Yvonne Strahovski On Strong Women & Saving The World

You might recognise her as the chillingly manipulative Serena Waterford on cult series 'The Handmaid’s Tale' but this Australian-born actor is anything but icy. Genevra Leek meets the woman behind the mask.

- Genevra Leek

For some reason… …we can’t get enough of a good on-screen villain. Someone we love to hate and hate to love. And while film history is crowded with them, admittedly mostly male, there are some sharply brilliant females who delightfully challenge the notion that a woman needs to be nice. Think Miranda Priestly, Cersei Lannister, Regina George. And now, Serena Waterford. The antagonist of dark drama The Handmaid’s Tale will go down in the hall of fame as one of the most brilliantly nuanced evildoers of the streaming era. So when Yvonne Strahovski walks through the door of our New York City loft set, all smiles, politeness and handshakes, it’s disarming. The real woman behind the complex character, developed over several seasons of the cult series, is warm and witty, sharing stories of below-freezing Canadian winters at her temporary home in Toronto where she’s midway through filming season three (layering puffer jackets under her infamous teal dress), and sharing pictures of her five-month-old baby boy who she’s away overseas from for the first time.