaker 1: I'm one hundred percent going to be checking that out.
Speaker 1: What is your character and how does she play? What
Speaker 1: does she do?
Speaker 2: Then I play my characters. I play Jennifer Connelly like
Speaker 2: as I said her best friend Blair. But I'm a scientist,
Speaker 2: one of the scientists that created this machine in which
Speaker 2: you were able to travel between timelines and without spoiling it.
Speaker 2: I'm one of many Blairs, and so there are different
Speaker 2: versions of me, which is so cool.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, I.
Speaker 2: Know, especially as an actor playing the same role for
Speaker 2: ten years. I love her. I love Rita, but to
Speaker 2: now be able to play someone new and play different
Speaker 2: versions of her is sort of like the best way
Speaker 2: to sort of say goodbye to one character and enjoy
Speaker 2: another one.
Speaker 1: Say hello to ten Blairs or whatever. But that's amazing.
Speaker 1: I love that, you know, Amanda, I really appreciate you
Speaker 1: speaking with me and talking all things Handmaid's Tale, and
Speaker 1: just I love learning about I did not know that
Speaker 1: the story about how you auditioned, and that's just it's
Speaker 1: so inspiring to see women a pursuing things they love,
Speaker 1: not giving up, not listening to the noise, and forging
Speaker 1: your own path. You are an inspiration and you are
Speaker 1: paving the way. So thank you for all that you do.
Speaker 1: I cannot obviously, I'm watching all of Handmaid's Tale and
Speaker 1: then I'm moving on to Dark Matter. So it was
Speaker 1: a pleasure talking to you today. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for being on the podcast.
Speaker 2: Oh you're welcome. Thank you for having me