Originally appeared on E! Online
Warning: This story contains spoilers from season six of The Handmaid’s Tale.
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WATCH HEREAlexis Bledel is reflecting on the horrors of Gilead.
Ahead of the season 6 finale of "The Handmaid’s Tale" on May 27, the actor—who portrayed Emily/Ofglen in the Hulu series for four seasons—shared her thoughts on the trauma her character went through.
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SIGN UP “It was deeply upsetting to even imagine Emily going through something like that—being captured, powerless, with no say over her body,” Bledel, 43, told The Hollywood Reporter in a May 22 interview. “I was actually offered the role and when I read the pilot script, I immediately said yes. Somehow, Bruce just knew I had Ofglen in me.”
Indeed, her character’s time on the show, which is an adaptation of the classic Margaret Atwood novel, was incredibly bleak. In the first two seasons alone, she forcibly underwent genital mutilation and lived in the Colonies—a radioactive wasteland where prisoners are sent to die—as punishment for murder.
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The horrors escalated until Emily’s final scenes in 2021, where she and a group of escaped Handmaids murdered Commander Fred Waterford (played by Joseph Fiennes) in season four. Bledel announced her exit from the series a year later, telling E! News in a May 2022 statement that “after much thought, I felt I had to step away from The Handmaid's Tale at this time.”
“I am forever grateful to [creator] Bruce Miller for writing such truthful and resonant scenes for Emily,” the "Gilmore Girls" alum continued, “and to Hulu, MGM, the cast and crew for their support.”
Bledel isn’t the only star viewers had to say goodbye to in recent years, as fellow OG character Nick Blaine (Max Minghella) took his final breath in the show’s May 20 episode. And while his explosive death was unexpected, Max is pleased with the end of his character’s story.
“I think it’s one of our best seasons, and that doesn’t happen all the time,” he told Elle on May 21. “I’m really happy that we got to finish up in a way we can all feel really proud of.”
