{"id":25159,"date":"2021-06-09T09:30:10","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T09:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=25159"},"modified":"2021-06-10T12:25:44","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T12:25:44","slug":"madeline-brewer-handmaids-tale","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/madeline-brewer-handmaids-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019s Madeline Brewer On Her Character\u2019s Shocking Return"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Madeline
Madeline Brewer (Photo: Emma McIntyre\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Madeline Brewer\u2019s character Janine, Season 4 of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em><\/a> has been a roller coaster. But then, what season of the grim dystopian Hulu<\/a> series isn\u2019t? Janine started the season off enjoying a measure of freedom on a remote farm with her fellow renegade handmaids. After being recaptured, she and June (Elisabeth Moss) escaped once again, ending up in Chicago, where they were taken in by a group of American insurgents resisting Gilead\u2019s theocratic regime. We saw glimpses of Janine\u2019s past in flashbacks before she was seemingly killed in an air raid on Chicago, only to return several episodes later. In the show\u2019s most recent episode, she\u2019s back in Gilead, in the brutally maternal care of Aunt Lydia (Anne Dowd).<\/p>\n

Through it all, we\u2019ve seen different versions of the character: the hopeful, puppy-ish handmaid, eager to please (and begging not to be hurt again); the brash young mother; the loyal friend; the broken victim of unthinkable abuse. With just one more episode to go, GRAZIA<\/em> chatted with Brewer about how Janine evolved in real time this season.<\/p>\n

Was there a moment that you think really defined Janine\u2019s story this season?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Madeline Brewer: When Janune \u2014 I always say Janune! When Janine chooses to stick with June. Like, she wants to stay in Chicago and then she decides, I feel safer when we\u2019re together. That so perfectly, to me, encapsulates who Janine is. That is Janine making a choice for herself. I mean, Janine is powerful, she\u2019s autonomous, she is thoughtful, but she\u2019s also incredibly loyal. She loves deeply, and I feel like that\u2019s such a powerful moment where we Janine make a choice. We never get to see these women make choices, really. I mean, those two episodes \u2014 episodes 4 and 5 \u2014for Janine, to me, are all about choice, and all about her autonomy and all about her power and what power really means. It\u2019s juxtaposed by the power that these men are seeking in Gilead. That\u2019s not real power. That\u2019s not lasting power. The power that Janine has to choose her destiny, that\u2019s power.<\/em><\/p>\n

I, like a lot of people, thought that we might have seen the last of Janine after the bombing in the Chicago episode. When you initially read the script for that episode, did you know you\u2019d be back?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, fortunately, I had had conversations with [showrunner Bruce Miller] before the season even started shooting, where he had discussed\u2026 \u201cWe think Janine\u2019s dead at one point in the show.\u201d But he\u2019s like, \u201cBut don\u2019t worry! You\u2019re coming back!\u201d And I\u2019ve been really excited to see what everyone\u2019s response has been \u2014 in an egotistical way! It\u2019s like, Oh, everybody misses me! They like me!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Madeline
Madeline Brewer in \u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019 (Photo: Sophie Giraud\/Hulu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Your character\u2019s arch this season has been so interesting. I feel like we\u2019ve seen a lot of different versions of her just in this set of episodes alone. What was it like playing a character who was shifting so rapidly based on her changing circumstances?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One thing that I was exploring a lot, and I talked to Lizzie about it a lot when she was directing, but also just as a person I look up to \u2014 an actor I look up to a lot and someone who knows the show so well \u2014 we talked about how, geographically, the further we get from Gilead and the further we get from Gilead in the story, it\u2019s like, the closer Janine comes to herself. She has had to be a certain version of herself in Gilead as a means of survival. And as we branch away from that, she\u2019s able to put back on those layers of herself that she had to strip away to survive. It\u2019s been really interesting to kind of layer them back on in different circumstances. Even after Janine\u2019s been caught, a layer of Janine that isn\u2019t the eternal optimist\u2014 that was really amazing to play. Like, a totally new Janine.<\/em><\/p>\n

We saw the woman she used to be in those flashbacks. I think part of what\u2019s so tragic about her return in Episodes 8 and 9 is that we saw that side of her kind of re-emerging when she started to stand up to June and assert herself more. Now she\u2019s back to that kind of whipped dog state. Do you think that\u2019s fair? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Janine has just\u2026she\u2019s done. She\u2019s seen enough, she\u2019s had that taste of freedom that\u2019s been once again ripped away from her, and I think it is that moment where she knows that June is safe and she knows that June got out. Janine has always known that June would be the one. She had that taste of love and romance with Stephen in Chicago and she\u2019s just not going back to getting raped every month. She\u2019s so resolute about it and she\u2019s so sure that it\u2019s time.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s so interesting to hear you say that because throughout Episode 9, when she\u2019s back in the Red Center, I kept wondering where she goes from here. What\u2019s the plan? How is she adapting? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that what happens in those episodes\u2026I didn\u2019t want to go too far back to the Janine that we knew. But ultimately we are back in Gilead, and those layers of Janine that she\u2019d put back on had to come off, some of them, you know, as a means of her survival. But, we see a Janine, especially with Esther, now there is purpose. She sees her purpose. She sees how she can help, and she didn\u2019t know until we were escaping Gilead \u2014 Janine didn\u2019t know how much she can help and how useful she really is. I mean, I always go back to Episode 1 of Season 4: Janine\u2019s the one who sticks June with the curling iron, you know? She\u2019s the one who does some of the tough jobs. Janine\u2019s the one who says, This is how I can help, this is what I can do. And I think she sees Esther [Mckenna Grace<\/span>] and thinks, I know that girl and I can help that girl. I know that girl from before, but also I know that girl because I was her. I can help her before she becomes me.<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s the version of helping Esther that I think we know that Aunt Lydia wants Janine to do. But what\u2019s Janine\u2019s version of helping Esther in this scenario? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I think that Janine\u2019s version of helping Esther is saving Esther before Esther gets herself in the same kind of trouble that Janine got herself in. The way I looked at it, and I talked to Lizzie about the because she directed those episodes, is now Janine is the June to Esther\u2019s Janine. I\u2019m the one who\u2019s saying, \u201cKeep your f*cking sh*t together!\u201d I\u2019m the one who\u2019s saying, \u201cYou need to take care of yourself because no one else is going to take care of you.\u201d When I say that in Episode 9, I\u2019m as much saying it to myself as I am to Esther.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, yes, it\u2019s obviously served Aunt Lydia, because she can say a big old \u201cF you\u201d to Aunt Ruth. But it\u2019s also\u2026I have a purpose here, and that\u2019s all anybody really wants.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Elisabeth
Elisabeth Moss and Madeline Brewer in \u2018The Handmaid\u2019s Tale\u2019 (Image courtesy of Hulu)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You\u2019ve mentioned the fact that Elisabeth Moss directed several episodes this season. What\u2019s it like being directed by a co-star? Is this the first time you\u2019ve done that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You know, I don\u2019t think I have been directed by a co-star before. And, I mean, there\u2019s no one on that set who knows the show better than Lizzie. I mean, she obviously intimately knows June, but she knows Janine. She knows Luke, she knows Moira. She knows every one of us. So, she knows us as actors, and for her to be able to direct us, I mean\u2026 Personally, my favorite scene of Janine\u2019s this season is in Episode 8. It\u2019s the scene with Aunt Lydia. We must have spent an hour blocking that and just talking about that. The way it is written is not the way we ended up playing it. We were able to have very real conversations about, Where were we? And where are we now? What are we feeling? It would have been very easy to play those scenes as Janine groveling to Aunt Lydia. And luckily, I\u2019ve been able to talk to Lizzie about where I think Janine is and where she\u2019s going. And so when it came to her directing that scene, she already had\u2026 \u201cMaddie, I remember you saying that Janine\u2019s changed a lot. So, let\u2019s bring that to this.\u201d We must have gone through it line by line, but that sort of care and attention, that\u2019s what you get with someone who just loves this show and these characters so much.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m so glad you brought up that scene in particular. I mean, how do you even describe what\u2019s going on there? The care that Aunt Lydia show for Janine in particular is so compromised, but it is care of a sort. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh, gosh. It\u2019s like, we\u2019ve both been through very intense things since we\u2019ve been apart. And neither of us has any idea where the other is coming from. I do think that Janine and Aunt Lydia have a very real love for each other. I mean, that\u2019s why the scene plays the way it does, because they both love each other so much and they hate each other so much. Not hate. That\u2019s a strong word. It reminds me of most fraught mother daughter relationships. They\u2019re fraught and intense and it\u2019s also a little too intense and it can be overwhelming, and I think that\u2019s a piece of the puzzle. I\u2019m happy to call it love. There\u2019s also something dark. There\u2019s something disturbed about it. How could there not be in this world? And I think both women are doing what they can to honor the love they feel for each other. That\u2019s what we see in that scene. We wanted to meet Janine and Lydia exactly where they are in that moment. My most powerful relationship in the show is with Lydia. None is more intense and fraught. Really honoring that was important to both Ann and I.<\/em><\/p>\n

The show is obviously still a tough hang\u2014to say the least. Four seasons in, what do you think keeps people coming back? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s the characters. I think they\u2019re these gorgeous characters that we see ourselves in. I see so many pieces of myself and women that I love in June and Lydia and even Serena Joy. And I also think it scares the hell out of us. We like things that get your heart beating. We\u2019re incredibly lucky to have a loyal audience who are willing to stick it out with us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29097,"featured_media":25160,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[23,38,16],"yoast_head":"\nThe Handmaid\u2019s Tale's Madeline Brewer On Janine's Shocking Return<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For Madeline Brewer\u2019s character Janine, Season 4 of 'The Handmaid\u2019s Tale' has been a roller coaster. 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