The Handmaid's Tale's Samira Wiley On How It's Finally Moira's Turn To Fight Back: 'There's Not A Moment Of Hesitation'
This post contains spoilers from Tuesday's The Handmaid's Tale. Proceed accordingly.
Moira is very much back in the mix of The Handmaid's Tale, and praise be.
June's best friend and confidant was used sparingly for much of the Hulu drama's Season 5; at the time, executive producer Bruce Miller acknowledged that the situation gave portrayer Samira Wiley "short shrift... and not through anything intentional." (The reason he cited: Alexis Bledel's decision to leave her role of Emily, with whom Moira was supposed to have significant Season 5 storyline. "Honestly," Miller said then, "that was a little difficult to pick up from.")
In the show's current and final season, however, Gilead refugee Moira has found her purpose as an on-the-ground member of the rebel group Mayday. As such, Wiley has been more central in the season — particularly in this week's episode, which finds an undercover Moira collecting intel at Jezebel's, the Gilead brothel where she once was held prisoner. (Read a full recap.)
"It's like the train that she's been waiting to get on has finally arrived," Wiley told me during a recent chat about the episode. "So, there's not a moment of hesitation."
Read on to hear more of her thoughts about filming that scene in the bedroom, taking on a stunt and finally sharing screen time with co-star Max Minghella.
TVLINE | I want to talk to you about this week's episode, which is a huge one for Moira, with going back to Jezebel's and all that. But before that: I was irked on her behalf when June tried to circumvent the mission.
SAMARA WILEY | Please! [Laughs] Talk to me.
TVLINE | This episode feels a little more centering for Moira, who is so often on the sidelines of June's adventures. Did it feel that way to you?
Absolutely. And honestly, Moira felt like that, when she first hears about the mission and she says, "Yes, it's me. I'm going to take it." So, the conversation is done. The leader of Mayday is onboard. And then this girl done gone behind my back! [Laughs] I felt like a lot of these lines, in this episode in particular, were things that Moira has waiting to say — living June's life really. I mean, taking care of Nichole, living with her husband, all of these things. Trying to fight from Gilead is also very frustrating for her. That's not how she likes to fight. It's something that we have come to know and love about Moira from Season 1: She's finally getting this opportunity to fulfill that dream. So, yeah, it's very, very, very frustrating for June to step in and do the June thing. [Laughs]
TVLINE | When Tuello told her Mayday was planning something, do you think there was any little piece of her that was like, "You know what? I don't need to go do this"?
Absolutely not. I really don't. I think that Moira has been dealing with this straightjacket that she's been wearing called Canada and trying to figure out how she can get back to what she knows how to do, which is fight... It's like the train that she's been waiting to get on has finally arrived. So, there's not a moment of hesitation.
TVLINE | This is not a question, this is just me fangirling: The moment that you and Max Minghella share in Episode 3, when Nick and Moira acknowledge each other, was perfect. Was that in the script?
[Laughs] David Lester directed that episode, and he has been on the show with us since Season 1. This is the first episode he directed. He's really seen, from the very beginning, my character grow. So it was written, but I remember when I said it, he was like, "That's exactly how I thought she would say it." I mean, I've been wanting to have a scene with Max forever. And to have only one line with him? [Laughs] That was good.
TVLINE | Take me inside the meaty scene you and Elisabeth Moss have at Jezebel's in Episode 5. Do you guys tend to rehearse a lot or just jump in?
You know, I wonder how it would've been if there was a scene like that in earlier seasons? But there's so much that's built that's already deep underneath. There's also the Lizzie-and-Samira being friends that translates to on-screen, so she and I, we do like to just jump into things. I always liken having scenes with Lizzie to playing a tennis match with the greatest tennis player. There's something that you just lock into, and I almost don't want to lose the authenticity by rehearsing too much. Because it's really there immediately. Her eyes! The way that woman acts with her eyes!
TVLINE | I'm not an actress, but from the outside, that scene also feels like a bit of a hard needle to thread.
Yes, absolutely. We definitely tried it so many different ways. I actually couldn't really understand, like, how to do it when I was just looking at it on the page. But you really do have this journey of anger and then it goes to feeling the trauma, but then it sort of leans towards absurdity, you know?
TVLINE | Yeah.
I really is. Between myself, Natalia Leite the director [of Episode 5], and Lizzie, it was a constant, like, filming, doing a take and then going back and reassessing, figuring out the little different changes we needed to make. But it was pretty symbiotic, though.
TVLINE | Tell me about Moira going back into Jezebel's. She assures June that she'll be fine, but in her own head, is she worried that she won't?
Yes, definitely. The Marthas have to wear masks now; [otherwise,] the fear would be shown on her face. There's really a push-pull of her own emotions the entire episode. There's just so many flashbacks, so many memories, you know, walking into that room. By the way, just the set [decoration] in that episode, just all of those things were so amazing. It really did feel like just a conversation between the actors and the director, and I just remember not having to do that much work in terms of like getting myself there.
Because I walked into that room I immediately flashbacked to the costumes that I had to wear in Jezebel's, all of that, you know? So, I'm trying to keep it cool, I'm trying to stay to the thing of, "No, this is my mission." June is used to doing these things in Gilead, and [Moira is] definitely capable of it, but you don't know what something is going to be like when you're in the scene and you have the smells of the room that you were in, all of those things. [Laughs] Yeah, it's a lot.
TVLINE | When you said you didn't have to do much work, I immediately thought, "But you did have to jump on a guy's back, which was some work."
[Laughs] Oh, I had to do that, though! We have an amazing stunt team, but I was like, "I would really like to learn the stunt and do it myself."
TVLINE | The move isn't necessarily something I would've expected from Moira, but like you said, being in that place just taps into something in her, right?
Yeah. The trauma that's been, you know, here [puts hand on abdomen] is all of a sudden just right here [puts hand on chest], you know?
TVLINE | Wanna give me a tease for the series finale?
A tease for the finale?... I feel very much so that this story has, at least Moira's story, has been told in full. I do not feel that there is anything that has been left unsaid, anything that has been left undone, unexperienced, unlived. To be able to tell that full story from beginning to end, I feel like, was a gift to me and will be a gift to the viewers, as well.