Bradley Whitford has been in the business of film and television for decades, but never has it been so difficult to make a living in acting while still having respect for the ones signing your check. His latest project, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which premiered its sixth and final season this past week, is produced and distributed by Hulu, which is owned by Disney, one of the companies currently scaling back its DEI initiatives in response to directives made by the Trump administration. When the show debuted in 2017, it came in the wake of the Women’s March and ahead of the #MeToo movement, but what was once meant to read as dystopian now comes across as a blaring warning, one that Whitford worries isn’t breaking through, even when it comes to those actually funding this project.
“You know, misogyny is at the reptilian brain stem of these right-wing Christian white nationalists,” Whitford said in a recent interview with Variety. “It’s punitive. And, man, I’m pissed at all the people I work for. Like, ‘FUCKING. SPEAK. UP.’”
Whitford explained how these companies pretend to show concern for those producing their product, claiming they care about their “access to health care,” yet none of them are talking about women not having access to abortion in many states or pushing for a federal law that guarantees the right to an abortion following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He showed particular ire for former boss Jeff Bezos, whose Amazon produced the LGBTQ-friendly show “Transparent,” yet today remains silent when it comes to the current attacks against those depicted in the series.
“I don’t want to be a punk attacking,” Whitford said, “but I would really like to ask Jeff Bezos — who, when I worked on ‘Transparent,’ was talking about the importance of supporting this vulnerable community who has been turned into a political football — ‘What the hell is happening here?!’”
Pivoting back to the narrative “The Handmaid’s Tale” depicts, Whitford is genuinely concerned this might be where we’re headed, assuming we aren’t there in many ways already.
“A year ago, there were 65,000 pregnant rape victims without access to abortion care,” he says. “Now it’s way up from that. This is not a drill. It’s not a story. This is happening,” he said to Variety. “Margaret Atwood said that she almost scrapped the book a couple of times because it seemed too far-fetched. Turns out Margaret Atwood’s an optimist.”
At the same time, the book and the show both prove that the only response to these kinds of attacks on democracy and bodily autonomy need to be met with a forceful resistance. Whitford ultimately hopes this is the message that connects with viewers, as well as those in the C-suites.
“We feel this despair because we feel we have no agency over what’s happening to us in this country. And June is a reminder that your agency will not be given to you: You need to fight for it,” Whitford said, referencing Elizabeth Moss’ lead character, June Osborne. “It’s part of what’s so wonderful about that character — she’s prodding people to embrace the power that they have.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” streams on Hulu with new episodes released every Tuesday.
