Ann Dowd on What Will Motivate Aunt Lydia in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5

When it comes to Aunt Lydia and the key role she plays in the dystopian world of the Hulu drama, Dowd has had no shortage of challenging scenes while doggedly, and often viciously, keeping order among the Handmaids.

The work done to make it safe and peaceful, the whole experience was extraordinary from start to finish.

You want to dive in there and treat it with the respect it deserves, and then let her go at the end of the day.

That she believes in the cause and would want to do everything she can to offer these young girls a chance for a better life, a chance to meet their maker at the end of this life.

I think it’s fair to say that love is the most powerful force in this world and that if you allow it in, some of those walls are going to crumble.

So when she almost lost her position, she took the step of facing off with a Commander who can’t even stand her, who has always disrespected her, and she has to go threaten him to get her place back.

So Lydia can say all she wants that she was trying to teach a lesson to the other girls, but she did what she’s trained not to do — she reacted emotionally and punished this person.

When they put Gilead together, it wasn’t about them having sex with these Handmaids unless it was in the monthly protocol that was established for the purpose of conceiving a child.

Will she soften? I think I read it in one of the scripts that the rebels are not as plentiful among the Handmaids anymore.

I’ve listened to the audio book, which I loved, and I’m very much looking forward to it.

She’s thinking that not only is she going to live, she’s going to be one of the people in charge.

What does Lydia do? I don’t know that Atwood would agree with me, but I think what she does it a form of repentance, if you will, in its best form.

I haven’t played a lot of those lately.” Of course, that went totally south! But it’s all a challenge.

…Read the full story