Posted in: Hulu, TV | Tagged: the handmaid's tale

The Handmaid's Tale: Carey Cox on Co-Stars, Season 6 Highlights & More

Carey Cox (Sharper) spoke with Bleeding Cool about Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, Max Minghella, Josh Charles, season six highlights, and more.

Carey Cox felt right at home transitioning from the stage to TV after coming into the scene in 2022 in a series of shorts before landing her big break on the Hulu dystopian drama, The Handmaid's Tale in its fifth season as Rose Blaine, the daughter of High Commander Wharton (Josh Charles) and wife of Nick Blaine (Max Minghella) thanks to her loving supporting cast. Entering the sixth and final season, she spoke to Bleeding Cool about working with Minghella and Charles on set, how the latter and co-star Ever Carradine went above and beyond for her family, teasing what's ahead, and the fan disconnect on actors and activism.

The Handmaid's Tale Star Carey Cox on Max Minghella, Josh Charles & Series' Politically Charged Nature

How do you break down your chemistry in working with Max and Josh, as far as getting acclimated to the world and your character?

Max is so professional. He was all about "What do you need?" when I met him. He shows up and does the scene. He's very present with you, and he's also funny, so is Josh. Everybody on set has a great sense of humor. That helps take a lot of the pressure off, both in the idea that "Oh, we're filming this Emmy Award-winning show, but also, it is a very dark and serious show." We're laughing and joking up until it's time to film. With Max, it was very much, "How can I be here for you?" He knew it was my first time doing this, and he was very reassuring.

I would like to think [Max] was being honest and not trying to make me feel better, but he told me he wouldn't have known it was my first time working on a TV show. He was very encouraging and very kind. The same goes with Josh. When I met him, he was a New York guy, and it was like, "Oh, where do you live in the city? What train do you take?" Just a normal human conversation before working. Everybody's just a cool person. It was a pleasure to work with both of them, and Josh and Ever Carradine (Naomi Putnam) got little presents for our baby [my husband and I] just had. They're also wonderful and sweet.

Have you had a particular favorite Rose moment from either season so far, or has it not happened yet?

It hasn't happened yet. There's a Rose moment coming up this season, so I can't really talk about it, but it was amazing. What I can probably say is that the direction the scene went was different from what I initially thought. I came in with one idea as an actor of how the scene was meant to be played, and what was meant to be implied "in the room", but we went a different way. That is what's so exciting about film and TV acting: in the moment, you can crack the scene open in this way that's vital and immediate, and that's what's captured. The first time you're figuring out a scene, that's where people are going to end up seeing.

How far down are we looking at here? Is it the next episode or a few more down the line?

I don't know if I can say. People will have to wait for it. I'm probably overly cautious, but it's coming up eventually. People will know it when they see it.

A lot of the show's commentary echoes contemporary times, and I can only imagine you guys had an ear and eye to what was going on in real time as you were filming. Was it something you guys had to tune out or track as it happened, and motivated the performances going back to work?

It was talked about a lot. The people on the set, in general, are very politically active. I admire Bradley Whitford and Everett Carradine's work to get people to vote. Bradley, in particular, is very vocal and active, and he was on the phones during the (2024) election. The people on the show, it worked out that so many of them are very intelligent with a lot of heart and mind invested in current events and making the world a better place. They take the idea they're on 'The Handmaid's Tale' as a big responsibility.

I want to do justice to the warning of the show in real life, if that makes sense. There was always a lot of conversation. For example, when Roe v Wade was overturned, I was in Canada filming, and I was watching it from my hotel room. I was the Canadian take on the news, talking about it. It was always very present, so we would talk about it backstage while waiting, and we would discuss things. When we got on set, it would we would be joking around to reset the mood, and then when the camera roll, everybody would play the scene.

I've seen this criticism lately of certain people when actors speak out politically or when actors are political, people will say, "Just do your job! You're just an actor! Why are you political?!" First, I think forgetting that actors are citizens just like anybody else [is absurd]. This is supposed to be a democratic republic, and so we want to have a say just like anybody else. We have families, children, and we pay taxes. A lot of actors don't make as much money as you would think, so we all have a vested interest in keeping our industry equitable and maintaining social safety nets, et cetera, et cetera. Actors also learn about history to do their jobs and learn about people. A lot of actors are typically also interested in psychology, so it makes sense to me that actors would be political, and that's very true for a lot of people on the show.

The Handmaid's Tale, which also stars Elisabeth Moss, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, O-T Fagbenle, Samira Wiley, Amanda Brugel, and Sam Jaeger, streams Tuesdays on Hulu.

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